Overall, this year’s Native Son Mock Trial went very well, even if there are a few growth areas for the lawyers and witnesses. Most of the lawyers did a very good job presenting their ideas and examining witnesses. Growth areas for them would be to be more prepared when going up questioning the witnesses, speaking louder, and actually asking relevant questions that would support their side. Additionally, I think the judge should know her responsibilities better and know when to say what. In addition, the judge should have been more forceful and assertive, so the trial could go by smoothly.…
Carry On My Wayward Son The name the British gave the First World War speaks for itself; the Great War, it sounds like a title to an epic where battle is romanticized. Many men who enlisted expected the war to be great indeed, it would be quick and they would return as heroes. The reason the British men expected a great war was partly due to the fact that Britain had not been involved in a full-scale war since 1871, and ever since the idea of war had become a mythical journey, where boys became men. This idealization of a fast and easy war combined with the mechanization of war meant the soldiers received a sudden realization of the cruelties modernized warfare entailed.…
Bigger, blind to the reality of the situation that he couldn’t escape his crimes and that more murders wouldn’t end his anger or afford him more power, accepts killing as a means to generate autonomy. Autonomy in rejecting his family and the notion that he could do better for himself (therefore invalidating the oracle and taking the third road), when “he felt in the quiet presence of his mother, brother and sister…. Making for…
In Trask's article From a Native Daughter, she talks about her opinions on the Hawaii's history. Trask is a native Hawaiian. When she was young, she always heard stories about Hawaii's past from his parents and grandparents. However, these stories were not as same as the stories that her history teachers taught her in the school. After she grew up and focused on Hawaiian studies, Trask began to understand more about the reasons that why so many differences occurred between the history in the books and the histories told by her family.…
George Catlin has been called one of America's first ethnologists. His depictions of native Americans in the 1830s came at a time when very few images of Native Americans beyond the Mississippi River existed. Catlin made five trips west between 1830 and 1836 in which time he sketched enough images to create 450 oil paintings. With these paintings Catlin toured the U.S. And Europe from 1837 to 1845 showing people the "western Indian in his native habitat. " At face value this appears to be a noble and educational pursuit to show people the cultures of the west.…
After being imprisoned, he miraculously found mercy from a pair he would last expect: Jan, whom he loathed and accused for his murder, and Jan’s friend Max, who volunteers as Bigger’s lawyer. “I’m defending this boy because I’m convinced that men like you made him what he is. His trying to blame the communists for his crime was a natural reaction for him. ”(271) Thus, Max’s main defense is the internal conflict of Bigger and his innocence to the reason why he committed brutal crime.…
When you read a text, it is usually to inform the reader on knowledge to be learned. There are many ways to persuade someone into understanding your perspective, but how you organize your data is what makes an impact on the reader. What is the point of knowledge if the reader is not aware of the relevance, cause or effect of the information? What is the point of knowledge when you cannot use information to your own advantage? Thus acquiring an understanding of any situation that occurs in your life?…
Thomas King the author of The Inconvenient Indian, takes a chapter to explain the stories and history surrounding the past relations of Whites and Native Americans by presenting many common conceptions then describing why they are actually misconceptions. The Chapter is named Forget Columbus, the author elaborates by saying his wife told him not to start the book with Columbus but this becomes relevant when he continues to say that everyone believes they know what Columbus did and they revere him for his deeds when no one actually knows him or was able to witness the explorer’s deeds first hand. This is much like the history of conflicts between the United States and Native Americans. Kings then lists famous battles, massacres, and war heroes…
Chapter Three In chapter three of, After you Believe, N.T Wrights explains the human calling to reign over creation and ultimately achieve God’s vocation and intended image for humankind. In the creation account found in Genesis, humans are given reign and dominion over creation. What does the word ‘reign’ imply in this context.…
Notes of a Native Son are composed of James Baldwin’s thoughts and views of when he was 19-years-old during, WWII and the Harlem Riot of 1943. Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son are centered around racism and hatred towards his father, which are the main topics of his writing. James Baldwin is the main character of the story and he uses stream of consciousness to voice his thought process during times like his father’s funeral or when he’s being discriminated against for being African American. This is called character voice, in which he writes how he views the world. For example, he talks about how African American soldiers are mistreated during the WWII overseas and his father’s bitter behavior.…
“The Firstborn” is a free verse poem, a name first used to describe the movement in French poetry in the late nineteenth century aiming to free poetry from the strict conventions of rhyme and rhythm. Traditional rhythm is abandoned and is replaced by natural rhythm and cadences of ordinary speech, so the flow of the verse rises and falls at random as do the poet’s thoughts and emotions thus enabling the reader to relate to the topic. There are three stanzas in the poem with a rhyming pattern of abab, and four lines in each stanza. The use of rhyme, such as “sighing” and “crying”, allows the reader to have a connection to the poem via their memory, rather than just by reading the words on the page alone. Repetition is mostly used in the first stanza to highlight the main idea of the poem.…
Black boy is a memoir written by Richard Wright describing his childhood all the way to his adult life. He begins his memoir with his earliest memory of setting his grandmother 's house on fire with a broomstick. Shortly after they move to Memphis,Tennessee to a new house. Richard’s father leaves them for another woman and after that Richard and his brother only see their father a couple of times. After their father leaves Richard’s mother is forced to work to provide for them.…
The California Department of Education requires high school students to take one course of U.S. history in order to graduate and move onto college (California Department of Education). These classes often explore the histories of the living or, more famously put, the winners. However, many American history courses fail to mention the effects of settler colonialism on racialized groups, specifically the Native Americans, resulting in the deletion of their existence and stories. Through her memoir Bad Indians, Deborah Miranda thoroughly brings forth the continuous oppression and experiences of Native Americans by revising the version of U.S. history that many are taught with her counter-narrative, which brings a new perspective and more knowledge…
He begins to wonder these things and contemplates on why black people don 't unite and rise up against their white oppressors. He then concludes that black people don’t, “fight back for the simple reason that they have no guns”. This is also reinforced when Bigger and his friends try to rob a white store owner but are met with a dilemma because he has a gun and they don 't. The fear of robbing him leads to Richard attacking one of his friends to distract them from the robbery. This shows how Bigger conforms to his stereotype of being a violent black man that is willing to attack his friends.…
Throughout much of African American literature there is a perpetual underlying theme; double consciousness. As if one were a comic book character with an alter ego, one has to put on a facade in order to be regarded as acceptable, civil, and not threatening. It is a concept among early African American literary people that explains a inner "twoness" and never having an individual unified identity because of this. It is thought to be expressed because of the oppression and disvaluement of blacks in a white dominated society. Du Bois explains that because of this, it is hard for blacks to be able to relate to having a black identity and having a American identity.…