Brown Girl Dreaming Analysis

The book I read this quarter was Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood. Its Lexile level is 680. This book is about a 11-year old girl named Gloriana Hemphill, who now comprehends how much racism is a problem in her hometown in Mississippi in 1963. In this book Glory is overwhelmed with how her town is handling people who are different than they are. She realizes that her favorite local pool is closing down so colored people can’t swim with the whites. Glory becomes an activist herself and writes a letter to the newspaper lining which makes her preacher father proud. Therefore, the theme of this book is to treat everyone equally, such as when Glory’s friend Frankie from Ohio drinks out of the “colored fountain”. Also, when Glory’s sisters boyfriend that he was arrested for sitting with a “colored friend” at the white table. Finally, when Glory’s African- American maid helped her the most when it comes to maturing.

I choose to analysis the ethical approach of “Zora Neal Hurston’s “How it Feels to be Colored Me.” I think the author used a very unique to say how she feel about herself. I can relate to the author, when she speaks of her town, and how she didn’t realize her skin until she left her. Growing up I really didn’t know how different my skin was, until I found myself in predominate white church. For a while, people treated me differently, until they realized I was human with a great heart and attitude.

Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America was written by Mamie Till-Mobley, a supporter of equal opportunities for different ethnicities. Christopher Benson, a writer and lawyer, assisted Mamie Till-Mobley as a co-author in her personal biography. Death of Innocence was published in the year 2003 by Random House in New York. This memoir has 290 pages, including seven pages of Christopher Benson’s personal experiences with Mamie Till-Mobley in the afterword. Death of Innocence is categorized as an adult nonfiction book. Mamie specifically wrote this book to tell her son’s story, representing hope and forgiveness, which revealed the sinister and illegal punishments of the south. She wanted to prevent this horrendous tragedy from happening to others. The purpose of the book was to describe the torment African Americans faced in the era of Jim Crow. It gives imagery through the perspective of a mother who faced hurt, but brought unity to the public, to stand up for the rights of equal treatment. This book tells how one event was part of the elimination of racial segregation. A murder brought unity to a public who were always stepped over.

From new and upcoming author, Edward P. Jones, comes his first short story The First Day.

Culture is an essential part of a community’s identity, because it links individuals to a collective bond. The Americas have always contained a vast variety of cultural communities, especially in the United States. The US is known for being one of the most diverse nations in the world, housing hundreds of different cultures. Mexican-Americans display a strong sense of a cultural background, which falls as a subset of the bigger Latino culture that links all Latinos. Oral history is a major aspect on the Mexican culture, which contributes to the truth of how history in the United States actually happened. Many stories embody the cultural aspects of Mexican-Americans and their struggles with living in a discriminatory society. Stories like With

Over time generations have been influenced by others, yet there has been a sense of embarrassment or self-disgust when pointing out each of the generation’s roots. Throughout “Always Living in Spanish” written by Marjorie Agosin, she shares the passion she has for Spanish. She reveals her strong relationship with it and how she would not want to give it up, it was hers. She does this to give off the impression that roots are beautiful no matter where they are from and that there should be a sense of pride when one does use the language of their past or performs a cultural tradition. In author, Yang’s, “American Born Chinese” he also gives off a similar moral. Although he draws out a story where a Chinese boy turns against his own language and culture for the sake of fitting in, the moral of the comic is that the past will always be a part of you no matter what. The two texts give the readers examples of what makes the past, so rich and how our roots are truly forever bound to us. The authors, both hope to have their audience realize that wanting to fit into one’s generation is fine, but knowing one’s roots and accepting them as your own as you are doing so, is even

Finding your purpose in life can be the hardest thing to do for many people. Especially when your entire family is finding the meaning of their own life and creating the world they want for themselves. In the novel, Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson tells the story of her life as a young black girl growing up with two problems she’s facing. She is living during a time of segregation against black people, and she doesn’t know what her identity is. She finds throughout the story that she has a love for words and writing. Jacqueline uses figurative language, symbolism, and inner thinking to give the theme of your identity can be found in what you are passionate about.

The story takes place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in America, when desegregation is finally achieved. Flannery O’Connor’s use of setting augments the mood and deepens the context of the story. However, O’Connor’s method is subtle, often relying on connotation and implication to drive her point across.

In 1773, there were slaves all over colonial America working in plantations, and cleaning their masters houses. It wasn’t common for a slave to be writing poetry with their owners consent. Phyllis Wheatley’s success as the first African American published poet was what inspired generations to tell her story. It was her intellectual mind and point of view that made her different from others, both black and white. Phyllis’s story broke the barrier for all African American writers, and proved that no matter the gender or race, all human beings are capable of having an intelligent state of mind. Her arrival in America in 1761, at the age of eight is what started the story of a legend.

Nikky Finney's book Head Off and Split is a work of art in every sense. It combines both historical elements and personal elements. She shines the light on our countries habit of oppressing and enslaving African Americans. She masterfully weaves together the history of the time and her own memories in an unabashed way that lays bare the wrongdoings of our country. Forcing the reader to see part of our history that is often glossed and skimmed over in conventional textbooks. The poems in Head of nd Split are both political, and erotic, nd person as well as narrative driven. She is the conductor of the written word. Each word she uses is s music is the next weaving together a work of lyrical perfection. The book is mainly work of poetry with snippets of prose. With the beginning poem “Resurrection of the Errand Girl: An Introduction” being a prose poem. It hs also won the National book award in 2011.

Lead In: Cultural conflict in a family can lead to many events that can affect a child’s life. The child may become confused on what life to live or how to live it, especially when their goal is to ultimately make their parents proud. The child will also have a hard time growing up as he or she tries to figure out what path to choose regarding culture. Cultural conflict though, can make a person become stronger and give them a sense of being their own person

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, born on September 24, 1825, was a leading African American poet, author, teacher and political activist. Although she was born to “free” parents in Baltimore, Maryland, she still experienced her share of hardships. She lost her mother at the tender age of three, was raised by her aunt and uncle, and fully employed by thirteen. Though all odds seemed against her, she triumphed over her obstacles, publishing her first book of poetry at the of age twenty and her first novel at the age of sixty-seven. Outside of writing books, she was a civil rights leader and a public speaker in the Anti-Slavery Society. She became widely recognized for her speech, “Education and the Elevation of the Colored Race”, participated in the underground railroad (helping slaves escape to Canada), and fought African American’s and women’s rights. Harper is a cofounder/ vice president of the National Association of Colored Women is known as the, “Mother of African American Journalism” and. Decades after her passing (February 22,1911),

Nella Larsen’s Passing is a novella about the past experiences of African American women ‘passing’ as whites for equal opportunities. Larsen presents the day to day issues African American women face during their ‘passing’ journey through her characters of Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry. During the reading process, we progressively realize ‘passing’ in Harlem, New York during the 1920’s becomes difficult for both of these women physically and mentally as different kinds of challenges approach ahead. Although Larsen decides the novella to be told in a third person narrative, different thoughts and messages of Irene and Clare communicate broken ideas for the reader, causing the interpretation of the novella to vary from different perspectives.

Family is much more than blood-relations; it is a bond between people through shared experiences and memories. The importance of passing along such memories is what creates and preserves family history, and in Teresa Acosta's poem "My Mother Pieced Quilts," this experience is captured through diction, imagery, and figurative

As I started writing my independent piece I struggled to find something that would be entertaining, enlightening, and something that I truly wanted to share with the class. As I looked through my writing journal I kept being drawn back to the piece I wrote about my shark tooth necklace. As I continued to stare at this piece I knew I could write pages upon pages about the adventures I experienced with my family at the beach, and how important my Grandmommy and Uncle were to me. But, after thinking about what points I wanted to touch on in my piece, I decided to write a poem that focused on the sweetest memories my necklace encompasses.