Another literary device exemplified in this passage is emotive imagery. The image given by King to the reader captures the desolation and grim circumstances for the average Negro in 1960’s America. However, at the same time, King expresses the underlying hope of a brighter future for…
| Relevant Biographical Information About the Author: * White * Born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1903 * Father was Scottish and mother was South African of English heritage * Worked at a reformatory with black youths…
Lindsey Parker Parker 1 Mrs. Brawner Honors English II August 12, 2014 Overcoming Poverty to Rise to the Top Mark Mathabane touched the hearts of millions by telling his true, unaltered, raw experiences of living and coming to age in the apartheid in South Africa in his award winning autobiography, Kaffir Boy. Mark grew up in poverty and the cruelty that was ever present in the streets of South African ghettos, especially the most desperate and poor of them all in Alexandra, where gangs would fight and recruit and where police raids were like a normal every day routine. Mark faced life in a different light than most people do in this day and age. Mark is a very rounded and dynamic character who fluctuates throughout the book. The black people of South Africa in the apartheid viewed whites as “supreme” because they held all authority and regulated every move they made, but Mark decided to try and overcome this “supremacy” by deciding to make a better life for himself.…
Civil Rights advocate, Martin Luther King Jr., in his ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’, discusses the cruelty and unjust consequences black people endure while acknowledging the inequity of their undying patience in chapter fourteen. King’s purpose is to address the atrocious situations that African Americans undergo in order to establish a strong argument while defending the importance of civil rights. King creates a different perspective for the clergymen. In addition, King adopts a skeptical and serious tone as he emphasizes the how distressing the unkind acts towards the blacks are in reality, allowing the clergymen to understand the ongoing problem.…
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”(Philippians 4:7). In the novel, A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines, one of the protagonists Jefferson discovers that the combined transformation of death, understanding, and religion can overpower the thoughts of a common man and no matter how much one struggles, hope will always confide them. Told in first person point of view, the author supports his theme by describing the setting of the struggles that the African Americans face after the era of their ancestral freedom, establishing the central conflict of inequality and prejudice. This affects the work as a whole because Gaines’ purpose is to inform readers about the rift,…
The use of Biblical allusions and references is evident in Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country. Against the backdrop of South Africa's racial and cultural problems, massive enforced segregation, similarly enforced economic inequality, Alan Paton uses these references as way to preserve his faith for the struggling country. By incorporating Biblical references into his novel, one can see that Alan Paton is a religious man and feels that faith will give hope to his beloved country. Throughout the entire novel, Alan Paton continuously uses references to the bible and while some are not very apparent, most of them are considerable evident. Four apparent references that he uses are seen in Stephen Kumalo's character, Absalom's decisions to name his unborn child Peter, Stephen Kumalo questioning the ways of God, and Stephen finding his son.…
Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) grew up in a time of racial segregation, discrimination and violence against African Americans. The era depicted in Cry belongs to his parents’ generation; a time spanning both the ‘roaring 20s’ or ‘Jazz Age’ and The Great Depression. This era saw the rise of extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, which promoted a view of white supremacy and were responsible for violence and injustice towards African American people. Ailey experienced horrors of this kind from a young age in his hometown, Texas. His mother was raped by a group of white men, and Ailey once explained that “having that kind of experience as a child left a feeling of rage in me that pervades my work”. Ailey called these experiences “blood memories” and used them as an inspiration for is works.…
Based on the 1989 novel by Bryce Courtenay, the dramatic motion picture ‘The Power of One’ narrates the life of English boy P.K and his numerous struggles to overcome the racism in the Apartheid era. As the film takes us through P.K’s brutal losses and his gains, we are able to clearly see the continuous injustice against the native South Africans and the aspects of P.K’s personality that evidently help him reject the racism apartheid system; the courage, love and friendship that are needed to fight injustice.…
King says, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny”, (King Birmingham Jail). King’s incorporation of the metaphor “tied in a single garment of destiny” creates a depiction in the reader's mind of a interconnected community in which all human beings all over the globe are a part of, all linked together by our assured eventual demises. By integrating a metaphor into the piece King is able to create in image in the mind of the reader in order to help them sympathize with King and the message of the Civil Rights Movement. King later goes on to say, “There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair”, (King Birmingham Jail). Here King goes on to use the metaphor “abyss of despair” to depict what one comes to after being faced with constant oppression and inhumane treatment. The overall effect of the metaphor helps to create a distinct image in the reader's mind of the oppression that people were facing…
In a person’s life, there will be times when one loses them self in the large and unpredictable world. An individual will be worse off, no matter what kind of losses an individual has to suffer. This is shown in The Book of Negroes. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill is a fictionalized, historical account that explores the story of the protagonist, Aminata, who is separated from her home, family, culture and faith. This book demonstrates the effectiveness of Hill's ability to portray imagery. Hill uses effective imagery to emphasize the fact that often loss is worse than death itself. This is shown through the book when Aminata loses her parents, her child and her home. These losses are worse than death itself.…
The texts “Son of Mine” a poem by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Other Word’s “Jim Crow Alabama” a graphic sketch by Khalil Bendib both explore conflicting perspectives in relation to racism. Noonuccal’s purpose is to respond to her son’s questioning of the racism he is subjected to, “My son, your troubled eyes search mine…” her views conflict within the text as she expresses two views, one of how white people treated Indigenous Australians and on how she as an Indigenous mother adopts a positive perspective with a view to a complementary change. Other Word’s “Jim Crow Alabama” observes how though the Jim Crow laws have been abolished they have in the illustrator’s view in fact returned in another form, this time discriminating against immigrants.…
When James’ son, Arthur, dies he visits Arthur’s home and finds his incomplete manuscript. When reading his writings, James finds that his son would have risked anything to help other people, and ended up doing just that. Although James is hurt by the fact that Arthur writes about his parents in a negative way "..But of South Africa I learned nothing at all.” (207), James takes the criticism and improves from it by continuing his son’s battle. James discovers that his son researches tremendously on the problems of their society, and was seeking help in the development of the social structure in South Africa. Arthur’s house contains hundreds of books and “…between the books there were four pictures, of Christ crucified, and Abraham Lincoln, and the white gabled house of Vergelegen, and a painting of leafless willows by a river in a wintry veld.” (176) From these pictures of Jesus, Lincoln, the gabled hose, and the leafless willow discloses the symbolism that Arthur admires. Jesus and Lincoln were men of action; they showed love for their friends, and at the same time, their enemies. These two men suffered and died for their beliefs, the same way Arthur did. A water willow represents freedom, therefore, it can be concluded that the painting of the leafless willows represents a loss of freedom for the blacks in South Africa and how Arthur wants…
e novel, Cry, the beloved country is written by Alan Paton, a great South African writer. The book was published in 1948 and became world wide bestseller. Alan Paton mainly discusses the struggle for Africa and especially the conflicts between the Whites and the Blacks in South Africa. He wants the people to realize that the destruction or breaking apart of a country like South Africa can be mended through hope and this hope can only be reached if people accept and love each other as fellow human beings. The Whites gained power through force and compulsion. The chosen passage shows Western style of thinking which lead to this particular destruction of South Africa. The passage illustrates a manuscript from Arthur Jarvis and is the last thing he wrote before he was shot by the natives. He described that the Christian civilization is "riddled through and through with dilemma". The manuscript by Arthur shows that although the Westerners have suppressed the natives and destroyed their culture, their own civilization is full of destruction and tragedy.…
Harold C. Gardiner, S.J. wrote a very interesting article entitled, "Critical Commentary." He wrote his essay in the year 1948. Throughout his work, his main idea is to praise the book, "Cry, the Beloved Country", written by Alan Paton. Gardiner is very satisfied with the book's subject matter of tension between Negroes and whites.…
In the novel Cry, The Beloved Country, the author, Alan Paton, writes about the current struggles within South Africa through the eyes of two opposite characters: James Jarvis and Stephen Kumalo. James Jarvis is a wealthy white man coping with the loss of his son while questioning his attitudes toward the racial injustice of his country. Stephen Kumalo is a native black priest whose life takes a turn when he discovers the vices and twisted realities behind Johannesburg and his home country. Kumalo receives a first-hand experience of the issues within his country along his journey to Johannesburg and meets various individuals on the way. It is later revealed that Stephen’s son, Absalom Kumalo, has murdered a white activist by the name of Arthur…