Mother To Son Essay Example for Free

Mother To Son Essay The author, Langston Husthes, vividly showed how the African-Americans struggled and managed to live. The efforts they made to change and how much they changed their appearances were very evident in the three poems, â€Å"I am too†, â€Å"Mother to Son†, and â€Å"Negro†. The writer started the poem using a conversational tone, which easily showed its viewers that he was talking to somebody. In his poem, â€Å"Mother To Son†, the author told the story of how the African-Americans struggled to survive the harsh realities of living in a society dominated by the white people. The text included: â€Å"Life for me aint been no crystal stair. Its had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor Bare. † This specific part of the poem showed how much the African-Americans suffered from living in a society dominated by white people. The author used a lot of metaphors in the poem to illustrate his points. The â€Å"crystal stair† mentioned in the poem, contained several meanings. The crystal may be considered to be attractive, but very fragile. The use of the crystal in the poem was somehow successful in connecting a creative story with that of reality-that the crystal stair may be used as a symbol for the way of living white people had. The poem was also told from a mothers point of view. From the text, it can be perceived that the mother was a slave at the white house, serving white people. The reader is given contrasting images of how the African-Americans suffered, while the white and rich Americans ruled over society. Throughout the entire poem, the mother tried to show the readers the uneven treatment given to both races. Words, such as â€Å"and† were repeatedly used to emphasize the hardships endured during that time. The line, â€Å"And places with no carpet on the floor –Bare,† was also used to demonstrate how the white people unfairly treated the black people.

Blind Essay -- essays research papers

Have you ever been completely oblivious to a situation that is taking place right behind your back? You think that everything is going just fine in your perfect little world. You have everything planned out and it seems to be working out right on track. Then all of a sudden you discover something so devastating that it changes your whole life, and everything you worked at for nearly a year. This is exactly how I felt when I found out that my girlfriend had been cheating on me. I felt like everything I had worked so hard to establish had been gone, and that I was all alone.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My life was going along perfectly. I was in the middle of soccer season. My team was destined for the District Championship, and already claimed the Laurel Highlands Championship. I had an amazing girlfriend, who I cared for a lot, and thought she cared about me. She was a junior at Westmont, and also played soccer. She was slightly shorter than me with long blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. I constantly spending time with her, despite all of my time spent practicing for soccer. My life was focused on her and keeping our relationship a happy one. There was not a day that went by that I did not take the time to at least talk to her for a while, no matter what I had to do.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was the happiest time of my life. I was a totally different person. I was nicer to everyone, and cared a lot more about what was going on around me. Before my girlfriend I was just a quiet shy kid that did not really talk to anyone. She really helped me to come out and talk to people and be a lot nicer person. I was almost certain I finally had a relationship that I thought would last more than just a couple of months. Maybe this would even be the one person I would spend my life with. That’s how strong our relationship was. I was trying my hardest to make sure that this would be true.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For nearly a year, our relationship was amazing. Everything was working out perfectly. We had plenty of time to spend together and we were never really apart. I had just made the choice to come to UPJ meaning that I could be home and spend time with her. I would never make a choice that important, such as a college and my future based on another person, so that had nothing to do with it. Anyway, I would be staying here in the area so we would... ...blind to a situation. Before this had all happened I always used to think, wow, how stupid could someone be to not know that their girlfriend, or boyfriend, is cheating on them. Well, I guess I found out the hard way that it is not that easy to realize what is going on right behind your back.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Maybe I knew about it all along, maybe I am really not as blind as I think, maybe I was not clueless to it at all, and I just would not let myself believe that it was really true. How could someone that you care about so much, do something that heartless to you? It is almost unbelievable that a person can be that cruel. I spent a little over a year of my life caring and dedicating a great part of my life to this person. However, right behind me for nearly a month my life was drastically changing, and I had no idea of what was to come.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When my girlfriend cheated on me, I felt totally blind to the world. I was lost in my own world, and felt completely alone. The worst feeling I have ever experienced throughout my life was when this happened, and I hope I never have to go through anything like this again.

I Have a Dream Too Essay

32 years and 364 days before my birth, at Lincoln Memorial over 275,000 people gathered and listened to Dr. Martin Luther King deliver his speech â€Å"I Have a Dream.† During this time, racism was a huge issue in the United States, especially towards African Americans. Among those African Americans was Dr. Martin Luther King, a prominent civil rights activists who inspires our world till this day, especially with his speech â€Å"I Have a Dream.† He spoke about the injustices of segregation and discrimination of African Americans that was taking place in our nation. The reason for â€Å"I Have a Dream† massive impact is due to the tense social mood of the time and giving African Americans a vision for the future. Hitting home for many African American people but what made â€Å"I Have a Dream† so fascinating that even a 16 years Asian American can relate to? I believe it is King’s use of rhetoric and how he is able to appeal to his audiences’ everyday lives. King uses the structure of his rhetoric to appeal to his different audiences and supporting his ideas by using quotations and allusions, repeating key theme words and phrases, and â€Å"grounding† his arguments. The syntax of a speech can be very important, something that King utilizes really well appealing to all three types of people in his audience; the average blacks who are discriminated against, the average whites who harbor thoughts typical of that time who argue that blacks are evil and the civil rights movement is violent, and radical blacks who think the same. He first starts by making the white realize how blacks are in such a terrible positions and make them feel bad of what they have done, but at the same time hitting home in the hearts of blacks. He goes on explaining problems â€Å"One hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years..† Striking home for many African Americans but at the same time causing the whites to be uncomfortable. King then brings in issues about the Declaration of Independence by saying â€Å"This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the â€Å"unalienable Rights† of â€Å"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.† Then goes on saying that America has denied us of these right. His ability to appeal to his audience really amazed because when you put into perspective of how the people of the time interpreted the speech and to me the message was loud and clear; segregation must end. King also perpetrates his speech with careful thoughts and analysis, a key example of this was King’s utilization of quotations and allusions. He starts out the his speech by invoking the presence of Lincoln, not just with his location but with this â€Å"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the emancipation proclamation.† This is a strong appeal to ethos and using Lincoln’s credibility to create credibility for himself. Then he moves on to the Constitution with â€Å"Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness† this is also and an appeal to ethos that relates to every American. His use of allusions and quotations didn’t just revolve around the 16th president and the constitution it also reached out in a biblical manner as well. â€Å"for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no wa ter.â€Å" he evokes Jeremiah 2:13. Similar to this the other biblical terms enhance his credibility and builds a relationship with the common whit population that reads the bible. As for me the text was not as powerful but when King delivered the line â€Å"No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until â€Å"justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.† the idea of freedom in my mind became privilege and made me cherish it much more. King like many other juniors in the 21st century learned a rhetorical device known as anaphora, a skill that only King can make history with. King uses this device 8 times throughout his speech but the most memorable of all is near the end of the speech where he starts with â€Å"I Have a Dream†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The line that will stick with generations to come and may have been the reason why Dr. King was assassinated. Though we can grieve over Dr. King’s death but I would rather take the time and analyze why his use of anaphora was so powerful. I believe the lines he used in the formation of his anaphora: â€Å"One hundred years later†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"Now is the tim e†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"We must†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"We can never be satisfied†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"I Have a Dream†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"With this faith, †¦Ã¢â‚¬ , and â€Å"Let freedom ring (from) †¦Ã¢â‚¬ , can tell us much of King’s stories and the emphasis through repetition makes these phrases more memorable, and, by extension, make King’s story more memorable. What King also did was the repetition of â€Å"theme† words such as freedom (repeated 20 times), nation (10 times), and America (9 times). This style of writing will be one of the many lessons I will be taking away from this speech. The last I think the most important rhetorical device that King used was his ability to â€Å"ground his arguments. King accomplished this by making numerous geographic references throughout the speech. Including Mississippi, New York, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Colorado, California, and Tennessee. King uses Mississippi in many occasions to evoke emotions in the blacks because African Americans in Mississippi where treated the worse among all the states and I believe the best line king used was this â€Å"We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.† Encouraging and informing all American citizens of the predicament tha t is occurring in the great nation of America. This created reliability among the people and connected them even more. Although racism isn’t as large an issue today Dr. King’s speech â€Å"I Have a Dream† managed to inspire a generation of blacks to never give up and made thousands of white Americans bitterly ashamed of their actions, forging a new start for society. Even now, it continues to make generations of people, not just Americans, to give up their racist beliefs and advocate social colorblindness. King’s speech not only had amazing content, but the structure and king’s effective uses of quotations and allusions, use of repeating key theme words and phrases, and â€Å"grounding† his arguments. Taught me a very valuable lesson in both rhetoric and life. Thus from now on I have a dream as well. it is to develop myself and my rhetoric device using.

Racism Is A Hurtful Form Of Discrimination - 1419 Words

â€Å"Go back to where you came from, nobody wants you here.† â€Å"You’re adopted aren’t you? Figures, nobody would want you.† Others often endure hurtful statements everyday because they seem different of something they inherited, something they can’t control, with the justification of â€Å"It’s only a joke.† Racism is a hurtful form of discrimination that has been with us for hundreds of years and will never cease to exist; however we can reduce the amount of racism through exposure to different cultures and customs. Racism is said to exist when one ethnic group dominates or excludes another. Discrimination of race has been prevalent throughout every culture and has been documented since the thirteenth and fourteenth century, when Europeans began to come into contact with people with different shades of skin.1 Racism is universal. It isn’t confined to one race or culture; it spreads with ignorance and intolerance of others. More recent cases of racism include the persecution of Native Americans when groups of Europeans traveled to America. Many of the settlers called the Native Americans â€Å"savages† for their different customs and ways of life. In the time period roughly through 1880 and 1914, European powers claimed areas of Africa causing European colonization in different areas. This ultimately lead to the â€Å"Apartheid† in South Africa from around 1913 to 1990.1 The Apartheid was a legal act that effectively segregated blacks and whites, to decrease political influ ence of blacks.Show MoreRelatedThe Psychology Behind Prejudice : Humans Attitude1089 Words   |  5 Pagesthey’re bad. Within psychology, we can link prejudice with discrimination and stereotyping (Plous, 2003). Although each may go together, they can be done separately. Prejudice and discrimination are most likely absent in a positive stereo type (Plous, 2013). For example describing an ethnic group as â€Å"family oriented†. Stereo typing does little to no harm without discrimination or prejudice. A generalized form of prejudice may lack discrimination and stereo types, such as being against foreigners. PrejudiceRead MoreInstitutional Racism Essay795 Words   |  4 PagesInstitutional racism are those accepted, established, evident, respected forces, social arrangements, institutions, structures, policies, precedents an systems of social relations that operate are manipulated in such a way as to allow, support individual acts of racism. 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Harper Lee’s only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is heavily based off of prejudice and racism from her childhood. In her book, she writes about racial discrimination through the eyes of a six year-old girl, named Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, during the Great Depression. Her and her family are deeply tied intoRead MoreAgeism : A Social Injustice1322 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction Ageism is a form of discrimination most commonly experienced by the elderly, and because of that, it is unjustly overlooked. It may not capture the same level of universal attention as other forms of discrimination, such as racism or sexism, but it is a social injustice all the same. The elderly population is stereotyped and discriminated against on the basis of their age in almost all aspects of life. They are discriminated against in the workforce, in the healthcare system, in theirRead MoreDiscrimination, Injustice And Oppression1588 Words   |  7 PagesDiscrimination, prejudice, injustice and oppression all have ties to each other and impact our daily lives more than we may realize. When I completed this activity, I began to notice that this was happening more around me than I had thought. The log in Appendix A that I created was based on interactions that I had or that happened around me. I felt that documenting first-hand situations would be a better representation of things that I see and can reflect on. After documenting them, I began to realize