The Transformation Of Silence Into Language Essay

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. Jakobson’s model of communication provides a visual guide to help

In the 1970’s African American women created the Combahee River Collective to address the unique struggles that African American women face in their day-to-day lives. In 2016, black activists founded The Movement of Black Lives to advocate for all black people more generally. Both groups incorporated at least some intersectional ideas into their arguments and used similar stylistic strategies to communicate their ideas. However, these groups differed in the ways that they established target audiences, the breadth of institutions that they addressed, and in the ways they used word choice to further their causes.

As black women always conform under patriarchal principles, women are generally silenced and deprived of rights because men are entitled to control everything. Women are silenced in a way that they lose their confidence and hesitate to speak up due to the norms present in the society they live in. Hence, even if women have the confidence to try to speak, men wouldn’t bother to listen since men ought to believe that they are superior to women. In addition to that, women often live in a life cycle of repetitions due to patriarchal principles since women are established to fulfill the roles the society had given them. It is evidenced by Celie as she struggles to survive and to define oneself apart from the controlling, manipulative, and abusive men in her life.

War is a harsh reality that is inflicted upon the unwilling through the “need” of it’s predecessors and those whom wish it. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about 19 year old Paul and his friends in the “Second Company”. Even though they are just out of school age, they have already seen things that many could not bear to even think about. Eventually, all of his friends die, and even Paul too, dies. Remarque uses diction and syntax as literary devices to express his anti-war theme, or lesson.

Everyone has a natural desire to fit in. Everyone has a natural desire to be accepted by others. These desires are strong enough to cause individuals to give up there uniqueness. We are all told at a young age that everyone is different and that is wonderful. However, societal norms contradict this idea. In order to fit in, you must conform to what society considers normal. When Micheal Ignatieff, Professor of the Practice of Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, made the observation that, “To belong is to understand the tacit codes of the people you live with”, Ignatieff was simply putting into words the natural obligation everyone feels when it comes to fitting in and following the rules society places on people without discussion. This

In both dystopian novels they prove their points on how their society is different in relationship but the same in the concept of equality. Both are different by relationship but the same in equality and each society discovers the way of individualism. In our future everyone should believe individualism will be applied to our daily lives and the government will remove

Sometimes we want to be different, but we can't. We want to stand out, but we are afraid to do so. And sometimes, we might form our own opinion. However, sooner or later we are forced to change our own opinion so that society accept us. Modern life is confusing. We may follow conformity or individuality. We choose to be someone else to be accepted or just be ourselves. Let people think what they want to think. Be weird if you want, be different.

Although miscegenation is not a new topic, the effects that this phenomenon has on people’s lives has been the source of inspiration for many literary works. “Miscegenation” by Natasha Trethewey is an autobiographical poem that expresses the difficulty that mixed-race people face in accepting their identity in a society that discriminates people who are different. That is, this poem expresses how racial discrimination can affect the identity of those people who do not identify as white or black. Besides, in this poem, Trethewey narrates her origin, as well as how her parents were victims of a society that did not accept their relationship. Therefore, the speaker starts by saying “In 1965 my parents broke two laws of Mississippi” (Trethewey 1); those two laws that broke the Trethewey’s parents were that they were married and had a daughter. According to Politidou, “before 1967 interracial marriages were illegal in sixteen states and children born of these unions were regarded as illegitimate” (13). One of these sixteen states was Mississippi, which the speaker indicates that there is something wrong in this place making use of a pun with the State’s name. The wrong thing was that African-descent people were treated as second-class citizens and that they did not have the same rights as white citizens in this place. Furthermore, for the population of this place an interracial marriage went against all the social precepts that were established. Consequently, the Trethewey’s

Octavia Butler is an Afrofuturist, science fiction author who writes many dystopian stories that allude to questions about gender, social structures, and an individual’s ability to control her body and sexuality. When people think of speculative and science fiction they tend to think of nerdy white men writing stories about space and light sabers, but Octavia Butler challenges this stereotype herself by being one of the few African American women in this genre. In Octavia Butler’s speculative fiction short story “Speech Sounds” there is a reversal of gender roles and a strong idea of feminism that is portrayed through the main character Rye. There is also the use of simile and metaphor to help point out flaws in the social structure of the story and the world of the reader.

“The Lottery,” a short story written by Shirley Jackson, takes place in a small, simple town. The main characters are Tessi, Bill, Old Man Warner, and Mr. Summers. This town is very strict to tradition. Annually this town holds a “Lottery”, is actually a drawing where people get stoned. Not everyone gets stoned to death. It depends on what paper you draw. They can’t get out of it, they are all forced. A major issue to this story is social conformity, this means that people do something because it seems like everyone else is doing the same thing. Social conformity really hurts people because it blocks people from seeing the real you, this happens basically throughout the entire story.

Does being alone for help a person to think well? In Pico Iyer’s article, “The Joy of Quiet,” he addresses the issue of children not having enough time alone. The question posed by many is what made rhetorical strategies did he use to convince the reader of his main idea. Iyer uses many different types of rhetorical strategies, but the ones, which stood out were the evidences he backed up his main idea with. In “The Joy of Quiet,” Pico Iyers convinces the reader of his main idea that children should spend time away from electronic devices in order to gain more control of their lives by the use of textual evidence, statistical evidence and anecdotal evidence.

“Everyday Use” is one of the most popular stories by Alice Walker. The issue that this story raises is very pertinent from ‘womanist’ perspective. The term, in its broader sense, designates a culture specific form of woman-referred policy and theory. ‘womanism’ may be defined as a strand within ‘black feminism’. As against womansim, feminist movement of the day was predominately white-centric. A womanist is one who expresses a certain amount of respect for woman and their talent and abilities beyond the boundaries of race and class. “Everyday Use” can be seen as a literary representation of this concept. “Everyday Use” is a story of a mother and her two daughters- Dee and Maggie.

Gender is it a concept or is it made apparent by our DNA when you are born or does it change as you grow older? Often gender is something that society defines at birth. According to society certain gender roles are pre established when we are born. The majority of society believes that if you are born to a specific gender you should adhere to the gender roles while other people believe that instead we may be born to a gender but it does not always decide if you are that gender. Science has proven that just because you are born a male or female does not mean that you mentally see yourself as that gender.

Today, our society is filled with various cultures, beliefs, and lifestyles. Despite differences, everyone wants to be accepted by others in their community, but what has to be done in order to be accepted is not clearly defined. Being accepted could mean wearing the right clothes, being involved in the right clubs or groups, or simply being a kind or generous individual. People should just be normal. As stated in the book Remix, “the label ‘normal’ is loaded with a range of cultural assumptions” (Latterell 9). Everyone has a different view of what is normal. No one can clearly define what normal is, but people still expect others to act normal by their own standards. Today, people are pressured by society to conform to expensive trends when

“ The Sounds of Silence” by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel presents a deep understanding and meaning of the topic that people lack the ability to communicate. Peoples thoughts are ordered by the media and forget about the true meaning of their own voices.