American memoirists

“Indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never its victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten” (Wiesel 2). When trying to get a powerful point or a message across its more effective to use certain techniques and certain words. One influential man mastered this skill, Elie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate, gave a powerful speech on April 12th 1999 in Washington D.C. as part of the Millennium Lecture series, hosted by President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton. His speech touched on his story of survival as well as points about indifference and his opinion and feelings about it. The speech is powerful because of the language and the fact that the speech relates to the audience while still persuading and educating the common people. An analysis of Elie Wiesels speech “The Perils of Indifference” reveals that Wiesel has a intended audience the noble office, an actual audience the bystanders and strong language that really connects the audience to the words being said. Starting off the speech Elie Wiesel indicated that he is speaking “directly” to President Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, members of the Congress, Ambassador Holbrooke and Excellences. He gets their attention by addressing them personally through out the whole speech. For example he addressed the President by saying he is a “Commander in Chief of the army that freed me and tens of thousands of others”. (Wiesel 1) These strong…

Therefore, language affects the way Amy’s mother interacted with the public. When Firoozeh Dumas, in her memoir The “F” Word, made the decision to change her name, it would forever alter the way she views herself. Prior to changing her name o Julie, Firoozeh was subject the ridicule and was judged because she had a foreign name. By changing her name to Fulie, her “life because infinitely simpler” (Dumas 3). The days of people forgetting her name or butchering it were long gone, or so she…

Maya Angelou was born in Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri in April 4th 1928 and died in May 28th 2014. She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. She grew up during the time of racial discrimination. She was an American poet, a civil rights activist, memoirist, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, and singer. She published autobiographies, essays, and several poems. Maya Angelou earned tons of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. The first of her…

the Caged Bird Sings”, which made literary history as the first nonfiction best-seller of an African-American woman, according to biography.com! She may not have the superhuman abilities, but she had the strength to keep moving forward regardless of her unforgotten past. In like matter, biography.com states that [Maya Angelou experienced firsthand racial prejudices, discrimination, and sexual assault when she was around the age of 7. She had returned to Arkansas as a virtual mute because of the…

My interest for potentially becoming a part of the Psi Theta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. is based on the personal and professional development of its members and the social change that results in equality. I view Psi Theta Omega Chapter as a huge advocate for the metropolitan Orlando area when it comes to the community service and its involvement of its educational growth of its young ladies. These are a major focus that has sparked my interest in understanding what this…

Balcita goes over similar issues, though on a less broad scale. Using her father’s experiences of immigrating from the Philippines to the United States, Balcita creates an engaging and relatable picture of the subtle moments of integration, while also illustrating how the great American hypocrisy affects this transition. A great example of this comes from two paragraphs discussing her father’s first job at a blood bank. The job is temporary, as he’s trying to get official certification to be a…

States during the early 20th century, especially in the southern states. While the North had racial prejudice, it was minute compared to the South. A major cause that led to the Harlem Renaissance was the Great Migration. African Americans experienced a great deal of hatred from the white Americans from the South. Because of this, African Americans moved to the North, where they had more economic opportunities and more political freedom. “The Great Migration began because of a "push" and a…

Historical Being Black in America Maya Angelou, an African American essayist, extraordinarily performing artist, and an amazing writer, also arguably the best novelist ever lived, who was the component artist at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, where she recited her poem On the Pulse of Morning ("Introduction"). Abundance influence and inspiration behind Maya Angelou's work has really solidifies her profile as one of the best African American writers of all…

The award-winning journalist and memoirist as well as the author of The Beautiful Struggle has written an amazing memoir that will reach out and touch the readers’ hearts; however at times this memoir does make readers get a little uncomfortable. Between the World and Me is a memoir that Coates writes in the form of a letter to his fifteen year old son, Samori. This book is told in three different parts and is about Ta-Nehisi Coates’s experience about growing up in Baltimore during the 1980s and…

Annie Johnson April 4,1928, and she was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Maya was called Rita in public, she was given the nickname Maya by her older brother who was calling her “my” or “mine”. Her father Bailey Johnson was a doorman and naval dietician, and her mother Vivian Baxter Johnson worked variously worked as a card dealer and nurse. Shortly after their daughter’s birth they had moved their 2 children to Long Beach, California. Three years later they had been divorced and the 2 children had…