'Hanging Fire' By Audre Lorde

To advance in society, the characters must stick together and not attempt to tear each other apart. It is hypocritical for someone to condemn another person for something that they also practice; “colorism and traditional U.S. racism are inextricably intertwined, yet distinct” (Harris 54). However, this demonstrates how racism has influenced the thoughts of those oppressed by it. It is ironic that although Janie is the person with the lightest skin and has grown up in a white household, she does not have these views. The people with darker skin have these colorist views toward her.

She expressed, how she felt about her skin, and provided great reason for how she viewed herself for being colored. She spoke of her ancestors and how they paid the price for her civilization; so therefore, she doesn’t have to feel less of a person because of her skin color. She even mentions a time where she forgets that she was a person o colored until she thrown against the background of white; meaning she sees no color until she is constantly reminded. The author shows core values by being happy in the skin she is in.

She has been a stranger to herself for six years, not knowing about her racial identity. She had never thought of herself as black because she has lived with white people all her life. It takes is one photograph with her friends for her to find out her skin color. In the book it states, “Ah was wid dem white chillun so much till Ah didn’t know Ah wuzn’t white till Ah was round six years old. Wouldn’t have found it out then, but a man come long takin’ pictures and without askin’ anybody, Shelby, dat was de oldest boy, he told him to take us.

(Morrison, page 57) It was the ideology of whiteness that made Maureen Paul beautiful. When Claudia and Frieda were younger, they were happy with their blackness. “We felt comfortable in our skins, enjoyed the news that our senses released to us, admired our dirt, cultivated our scars, and could not comprehend this unworthiness” (Morrison, page 57). This may suggest that Claudia resists the pressure to conform to Western standards of beauty.

The way her husband treats her and what her husband expects of her makes her feel this way. She is expected to “obey/” everything her “husband/” asks of her. She is not allowed to think for herself, laugh at anything she wants to laugh at, or speak to who she wishes to speak to, unless her husband “allows” her to. She sees herself as a white female slave, not a wife, not some one that is truly loved by her significant

As she got older, she started to be ashamed of her own race. Most of her friends were Caucasian, but she never

She was an isolated soul that was made to believe she should be kept hiding from the outside world. Being discriminated against her looks not only brought her will to live down but caused her to see the world a place that she did not belong in. This caused her to have depression. A person should not be treated for how they look or how they are. Doing things such as discriminating or isolating a person could very well lead them to believe that they have no part or say in the world they live in.

This free-flowing language usage is seen through the three stanzas, as modern and allow ease in terms of reading for

In her short story “Snakes,” Evans accurately depicts through three of the female roles how racism can affect a person's actions, values, and moods, in a way that can be taken seriously by the

This poem does not consist of any particular rhyme schemes and is free verse. This poem is also a narrative that is told by a young girl

This quote is important because in the beginning she was feeling like the only colored person and then it moved to how she felt out of place at times. But in the end she sees that she has always been one. This narrative agrees with how I understand race, because we are all one.

Firstly, the speaker is the one who is telling the poem

She starts off the poem with the speaker looking at a “photograph” (Trethewey l. 1) of herself when she was four years old. The reader is instantly taken into a personal memory of the narrator and

The poem was written in a time where black people and women were dehumanized where those in power abused the power to gain more and those without power were continuously affected by it. Reading the poem and had an impact on me with the dictation of lexis, however all of these feelings were heightened when I listened to the oral performance. The poem starts of in the present tense “Even tonight and I need to take a walk” (Jordan 1) which gives a setting to the scene, in the opening few lines Jordan uses the repetition of “I” and “my” which made the poem for me more personal, the use of repetition in the opening part of the poem produced a deeper connection to the poem, repetition of the words placed emphasis and clarity of the words which came after “my body posture my gender identity my age…” (Jordan

Through the poem’s tone, metaphors used, and symbols expressed the poem portrays that fear can make life seem charred or obsolete, but in reality life propels through all seasons and obstacles it faces. The poem begins with a tone of conversation, but as it progresses the tone changes to a form of fear and secretiveness. The beginning and ending line “we tell