Author of nonfiction book “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall”, Anne Fadiman relays the questions to her readers in her preface: “What makes a good parent?” and “What makes a good doctor?” As far as anyone is concerned for the latter question, specifically what makes outstanding health care, Carolyn M. Clancy, MD, of the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality would describe quality health care as simply “getting the right care to the right patient at the right time – every time” (). Furthermore, she dissects this simplistic description apart, providing a multilayered perspective. Essentially, the key to quality health care is its three basic dimensions: STRUCTURE, PROCESS, and OUTCOME” ().…
The educational level of the characters of this book also help to connect the readers to the story. The cruel standards in the setting of slavery…
“We’re told these days that the hottest and fastest wire into memory is our sense of smell, but music must run a close second. Some songs carry us into a certain mood, some to a general region of our past lives, and some to a very particular moment and situation in time,” states Stephen Corey in A Voice for the Lonely. I cannot think of a time in my life where music hasn’t been there because I use music in times of trouble and in times of joy. It is in the background of every memory I have.…
There Are No Children Here There are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz is an anecdote around two young men who are utilized to experience childhood in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes. The principle characters, Lafeyette and Pharoah, live in the repulsions of the Chicago's internal city in a low-wage lodging venture. Alex Kotlowitz takes after their lives for a long time so as to uncover way of life in supposed other America. In his book there are no kids here the writer portrays the majority of their delights, disillusionments, and tragedies.…
I really enjoyed Sandra Cisneros reading of her memoir, A House of My own. I enjoyed this performance for numerous reasons. Firstly, because it was a chapter that was very fresh and clear in my mind. Whilst watching Sandra read her written words out loud I felt as if I could see my own book in front of me and read the words along with her. Furthermore, in spite of the fact that I love writing and there are certain genres and authors that I can genuinely enjoy reading, I am a very poor reader.…
Racism is embedded into essentially every American institution and is nurtured by people who have racist predispositions. Ta-Nehisi Coates in Between the World and Me, writes “the ground we walked was trip-wired. The air we breathed was toxic. The water stunted our growth. We could not get out” (Coates, p. 28).…
A person’s health literacy is determined by that person’s capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make the appropriate health decisions. Two of the biggest influences that can determine a person’s health literacy are culture and education. In “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman and “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, there are many displays of how the roles of culture and education impact the lives of these two ethnic families. In “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” the effects of culture and education has an adverse effect on Lia Lee’s, the central character, life.…
1. The story of Nightjohn reveals insight into cruel truths in American history as it follows the encounters of a 12-year-old slave young lady (Sarny) in the 1850s. Sarny uncovered the abuse suffered by her people on the plantation. Sarny knows the consequence for learning how to read and write, but agrees to learn it from Night John( new slave) who offers to teach her the alphabet. John says that figuring out how to read is freedom since slavery is limited by laws and deeds which the slaves can not read.…
Deep in the night the sounds of nature envelope a small cabin on a plantation on the western edge of Missouri. There is not a sound in the night but the soft hum of insects, the rush of water over rocks, and the dreamy breaths of a family in peaceful slumber. The creak of a door only partially stirs the young mother of an infant and his brother. Sleep is hard to come by as a slave - even if the owners are kind. Mother rolls over, unaware of the evil that lurks in her doorway.…
This book puts the awful effects of being a slave in the way of a man whose only wish is to pursue his passion and goal to teach others like him. Although Gary Paulsen’s novel, Nightjohn, is considered historical fiction, the descriptions of brutal…
The Slave Ship: A Human History written by Marcus Rediker is a painful eye-opening novel, embodying the many truths at a life at sea. This testament to a time when Anglo-American slave ships subjected countless numbers to the hatred and terror of the world, aims to eloquently prevail the provocative stories behind it. Rediker recreates this world by using personal accounts and seafaring records to reproduce the feelings and emotions that challenged life and death along this rigorous journey. After the 1700’s in a world progressively dominated by Britain, slave ships transported millions of people from African coastlines to the New World.…
Marcus Rediker takes us on a difficult journey of what it was like to travel the middle passage for a slave from 1700-1808 in his riveting book, The Slave Ship: A Human History. He focuses heavily on the calculated barbarity of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and how it gave birth to capitalism with the commodification of humans as goods to be bought and sold on the open market. Rediker gives us a unique and unexplored perspective of the slave trade to give us a sense of the violence that occurred not only on the decks of those ships, but also in their home lands and the new world. Rediker leaves nothing to the imagination as he delves deep into the root causes of the slave trade and the tragedies that took place with his use of haunting language, imagery and gripping facts. Rediker shows that the slave…
Douglass’ horrifying imagery of his aunt being abused conveys the sadistic nature of his blood-lust driven master. In addition, Douglass also comments on the common misperception that slaves would sing while working. In fact, “slaves sing most when they are most…
Originally aired more than three decades ago, Alex Haley’s adaptation of the slave experience was brought to televisions everywhere. The film chronicled not only the slave experience, but shed light too many whom otherwise would not know that slaves were in fact thriving and civilized prior to Americas slave experience. The film begins with Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka warrior of Gambia, West Africa, who had come from a strong lineage of royal warrior leaders in his village. One day Kunta Kinte was beat and kidnapped and awoke to find himself chained as a prisoner. He had now become part of what we know as the Middle Passage.…
Amos Tutuola’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts follows outlandish episodic tales and a character stuck in the middle of a nightmare. Many of the horrid stories the author describes reflect the negative consequences of British colonization in Nigeria. However, Tutuola describes the dream-like 10th Town of Ghosts, a flourishing city in which his character prospers. Tutuola juxtaposes the 10th Town of Ghosts amongst other frightening cities in the Bush of Ghosts to reflect an accommodating view of British colonization in Nigeria.…