[1] Mohawk writer Beth Brant is on a mission, a mission to redeem the reputations of Powhatan princess Pocahontas and Cherokee Beloved Woman Nancy Ward. Touted as "good friends" of the whiteman in white legend because of actions complicit with white welfare, these two famous Native American women are simultaneously scorned as "traitors" to their race. In "Grandmothers of a New World" (1988, 1994), Brant joins with such other redeemers as Hanay Geiogamah and Monique Mojica in combating white "history" about and white "adoption" of such influential Native American women. For mixed-race lesbian Brant -- whose missionary writing career literally began at the late age of forty with a dramatic highway meeting with and call by Eagle -- Pocahontas…
HOMS Theme Essay Growing up, everyone expects it as this unbelievably spontaneous thing . In Sandra Cisneros book “The house on Mango Street” states that growing up can happen to people variously, in good and bad ways. In the pages 46- 57 there is a lot of growing up in many of the characters especially Esperanza. Esperanza gets her first job, during her break time she mingles with an oriental man; “ He grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the mouth,”(55).…
Helpless, by Barbara Gowdy, was a well written novel which kept the reader interested right until the final page. Gowdy used descriptive language, suspense, and flashbacks to develop the theme that unrequited love lasts longer than love that is fulfilled. Gowdy used descriptive language well.…
Example: Your generation of humans was supposed to be better!” One of the robots yelled back. “But you’re not! You’re just as murderous as your ancestors!” (Haddix 295)…
Themes in the novel “The Bean Trees” by Barbara Kingsolver include the importance of family and the need for community as emotional support systems for individuals facing hardships. As the individuals face their hardships, Kingsolver binds them together with support, forming a community that at times functions like a big extended family, however non-traditional it may be. Kingsolver not only illustrates the importance of family as an emotional support system in today's society, but the changing face of the family unit itself, one that is defined more by love than by structure.…
The autobiography “Coming of Age in Mississippi,” by Anne Moody is the story of her life as a poor black girl growing into adulthood. Moody chose to start at the beginning - when she was four-years-old, the child of poor sharecroppers working for a white farmer. In telling the story of her life, Moody shows why the civil rights movement was such a necessity, she joined the NAACP to be a rebel, an also showed the depth of the injustices they suffered.…
In the story “Stone Soup” Barbara Kingsolver explains how the common modern day family isn’t that ideal “Family of dolls” that many people strive for. The passage was written from Barbara’s first person view and told the story of her divorce, her conditioned journey through it, and the lessons that emerged. Growing up, she believed that the perfect family consisted of a father, mother, sister, and little brother all living together in harmony. After her divorce, Barbara’s views had a slight change.…
, Michelle Sugiyama writes in “Reverse-Engineering Narrative” that “the storyteller models human behavior.”[1] But what happens when human behavior is modeled to reflect natural animal behavior, mirroring the origins of man rather than the socialized creature he has become? In her fifth novel, Prodigal Summer (2000), Barbara Kingsolver uses her own background in ecology and evolutionary biology to inform the natural order of a fictionalized Appalachia.[2] She argues for a Darwinian view of the necessity of human relationships and the passing on of knowledge via progeny: humans must reproduce and raise offspring communally in order to ensure the propagation of both their species and their ideas. By demolishing the presumed autonomy that Deanna has assumed, that Garnett has adopted after the death of his wife, that Lusa believes she has been forced into as an outsider to the Widener family, Kingsolver builds community where it is least expected.Community begins first with propagation, the building of relationships that become sexual, reproductive. Deanna Woolfe, the first of three perspective-sharing protagonists, interprets the title phrase as “the season of extravagant procreation” (Kingsolver 51). The action of the novel begins on May 8th and the story continues through August. The setting is essential to the novel’s plot. “Setting is not passive,” Sugiyama writes. “It is a distinctive environment upon which characters act and to which they react. On this view, setting is a representation of the potential sources of conflict in a given set of circumstances.”[3] Given the ecological slant of the novel, Kingsolver leans on the temporal setting as a launching point for the action. Because of the focus on sex and procreation not just with humans but throughout the natural world, the events could not happen if the novel was set in mid-winter, for…
Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi is a narrated autobiography depicting what it was like to grow up in the South as a poor African American female. Her autobiography takes us through her life journey beginning with her at the age of four all the way through to her adult years and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. The book is divided into four periods: Childhood, High School, College and The Movement. Each of these periods represents the process by which she "came of age" with each stage and its experiences having an effect on her enlightenment. She illustrates how important the Civil Rights Movement was by detailing the economic, social, and racial injustices against African Americans she experienced.…
I found your response very enjoyable. I agree with you in saying that Mary Bibb faced many biases due to her race and sex and support your statement in saying that “one’s identity should not restrict or deny them from any opportunities.” I thought it was important that you addressed the issue of separation and exclusion, as the society was disregarding her accomplishments and making her seem invaluable due to her skin tone, sex and gender. Black children were also excluded/denied access to common schools and Mary Bibb wanted to change this, making sure that children of any skin colour could receive an education. Even though schools now accept students of various cultures/backgrounds/races, I find that within the classroom and schools, judgement,…
Bibliography: Cisneros S, Eleven, Health Communications Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL, January, 1, 1997. (anthology), pp. 150-161.…
“I Grew Up”, by Lenore Keeshig-Tobias, and “Night”, by Yvonne Trainer, are two poems which tell of two children’s upbringings, one which was described as “the most beautiful place”(1, 3rd line), and one that was filled with anger and abuse. Both of these poems confront, and defy the generic stereotypes commonly associated with Native American reserves and traditional American family farms.…
A mother can be both a mentor and a best friend to her little girl. A mom is a person who her daughter can have trust and faith in, someone who one can create a deep mutual bond with. I see my mother as role model. She is inspirational to me because she is an outgoing, funny and enthusiastic person. My Mother is the person who I go to for advice, she is the right person and I know to go to her right away.…
Let her have the babies; but after that, try to share every job around. Any man today who returns from work, sinks into a chair, and calls for his pipe is a man with an appetite for danger. […] If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right. Having five children has taught me a truth as cosmic as any that […] there are no absolutes in raising children. In any stressful situation, fathering is always a roll of the dice. The game may be messy, but I have never found one with more rewards and joys. You know the only people who are always sure about the proper way to raise children? Those who’ve never had any.” (61).…
There are books in every language that are landmarks, even turning points, in the history of the literature in that language. Such a book for Russians is Maxim Gorky’s Mother, for, though it was written ten years before the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, we count it the first stone laid in the foundations of Soviet literature. Mother was first published in Russia in 1907, When Gorky wrote it he was a mature craftsman, fully aware of his historical mission. He was, at that time, almost forty years old. For fifteen years he, had devoted himself to literature and public activities. He had already written novels, stories and plays that had brought him international recognition. For his political activities and close ties with the Bolshevik Party he was persecuted by the Tsarist government. More than once he was arrested but this did not deter him. During the Russian revolution of 1905 that is, two years before Mother came out in Russia first met Vladimir Lenin, who was to become his great friend. His vagabond roving in Russia in the nineties of the last century, his social awareness and his revolutionary prescience enabled him to see and understand Russia as few of his contemporaries were able to at that time. He was overwhelmed by the vastness of his native land arid by the beauty and variety of its scenery, and at the same time he was appalled by the ignorance, poverty and needless suffering of his countrymen. The social awareness in all of Gorky’s work was not exceptional in Russian literature. It is to be found in the works of the poets among the Decembrists, whom Gorky called the first generation of Russian revolutionaries These poets, participants in the uprising against the monarchy and serfdom which took place on December, 1825, were republicans at heart and looked upon their creative efforts as a means of serving the people and support…