ipl-logo

Eula Biss's Time And Distance Overcoming

388 Words2 Pages

"And I believed that the telephone itself was a miracle." (P. 11, l. 141.) How could one of thegreatest inventions of all time not be a miracle? The invention of the telephone did not only helppeople communicate easier, it also had a huge impact on the deaths of many colored people after itscreation. The essay "Time and Distance Overcome" revolves around the racial tragedies thathappened in the early 1900's due to the invention of the telephone. The essay was written in 2008by the white American non-fiction writer, Eula Biss. This paper will provide an overall analysis ofthe essay, including the composition, the writer's intention and a comment on the content itself.The essay is divided into three different parts; two heavy ones and a short …show more content…

By changing the mood and including such disturbingevents, the author has managed to make an overall entertaining and exciting story, and it is not untilthe very end, that the reader fully understands the concept of the story. Also, one has to read theentire story and then re-read it again before the hidden symbolism of the story is discovered.The essay takes its starting point in 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell presents the very firsttelephone to the world. Here, it introduces the way people were, and how much trouble AlexanderBell had to go through to publish his invention. People were against the idea, and the so called "Waron Telephone Poles" - where people tried to stop telephone poles from being raised - began.Moving on, the essay provides example after example for incidents involving the telephone poles.Nevertheless, during the entire first part, a positive tone towards the telephone is kept, which isclearly stated in one particularly quote: "Despite the War on Telephone Poles, it would take onlyfour years after Bell's first public demonstration of the telephone for every town of over 10,000people to be wired..." (P. 8, l.

Show More
Related

Pacificntosh White Privilege Rhetorical Analysis

57 Words | 1 Pages

As a result of her comprehensive definition on white privilege and endorsement to her academic background, McIntosh begins to persuade her audience that unearned white privilege does exist. The first couple of paragraphs of her essay she gives to define white privilege, so it is recognizable that this definition is necessary for her essay and her argument.

Read More

Summary Of Bloods: Black Veterans Of The Vietnam War

1502 Words | 7 Pages

The climax of his career subsisted in the midst of national turmoil. During this time, African Americans were trying to define their Blackness and their humanity in a land where they were treated second class. Author Wallace Terry put in words the thoughts that spun through the minds of the African American community,

Read More

Tatum's Theories Of Racism

846 Words | 4 Pages

The major thesis in this book, are broken down into two components. The first is how we define racism, and the impact that definition has on how we see and understand racism. Dr. Beverly Tatum chooses to use the definition given by “David Wellman that defines racism as a system of advantages based on race” (1470). This definition of racism helps to establish Dr. Tatum’s theories of racial injustice and the advantages either willingly or unwillingly that white privilege plays in our society today. The second major thesis in this book is the significant role that a racial identity has in our society.

Read More

1. What Themes Does Biss Explore?

707 Words | 3 Pages

Describe the style, voice, and audience of this essay. Why do you think Biss chose to engage in these rhetorical styles? As I broke down this article into three pieces to explain the themes, I will do same to explain the style and voice of this article. In part one of the article, I imagine Biss reading the article with a sense of pride as she explains how the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell was an American invention as well as the invention of telephone poles; a byproduct of the telephone.

Read More

Analysis Of Eldridge Cleaver's 'Soul On Ice'

969 Words | 4 Pages

The section of “White Woman, Black Man” further delves into his views of white women and the role that society has in shaping gender relations between black men and white women and also in influencing masculinity and femininity.

Read More

The Blue Hotel Sparknotes

1772 Words | 8 Pages

In his short story, “The Blue Hotel,” celebrated American novelist, Stephen Crane, delivers an intriguing tale concerning a group of men who take refuge in a Nebraskan hotel during a blizzard in the 1800’s. Whilst at the hotel, one of the men referred to as “The Swede” takes an eccentric turn which leads to a brutal fight between himself and the proprietor's son, stemming from a quarrel over a card game. This confrontation inadvertently leads to the Swedes death in a local saloon. While the plot sounds simple in nature-- reminiscent of a “dime-store novel”-- it is actually quite complex in meaning (Roberts 117). This complexity is derived from the fact that it is difficult to identify a clear protagonist or antagonist in the story.

Read More

Whiteness As Property Analysis

715 Words | 3 Pages

Fahad Albrahim Response 1: Review/Summary: “Whiteness as property” is an article written by Cheryl Harris, in which she addresses the subject of racial identity and property in the United States. Throughout the article, professor Harris attempts to explain how the concept of whiteness was initiated to become a form of racial identity, which evolved into a property widely protected in American law (page 1713). Harris tackles a number of facts that describe the roots of whiteness as property in American history at the expense of minorities such as Black and American natives (page 1709). Additionally, Harris describes how whiteness as property evolved to become seen as a racial privilege in which the whites gained more benefits, whether

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Phone Calls By Turkle

527 Words | 3 Pages

In the essay by Turkle, she identifies people’s personal experience with phones calls and how they feel about the topic. Towards the beginning of her essay, she indicates why it matters when she claims that when we answer phone calls, we think of it as time consuming and requiring a considerable sense of commitment. Turkle claims, “Technologies live in complex ecologies. The meaning of any one depends on what other are available… Although we still use the phone to keep up with those closes to use, we use it less outside this circle.

Read More

Summary Of Just Walk On By Brent Staples

756 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout his essay, Staples is able to make the audience understand what he has to deal with as a black man. Staples does this by using words and phrases such as, “...her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny” and “... I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area…” (542). By writing and describing how he (Staples) feels, the audience is able to get an inside look into how black men are treated and better understand why society’s teachings, play a vital role in how we see each other. Staples’ powerful writing also allows the reader to take a step back and see how as a society, people make judgements on others based on appearance alone.

Read More

Essay On Invisibility Of Whiteness

1788 Words | 8 Pages

Frankenburg (1993) argues that studying whiteness will put whiteness in the centre of the spotlight of intellectual inquiry. Frankenburg (1993) further questions why scholars need to explore whiteness, identifying that there is a risk of contributing to the process of re-centering, rather than de-centering it, while reifying the term and inhabitants of whiteness. Furthermore, re-centering whiteness may result in whiteness studies developing into a discourse of love, lending itself to narcissistic self-promotion. This in turn would see whiteness progressing into social and bodily models (Ahmed,

Read More

Thomas Edison Research Paper

1274 Words | 6 Pages

During his free time in the store, Tom read Walker’s books and admired the watchmaking equipment. But, Samuel would not let his son work for such little pay; Thomas applied for another job. He worked as a telegraph for years and finally got one of his biggest jobs (Cousins 42-45). At age seventeen, Tom went to work in Canada amongst skilled operators who have been working as telegraphs for years. He became known as “tramp telegraph” by his coworkers in Canada.

Read More

Time And Distance Overcome Analysis

857 Words | 4 Pages

Time and Distance Overcome Every time a new life-altering invention is introduced to the world, the device may be used for ill intentions, no matter the good intentions, the well-meant possibilities and the true purposes of said invention. The telephone is no exception. “Time and Distance Overcome” by Eula Biss from 2008 points out the twisted and revolting ways the telephone poles were being used, or rather misused, during the first few years of its existence. The text contains two obvious themes; the invention of the telephone by Alexander Bell and its history alongside the telephone pole’s use as a weapon in the race riots against the African Americans in this period.

Read More

Racism And Violence In Richard Wright's Black Boy

671 Words | 3 Pages

The story represents the culmination of Wright’s passionate desire to observe and reflect upon the racist world around him. Racism is so insidious that it prevents Richard from interacting normally, even with the whites who do treat him with a semblance of respect or with fellow blacks. For Richard, the true problem of racism is not simply that it exists, but that its roots in American culture are so deep it is doubtful whether these roots can be destroyed without destroying the culture itself. “It might have been that my tardiness in learning to sense white people as "white" people came from the fact that many of my relatives were "white"-looking people. My grandmother, who was white as any "white" person, had never looked "white" to me” (Wright 23).

Read More

Jean-Paul Sartre's Existence Precedes Essence

911 Words | 4 Pages

The argument Jean-Paul Sartre, a French philosopher, presents on existentialism helps to prove the foundation which is “existence precedes essence”. Existentialism is normally understood as an ideology that involves evaluating existence itself and the way humans find themselves existing currently in the world. For the phrase existence precedes essence, existence’s etymology is exsistere or to stand out while the term Essence means “being” or “to be” therefore the fundamental of existentialism, literally means to stand out comes before being. This can be taken into many different ideas such as individuals having to take responsibility for their own actions and that in Sartre’s case the individual is the sole judge of his or her own actions. According to him, “men is condemned to be free,” therefore “the destiny of man is placed within himself.”

Read More

Racism In Toni Morrison's God Help The Child

2637 Words | 11 Pages

Recurrent racism, its social impacts, is a central theme of immigrant writing that creates many landscapes in contemporary literature. The immigrant writer takes an opportunity to attack and tackle racism and its consequence from different angles – religious, cultural and historical. The writer does not randomly preoccupy with and write about her/his intricate experience in the new land, but explicitly unfold his/her race/gender experience with its ups and downs. This type of writing has created a new understanding of theories such as racism/gender/ethnic/counter-narrative and post colonial studies among many others. This alternative genre is maneuvered by political, psychological, social and cultural processes of power that is influential to its construction.

Read More

More about Eula Biss's Time And Distance Overcoming

Related Topics

Open Document