I chose this book because this book tells a story like no other story that I have heard before. Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan is Mary Pope Osborne's story of a young Quaker girl living in the city of Delaware Valley in the state of Pennsylvania during the time of 1763. In her diary entries, Catharine tells her life with her strong believing Quaker family that they have lived the importance of their religion as a Quaker family should live and sharing Catharine’s fears over the growing tensions between the Indians and the Quaker settlers that live among them. Then, one day on the was to school on January 9, 1764, Catharine's regular life changes forever when she and her younger brother, Thomas, are taken…
In the book Saints by Gene Luen Yang, the character, Vibiana (also known as four girl) struggles to find her belonging and power but succeeds through her faith. Vibiana felt insignificant because her family mistreated her. Since she was born, they believed that Vibiana was a devil, because she was born on May 4, was the 4th child and every year her family experienced some sort of death. From the constant reoccurrence of 4 in her life, they believed she was bad luck as 4 means dead in the Chinese language. From experience, her grandfather ignored her and she was never given an official name instead everyone just called her four girl.…
While Anne Fadiman rightly asserts in her novel The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures that the tragedy of Lia Lee, a Hmong bounded epileptic child of Laos natives, was a result of cross-cultural misunderstanding; I feel that she does not sufficiently explore the role of language and translation serving as factors of psychosocial and cultural aspects of medical diagnosis and the overall confrontation of foreign patients with the American medical system. As described by Janelle S. Taylor, culture is the process of making meaning and social interactions. The embodiment of cross-cultural meaning can be articulated through the intertwining of language, the duality of vocal…
In this documentary, The Way We Never Were, Stephanie Coontz discusses the myths and realities of marriage and families in history as well as in present day and examines the consequences of the development of marriage throughout history. Beginning with the single parent families the myth is that single parent families are only a new trend when really they’ve been around for centuries. Coontz says that at the beginning of the 19th century one parent households were common because of the extremely high death rate that plagued the nations. Similarly, step families which one would think is a recent idea has also been around since the 19th century due to the high death rate which increased the chances of remarrying and combining families. The myth that…
This section of text from Marya Hornbacher’s 1998 memoir, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, is a first-hand account of her experiences with eating disorders throughout her life. This depiction of her on-going battle with anorexia and bulimia for over fourteen years establishes her familiarity with the topic while appealing to the emotions of the audience as they experience the perspective of a person who has struggled with negative body image, eating disorders, and insecurity. Furthermore, by detailing some of her own experiences—many of which from when she was a child—without establishing a definitive opinion on the implications of negative body image, Hornbacher allows the reader to arrive to their own conclusions about the real-life dangers of the over-glamourized standard for the “perfect” body and the addictiveness of the quest for thinness. Hornbacher’s memoir was originally published nearly two decades ago, illustrating her experiences with eating disorders through the age of twenty-three; however, the content of her book is just as…
The Inevitable End Camilla Townsend constructs an image of the Native peoples and their extensive culture along with their deeply ingrained and essential values as resilient individuals. Townsend bypasses the superficial lore which has been continuously associated with Pocahontas. The dilemma which Powhatan faces is what the King should do about the English men. No matter what course he would take, it would not be without its dangers. Was he to stand by idly while they disturbed the “balance of power” that dominated his region and existed amongst his people, and ignore the dangers present?…
In terms of the events of my childhood, I can honestly say I had it pretty easy. I was never worried about the fundamental imperatives of surviving, but was more concerned with normal problems and challenges of a typical middle class American child. Like the majority of the youth of this country, my early the experiences of my early childhood were devoid of real danger and conflict. Given my upbringing as comparison, it was a largely eye opening experience reading and experiencing the harrowing account of adolescence described in vivid detail in Ishmael Beah’s 2007 memoir A Long Way Gone.…
Lugenia Burns Hope was a twentieth-century civil rights activist and social reformer who worked steadfastly to rebuild black communities using grassroots politics and community ties. Hope was no stranger to hard work. From an early age, Hope worked full time at organizations like Hull House— a settlement organization founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr dedicated to providing European Immigrants with amenities such as daycare services, libraries, employment and education. Her infectious fervor, innovative thinking and strong leadership skills advanced the field of social work and contributed greatly to racial and gender equality.…
Poems pertaining to the future commonly relate to the fear, anticipation, or joy that comes from thinking of the future. In “After Us” (2011) by Nikola Madzirov the author is content with the future and accepts that as time changes so will people’s ways of life and understanding of the past. However, in the poem, “Oh could I raise the darken’d veil” (1820) by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the future is perceived to be frightening and unwanted. Madzirov and Hawthorne convey their different views of the future by using different tones, techniques, and themes.…
Leda and the Swan can tell us many things about society throughout history. It can tell us how woman where looked at and treated, and also what was acceptable in society. Whether that be how to behave as a wife or what type of affection is appropriate to be seen. However we look at it Leda and the Swan has inspired beautiful artwork throughout the centuries.…
What’s difference between being alone and feeling lonely? Some say loneliness is the unhappiness that is often felt when they do not have friends or no one to turn to; some say loneliness is an emotion, but being alone can be a choice. Being to many places usually out of everyone’s travel plan, Pico Iyer finds that we often feel lonely when we are in a crowd, but not part of the it. In his work, “Lonely Places,” Pico Iyer depicts a unique outlook of several “lonely places” where are geographically connected to many neighbors, but politically or socially isolated. However, by focusing on the temporary situations of the “lonely places,” Iyer underestimated the potential of once undeveloped places and misconstrued the real content of people in…
The black experience is a factor of life that every African-American person has to endure. Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle, is one of those African-Americans. As a child, he mentions the moments in his life where the black experience was prominent. As long as an individual is black, they will encounter parts of the black experience.…
What is considered a harmful lie? Is it when it actually harms the person receiving the lie, or is it when it just initially deceives the person receiving it? Whether it physically or mentally does them harm, people see lying differently than others. In John D’Agata’s piece titled “What Happens There”, he tells of a young boy who commits suicide. He goes on to describe Las Vegas, where he lived and died, and about the boy’s life.…
The Crucible Critical Analysis In every human, there exists an impulse to harm or help. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible takes place in a community that believes a person and their reputation are more important than living honestly and helping others. Many acts of selfishness, which occur in the town of Salem, bring about immense consequences. The themes of dishonesty and deceit are important aspects in The Crucible because they reveal the drastic character developments of the protagonist and antagonist.…
This book can overall help you with a lot of things in your life and it was worth the…