Jazz Jennings Summary

In the novel “Song of Solomon,” Morrison tackles many aspects of racial disparity by relating events in the novel to occurrences in history. A few parallels can be seen within Guitar’s and Milkman’s discussion in chapter six. In their discussion, Milkman recently discovers Guitar’s involvement in a radical group called “The Seven Days.” The group’s purpose is to seek vengeance for unjust, violent acts carried out by whites. Additional, parallels can be made between Guitar and the radical civil rights activist Malcolm-X.

Being a black woman raised in a white world, Ann Petry was familiar with the contrast in lives of African Americans and whites (McKenzie 615). The Street, centered in 1940’s Harlem, details these differences. While Petry consistently portrays Harlem as dark and dirty, she portrays the all-white neighborhoods of Connecticut as light and clean. This contrast of dark vs light is used in the expected way to symbolize despair vs success. But Ann Petry also uses the contrast in an unusual way by allowing the darkness to inspire, while the light exposes unexpected tragedies.

In Hannah Greendale’s review about The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater, she argues about how the transgender community or those who identify as agender are being mistreated. She writes her review base off of a sociological lens. One of the main characters struggles with there sexuality while the other one is presented differently due to his race. Sasha is the name of one of the characters, and she identifies as neither male nor female. Sasha was born as a male named Luke, but as she grew up, she realized that she enjoyed wearing skirts instead of clothing that boys would typically wear. While the other character is named Richard who is an African male who is an all-round good kid but is seen as dangerous due to his neighborhood environment. Both characters in the book live in Oakland, California. However, they don’t attend the same school. Sasha is a Caucasian who is born in the upper middle class and is considered to be living in the more wealthy neighborhood of Oakland compared to Richard. The book gives background information of these two characters and how they ended up meeting and causing this accident. Greendale review talks about how the story helps “raise awareness about the unprecedented level of violence inflicted on transgender people.” This story is set to show the need for representation of the transgender people. The scene in which the reviewer uses to describe the mistreatment of the agender community was the scene in which Richard sees Sasha sitting on the bus.

I choose to analysis the ethical approach of “Zora Neal Hurston’s “How it Feels to be Colored Me.” I think the author used a very unique to say how she feel about herself. I can relate to the author, when she speaks of her town, and how she didn’t realize her skin until she left her. Growing up I really didn’t know how different my skin was, until I found myself in predominate white church. For a while, people treated me differently, until they realized I was human with a great heart and attitude.

In life, there are few things as organic as jazz music. With its raw sound and scrappy roots, one cannot help but feel life head-on whilst witnessing players produce such a sound right before their eyes. Its origins and arch are a product of the United States’ national culture and identity. Jazz exists not only as a deeply rooted form of art but as a cultural marker, particularly during its commercial peak in the first half of the 20th century. Its impact transcends borders, and it is one of the most beloved musical genres worldwide. The history, popularity and influence of jazz on human culture make it the seminal American art form.

Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Soon after his birth, his father, William Armstrong, left. With his father leaving, Louis’ mother, Maryann, decided it would be best if he went to go live with his grandmother, Josephine. While Armstrong was living with his grandmother, “Maryann gave birth to a daughter, the result of a temporary reconciliation with William.” (Brown, Page 15) Louis’ sister, Beatrice, was two years younger than him.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating yet depressing studies on gender, its fluidity, and how oppressive it can be is the case of David Reimer. In Chapter 3 of "Undoing Gender" by Judith Butler, this situation was studied in detail and psychoanalyzed. When Reimer was extremely young (under a year old), his penis was damaged and had to be removed, so psychiatrist John Money stepped in and told Reimer's parents that they could have sex reassignment surgery, raise David as a girl, and he'd live a normal and happy life. David was thus renamed Brenda and was brought up as female. Around age eight, however, Brenda started exhibiting traditionally masculine behaviors such as wanting to play with trucks and toy guns. She started living as a boy at the

People always say, “Don't judge a book by it's cover.”. But do we really listen? Do we try and get to know people, or do we ignore what we know is right? In the novel, Define Normal, written by Julie Anne Peters, the stereotypes developed to teach the reader to not judge a book by it's cover.

Until the middle of the 1950’s “Jazz dance” was more commonly referred to as tap dance due to tap being performed to jazz music.

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee presents a large social atmosphere that includes many different cultures and extremes. The story takes place in the southern town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. This novel illustrates how the southerners perceived different ideas about each other and social norms. It is told through the eyes of a young girl, Scout Finch, as she is growing up and becoming influenced by societal attitudes. Throughout the course of this book Scout learns many lessons including: how a society functions, why there is conflict between different cultures, and what makes cultures different from each other. Harper Lee utilizes functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism to convey how

By the 1920s, African Americans began to migrate to northern cities such as Chicago, New York for the search of a better opportunity. This was known as the “Jazz Age” or “The Roaring Twenties.”

The Roaring Twenties has another name, in fact. The 1920’s can be referred to as The Jazz Age. The 1920’s was a time for African American’s to express themselves through many different art forms. The Great Migration is what caused many chain events that led to the Jazz Age. The Great Migration brought a tremendous amount of African Americans from the rural south to the urban north. Most, if not all, of these African Americans left the rural south due to the lack of economic opportunities, and harsh laws against them. They were intrigued to move to cities in the North because of the better pay they would receive for less work than they were doing in the South, a higher standard of living conditions, better political rights and to take

through Queer and Disability Theory”, Karen Hammer examines how Jess’ traumatic experiences in Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues becomes the foundation for her and other transgenders to find “community and intimacy” (160). In doing so, Hammer expertly highlights Jess’ constant need to establish a home of acceptance to combat the violence she faces throughout the novel. Therefore, Jess uses her traumas to form connections with other transgenders to provide a sense of community. However, Hammer fails to acknowledge the consequences of forming a community based on shared experiences of violence. Jess expresses these consequences in her willingness to give up on the

In Arin Andrew’s memoir, Some Assembly Required, the author or protagonist feels wretched because of his gender dysphoria (GD), strains on his love life by his mother, the antagonist, and being expelled from school. The book’s writer was born female and named Emerald after his mom’s beloved resort. He, with time, grows to identify as male. During the teenager’s transgender life, he experiences common problems faced by people of his kind such as GD or an extreme discomfort with one’s body accompanied with a longing for the opposite sex’s features. He soon begins a relationship with an adamant lesbian, Darian; this “gay” behavior between two supposedly girls was considered wrong in Arin’s religious family, so his parents halt the couple from

The Harlem Renaissance was a period of revolutionary styles of music, dance, and literature that presented the hardships and culture of African Americans. The “Trumpet Player,” by Langston Hughes portrays the theme of the therapeutic effects of music through the development of an African American trumpeter’s music. The free verse poem “Trumpet Player” epitomizes the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz through the unique use of inconsistent rhymed and unrhymed lines mixed with the use of colloquialisms.