History Lesson Natasha Trethewey
Natasha Trethewey's "History Lesson" explores and examines the connection of personal and collective histories, particularly the intergenerational pain created by the legacy of slavery and racism in the United States. “History Lesson" employs mood, symbolism, and imagery to connect the racial discrimination endured by colored people in the past to more current times, where equality is improved and embraced. Also, while reading Trethewey's poem, she used a nostalgic tone, and an emotional mood to remind readers of America's contaminated past while also encouraging them to hope for a better future. Immediately upon reading this poem I was feeling a sort of calm and innocent reaction in the first couple of lines. But I was also getting nostalgic …show more content…
We can only understand the visual imagery of the "wide strip of Mississippi beach," "bright bikini," and tactile imagery of "wet sand" if we know nothing about the author or the year the photograph was taken. The first half of the poem describes a picture of a four-year-old girl at the beach in vivid detail. The simplicity of this is overlooked at first but gains significance by the end of the poem. In the picture, she was a tiny child in a bright floral bikini "curling around wet sand" with her toes dug in the sand, possibly sketching or doodling "on the wide strip of Mississippi beach." The nostalgic tone here conveys that her past is full of delight, just like any other typical child who is happy, innocent, and living a quiet life. However, this sense of joy and calm is quickly disturbed at the poem's midpoint by the appearance of "minnows darting at her feet glinting like …show more content…
She contrasts two images to show how segregation between white people and people of color still exists. There are numerous protests ongoing in response to the events in the USA and other apparent racist incidents, making this poem pertinent to our current cultural circumstances. Additionally, millions of people use the trending hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media to express their belief that people of color face discrimination. However, the significance of this poem does not stem from the history lesson we are taught. The image of the poet having full access to the Mississippi beach in 1970 serves as a symbol of hope that things will improve and that the world will one day be a better
Viewing A Kkk Uniform At The Civil Rights Institute Summary
525 Words | 3 PagesThe title of her poem is ironic, Jones is visiting a civil rights museum but there is a KKK uniform there, set on display with its empty and dirty holes for eyes. One would think that while yes, the uniform is part of civil rights history, it would be one of the last things people would put on display at a civil rights museum.
Summary Of The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara
1250 Words | 5 PagesIn Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson”, readers read through the perspective of a young black girl named Sylvia. She, along with her cousin and a few friends, are taken on educational field trips with an educated African American woman named Ms. Moore. Sylvia believes she just wants to prevent them from having any fun and finds Ms. Moore to be odd person because she makes it clear that she wants an involvement in their lives. It is an involvement that is seen as a total nuisance. Yet as their teacher, she tries to give them an education that is hard for them to achieve due to their families’ financial status and how the color of their skin affects their position in the world.
Analysis Of Coming Of Age In Mississippi By Anne Moody
702 Words | 3 PagesAs a young woman of color growing up in Mississippi in the forties, Anne Moody grows up in a world where each day is riddled with uncertainties. From an early age she is exposed to uncouth acts of violence and discrimination that later fuel her quest for equal rights for African Americans nationwide as she becomes a powerful voice for in the civil rights movement. In her memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi, Moody retreats back into the experiences of youth and by doing so pushes forward a powerful portrayal of what it was like to grow up in the south as a black woman. At the corner stone of her memoir lies the idea that growing up a colored girl in Mississippi everything is a struggle.
Head Off And Split Poem Analysis
563 Words | 3 PagesThe first section deals with hard headed African American women. Using prominent historical figures like Rosa Parks and Condoleezza Rice to help push the narrative along. The first poem in the section was “Red Velvet” in which she narrates the struggle of one one seamstress that became an important figurehead of a movement. She goes from there to poems about victims of hurricane Katrina in “Left” and finishing off the section with some choice words about George W. Bush in “Plunder” and one of the people under his command in the “Condoleezza Suite”. all the poems in this section
Grutter V. Bollinger
679 Words | 3 Pages“She wanted her son to go there as well, but because of affirmative action or minority something...her son wasn’t accepted” (Rankine 13). This quote is interesting to me because it reminds of the case Grutter v. Bollinger, where a white female applicant to the University of Michigan Law School sued the school for violating her Fourteenth Amendment because they denied her admission. She lost in the end, but the ideology that minorities are more easily accepted into schools than whites is still thought and said by some white Americans today. The importance this quote serves to the poem is that the quote is another example of a microaggression that the author wants the reader to understand happens. “She says she grabbed the stranger’s arm and
Summary Of On The Subway By Sharon Olds
537 Words | 3 PagesThese wounds were no accident; these events were not done by mistake. These white laces that look like a set of deadly scars symbolize the slavery, discrimination, and segregation blacks have suffered through. These black sneakers represent all the events that divide blacks and whites. This simile builds the tremendous contrast found in the poem by reminding the audience of all the events that make blacks and whites two separate entities. Further in the poem the contrast is developed further through the use of intense imagery.
The Importance Of Working Together In The Works Of The Harlem Renaissance
606 Words | 3 PagesAn example of the author conveying the theme of community in this work is, “I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.” This line from the poem shows how the figurative language describes the dark past of African American History and how people have been there to see its dark past and how it’s blossoming into a bright future. The Negro Speaks of Rivers is yet another one of the many works from the Harlem Renaissance that conveys the importance of working
Glory Be By Augusta Scattergood: Book Summary
639 Words | 3 PagesIn 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.
History Lesson Poem Analysis
792 Words | 4 PagesPoetry Analysis Once the poem “History Lesson” was written numerous poetry foundations celebrated it for many reasons. “History Lesson” not only makes an impact on literature today it has also impacted people also. This poem inspires people and moves them to the point to where they can find a personal connection to the poem itself and to the writer. Not only does it hold emotional value for those who were victimized and those whose family were victimized by the laws of segregation, but the poem is also celebrated for its complexity. The poem uses many techniques to appeal to the reader.
An Analysis Of Poem In 'Incident' By Natasha Tretheway
873 Words | 4 Pages“Incident” by Natasha Tretheway brings to life the horrors African Americans faced during the time the Ku Klux Klan was rampant in the United States. Fear and secretiveness was an everyday part of African American lives. They were unable to live like white Americans were due to the racism they faced. This poem, however, symbolizes the idea that life continues through the fear of it crumbling. The narrator is still alive to tell his or her story; therefore, this is evidence that life continues.
How Does Jesmyn Ward Use Figurative Language
1238 Words | 5 PagesThe author reflects on what happened in the long history of racism as she returns to the South she utters her feelings about things relating to what occurred during the civil war as they go into detail of what it must have been like within her surroundings. The speaker uses imagery to convey the theme of slavery by things Trethewey states “left sacks and fields of cotton”( ). The narrator used strong figurative language such as metaphors indicating slavery using negative connotations, as this is illustrated in the quote, the author writes “marking and vanquished land I returned to a field of the cotton hallowed ground” (15). As their legacy and memories are exclaimed as they talk about how the south was a consistent reminder of slavery given that this is the location in which everything occurred. Based on the connotative meaning of the words used in the text such as “old field ”imagining a war” it expresses how living In the South will always stick with them as their memories have a wired connection attached, as Mississippi will always be a constant reminder for
James Weldon Johnson Rhetorical Devices
1271 Words | 6 PagesIn the poem, Johnson’s use of inclusive words like “we”, “our” and “us”, fused with anaphoras in each stanza, allow him to address black Americans in the north and south. Johnson uses phrases like “Let us”, “Let our”, and“We have come”, “Keep us”, and “Lest our” to unify black America and build community and culture shattered by American racism and prejudice. Without a strong foundation, how could black America improve from its “Bitter”, “Stony”, “dark”, “weary”, and “gloomy” past? Johnson’s inclusive word choice forces a shared experience among black Americans, making the issues at hand a national issue and not exclusively a southern one; hence Black Americans had to work together to reach “the white gleam” of “victory”. Johnson’s appeals to black America are further extended in his pleas for strengthening faith and progress for black Americans as well;
Summary Of Natasha Trethewey History Lesson
1215 Words | 5 PagesIn order to change history, people must learn from their mistakes. Segregation in North America has been a big issue in North America that unfortunately still happens in the world today, however, it is not as bad as it once was. In the poem “History Lesson” by Natasha Trethewey, the author uses mood, symbolism and imagery to describe the racial segregation coloured people faced in the past compared to more recent times, where equality is improved and celebrated. The author uses language and setting to influence the mood and meaning of the poem.
Similarities Between The Road And In Response To Executive Order 9056
512 Words | 3 PagesIn the two poems, “The Road” and “In Response to Executive Order 9066”, each poem is very diverse yet has many similarities. Many topics and themes of these poems are very alike. Even though the themes are similar we can compare and contrast the many ways the author’s Dwight Okita and Hélène Johnson approached the themes of the poems. Both of these poems have themes about oppression and/or discrimination against the speaker’s races, especially in the poem “ In Response to Executive Order 9066”.
Irony In The Poem The Ballad Of Birmingham
897 Words | 4 PagesThe whole poem itself is a reference to a real bombing on September 15th, 1963. On this day, there is a bomb that explodes in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the explosion kills four young black schoolgirls. Although the poem does not explicitly say which girl out of the four is the main character, readers can assume that this poem is a depiction of the the real bombings. Relating back to the irony, the fact that this poem is essentially real leaves the readers in even more shock and pain. This nonfiction aspect of the poem strengthens the theme of “violence is everywhere, no matter where one goes” because it is an actual problem, not some fairy tale.
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