Identity In Danzy Senna's Caucasia

Monkey Bridge, by Lan Cao, is a book that goes into the trouble of a young vietnamese women, Mai, trying move past her childhood, to fit into the fast pace culture of America. But she is haunted with the horrors of growing up in saigon during the Vietnam War, and trying desperately to cut herself off from anything from her past life. This would have been easy considering almost none of her old life is like the one in america, but her mother, thanh, is stuck in her old ways and tradition. Because this mother daughter dynamic started to become deformed, and soon mai no longer can spread her feeling toward her own mother and her war stricken country. Lan cao use lots of literary devices in her writing to add more depth and meaning to the reading.she uses a metaphor that not

The grandmother is an outcast from her own family by still expressing her outdated beliefs about African-Americans. The grandmother refers to African- Americans as “pickaninnies” and “niggers” throughout the story, and tells a few racist stories. None of her racist remarks are even acknowledged by her own family, which speaks wonders to her outdated opinions. The grandmother tells of a love interest who brought her a

The quilts in “Everyday Use” may seem to show a heated argument about possessions between a household, but they actually show a deep cultural and racial divide and the difference in values between generations of the same family. These rifts are shown by the way each member of the family reacts to discussions of how these quilts would best be used, and the attitude each takes on the value of them. When Wangero comes to visit, she asks her mother if she can have two quilts that had been made by her grandmother and Mrs. Johnson tries to offer her machine-made quilts. Wangero does not want these quilts, indicating that she would rather have the hand-stitched quilts of her grandmother. The irony of turning down one of these quilts before she left for college is lost on Wangero.

She also realizes that Black people sometimes put themselves down because they think they are worthless, and therefore wants Walter to understand that just because he is Black doesn’t make him any less of a person. She makes him acknowledge this by sharing an anecdote of her history and how even though her ancestors were slaves, they never let anyone tell them that they “[weren’t] fit to walk the earth” (Hansberry 143). This enables Walter to also put his family's needs before his personal needs of obtaining more money. After seeing her family finally come together, Mama has finally successfully completed all 5 levels of the pyramid. Her dream of her family living comfortably has finally been achieved.

One of the main topics lit up in To Kill A Mockingbird was racism. This topic plays the biggest role in the law suit that Scott’s father work on but it also appears in the town’s daily life. In part of the book Scott’s maid takes her and her bother to her church and even though they were in a Christian society some people had a problem with Scout and her bother visiting their church because they of their white skin. Racism also pops up in Scotts own home when her aunt comes to live with her. Her aunt wants to get rid of her, probably because she had black skin, but thankfully Atticus does not allow her.

Nella Larsen’s novel Quicksand shows the struggle of an African-American woman by the name of Helga Crane. It is hard for Helga to truly find what she is looking for and what she desires. Helga fears her desires because they seem to confirm the stereotypes about blacks. Helga is the daughter of a black father who abandoned his family and daughter of a danish mother. The dark-skinned Helga grows up ostracized by both whites and blacks, surviving a lonely childhood only to spend her adult life continuing to seek acceptance wherever she goes.

Primarily, readers are introduced to race relations through the relationship between India’s daughter Carolyn and her friend Alice Jones, the “daughter of the the colored gardener” who worked for a neighbor (8). While India, who judges people by their shoes and manners, generally approved of the relationship under a watchful eye, she would not allow Carolyn to attend a birthday party at the girl’s house and eventually had to put her in her place when the girl, showing her lack of class, was overheard singing a song with foul language, an absolute abomination according to India. Douglas, the only son of the Bridge’s, provides the best portrayal of Mrs. Bridge. Although he was “totally unremarkable” as a child, he did prove the most troublesome partially because, unlike his mother, he does not worry about much, including contemporary social norms (11). For instance, instead of coming through the front door to the house, he uses the back door as do the servants, which really bothers India.

The novel’s protagonist, Janie Crawford, a woman who dreamt of love, was on a journey to establish her voice and shape her own identity. She lived with Nanny, her grandmother, in a community inhabited by black and white people. This community only served as an antagonist to Janie, because she did not fit into the society in any respect. Race played a large factor in Janie being an outcast, because she was black, but had lighter skin than all other black people due to having a Caucasian ancestry. As a child, Janie did not even realize that she was actually black until she shown in a photograph among a group of white children.

Who was Ruby Bridges you may be wondering. Well today I will take you on a journey of what she went through when she went to an all-white school. She endured treacherous names and torture from her classmates. Even though she was called horrible names and even harassed she, still chose to go to school. Her dad did not like this and refused to let Ruby go to school but Ruby's mom talked him in to letting her go to school.

After, Karens mom stretched her mind from her ideas on aids and the community to understanding Karen and attempting to support her. Her mom did not know what to do when she came out and she did not understand it. If Karen would have never came out her mom would have not been properly educated about AIDs and the community. Karen was treated differently by her parents after she told them because they were conformist and did not know or believe in people of the same gender being together. Even before Karen told them she was a lesbian they made a comment about how it would look wrong for her to be at the booth for parents night and how they do not want her with that crowd.