cultural settings in which they live (Super & Harkness, 1986). The most prominent caregiving figure in Keon’s life is his Grandma Grace, a 55 year-old social worker. Although it is customary for American children to have their mothers as primary caregiver, Jada’s (Keon’s mother and Grace’s daughter) prohibits her from fulfilling this role, and Grandma Grace fills this void. Grace exhibits behaviors that aim to nurture (working in order to provide for her family’s needs), entertain (allowing Keon…
Here, Luis cannot cope with calling his mother, whom he has not called for a while, which is evidence of the loss of energy to do daily activates, such as making a phone call, that follows depression. Another symptom of depression expressed in the short story is the guilt that Luis feels over…
Labels, Empathy, and Inability in Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” Numerous authors make the decision to write about conflicts that exist within society; issues that audiences can make a connection with and apply the issues to their personal experiences. This method of writing has been effective for years because it is easy for people to engage with the pieces of literature. Through the course of history literature has continuously challenged the socially and psychologically constructed stereotypes…
animals. It is firstly depicted that the victims and survivors of the Holocaust were constantly abused. From the article “The Gestapo Is Born”, author The History Place informs readers that while the Gestapo came to rise, they tortured anyone who just about misused self-censorship out in the open. As recorded, “Gestapo interrogation methods included: repeated near drownings of a prisoner in a bathtub filled with ice cold water, electric shocks … and burning flesh with matches or a soldering…
The Relativity of Truth Truth, traditionally defined, is that which is “in accord with fact or reality” (Merriam-Webster). Although our personal definitions of the word itself may vary slightly from this interpretation, truth remains integral to our understanding of reality. But, what if reevaluating the traditional definition of truth, could change our perception of reality? In Life of Pi, author Yann Martel challenges the conventional definition of truth with a more abstract interpretation:…
When asked about why she wrote Across a Hundred Mountains, Reyna Grande responded: “I never found a book that dealt with the experiences I went through-- being left behind in another country while my parents worked in the U.S” (Ruf 54). Grande’s work novel and memoir are intimate and personal narratives. In her memoir Grande lets her audience into her personal experiences and her intimate journey to reconcile with her identity, while her fictional novel magnifies her fears and identity conflicts…
On August 13th, 1831 Nat Turner, an African American slave, brought about an insurrection against white families in Virginia. This revolt was very ruthless and indiscriminate in its slaughtering of entire white families and is considered the most successful slave rebellion of the old south. While Nat Turner had very personal reasons for the acts he committed, we can figure out the core reasons for slave resistance, by looking at the major principles of slave culture. Specifically, two major…
In the narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs gives first person account of a female slave struggle with sexual oppression. Harriet Jacobs used the pseudonym when narrating because she wanted to protect her family. Harriet Jacobs use of a distinctive double-consciousness to make aware of the multiple identities one as an African American female slave has to develop a sense of self. It is my argument here Jacobs makes use of double-consciousness by using a pseudonym to…
What is family? By a traditional definition, a family is two adults with children or a child. In the first chapter of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass talks about not really knowing his family, He was able to only meet his mother for a few short moments of his life before she died, and once she did, he wasn’t even able to go to her funeral. “Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of…
the Asian countries that exploited migrant workers from Thailand. Many of the women were kidnapped or taken from their homes against their will and then forced to pay their kidnappers for freedom. The other point how was that necessity which is the mother of invention turned these women form victims to entrepeneurs. Through their exploitation they learned how rise to the situation and unionized sex work. The human reality of international sex trade is that it is inhuman treatment of women and…