Jamaica Kincaid's Blackness Essay

Harlem Renaissance essay Humans for centuries have always attempted to take one step forward but there is always someone trying to pull them two steps back. Anytime you want to complete a challenge you persevere and don't stop until the challenge is completed, but it wouldn't be a challenge if there wasn't someone or something holding you back from finishing what you started. That's why when someone is taking you back two steps you need to take three steps forward to take the upper hand. The work of Claude McKay and other inspirational writers of the Harlem Renaissance had a message of independence that allowed the readers to persevere. McKay’s poems “Harlem Dancer” and “America” both include metaphors and imagery to illustrate a sense of

Jamaica Kincaid 's A Small Place examines the historical/social context of how Antiguans dealt racism through slavery after an oppressive European colonization. Kincaid reveals that European colonization resulted in Antigua dealing with injustice such as corruption and poverty. She argues Europeans and Americans traveling to Antigua are focused on the beautiful scenery, which is not a correct representation of the day to day lives of Antiguans. Although racism has many negative effects, Kincaid seemed to state the benefits of Europeans’ colonialism and how it contributed to her life such by introducing the English language and the library that helped her to become a writer. Kincaid states that we “cannot get over the past, cannot forgive and cannot forget” (26); therefore, Kincaid feels that the past influences the present.

Feminist writers are usually thought to state the protagonists of their stories –most of the times females- as heroines. However, this is not the case of Oates. This down-to-earth writer achieves to expose a common denominator in her stories “Lethal”, “Embrace”, “The Mother” and “Love, forever.” This essay purports to illustrate the strong presence of the patriarchy society in them. This conception of society is based on a binary system in which a positive and a negative term coexist as cornerstones of a created social reality.

Unlike last poem, this time the narrator is not a mirror, because she has the ability to “pinch” and “look at myself in the mirror”, however, this narrator’s attitude is very similar to a mirror: she does not feel the pain and suffering of herself or other people, but it appears that she does not want this, because she is “frightened” by it. Then the narrator headed to the “streets”, where all kinds of misery happen: loud “shouts”; “children with dirty faces”, they are apparently very poor, because they “ask for charity”, even sell their body for money; also there are “tanks” and soldiers with “bayonets”, so the narrator is in a war zone. After she saw the terrible scene, she can “feel” and “hurt”, but soon she “feel nothing” again, the surroundings

Fear is something that affects all people through their lives. Not all fears are equal, but our experiences with fear will differ from one person to another. It can function as a barrier that prevents us from experience certain tings, but sometimes it works as a driving force that helps us overstepping our boundaries. We can choose not to let anxiety and fears control our lives, but instead choose to let courage drive us forward. S.J Butler’s short story “The Swimmer” is about a young woman whose fear keeps her trapped and hinders her from doing the thing she desire.

Task 1 The text I found interesting in the magazine was “The day I became black”. The text was about Willem. A half-Dutch kid who was a normal student like everyone else. However, one day a discussion started in the A.P. Economics class, which led to the other classmates finding out that Willem was indeed African American. What I found interesting about this was the classmate’s reactions.

Agreement Especially difficult is the fact, that a story told by a narrator can be understood differently by the listener. This deserves explanation. For clarity, we are talking about two people.

Jamaica Kincaid depicts an instructional survival guiding theme in “Girl,” about a mother giving essential advice to the daughter about very critical life issues. The advice consists of how to do many domestic acts such as Antiguan dishes, being a respectable young lady and many small suggestions to not have a ruined reputation amongst the society the young girl is living in. Throughout the short story uses symbolism to emphasize the theme entirely so the girl learns to behave and be pure in front of others who watch her every move. Moreover, the mother in this short story advises her daughter by telling her how to make certain foods. In many instances the mother does not hesitate to tell the daughter how and where to grow the vegetables needed for the dishes in which the daughter must learn to make.

Journal Entry #3 - “A&P” John Updike’s short story, “A&P”, takes on many different subjects such as, rebellion against the establishment and social norm, and a boy’s desire to engage himself in a lifestyle unknown to him. In Updike’s short story, the female characters combat against the social normalities of society by dressing as they please and by not wearing what is expected of them to wear. As they enter the store they immediately catch the eyes and attention of every man in there. In this case, the swim suits the three girls wear symbolizes their rebellion against society’s set norms by their casual disregard to conform to the social rules people expect them to follow.

Who wants to play a game of “Would You Rather?” For this question, let's bring it back to the mid. 1900s when blacks had few rights and racism was at its peak. Would you rather have had black skin, or white skin? Seems obvious right? Well shockingly, John Howard Griffin decided to temporarily change his skin color from white to black, to experience what life was like for a black person during this time.

No matter how people learn lessons, they will stay with the person forever, and help them through life. In the short stories “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara and “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, there is lesson that a character will learn about life. Although, in “The Lesson”, the teaching was more profound and had a deeper meaning behind it, while “Girl” was a parent forcing instructions on a child in order for the child to learn how a woman is to live. This being said, the teaching is more profound in “The Lesson” than the one given in “Girl.” “Girl” is a short story that teaches that there are many lessons we learn throughout life from parents, or in this case, a single parent.