Linda Gordon uses her book The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction to show racial, gender, class, and religious issues in Arizona during the early 1900s. This novel, at first, seems to be about the orphan train that ran from New York City to Arizona. However, the title is misleading, as it suggests to the reader that the novel is focusing on the orphans. Rather, Gordon uses the orphans as a lens through which one can view the inequalities between the people in Arizona.
When humanity is unable to atone for its sins, the innocent perish, while the living are left to suffer. In his elegy When the Towers Fell, Galway Kinnell laments the victims of the September 11th, 2001 attacks. In 2001, the world had just entered a new millennium; however, it was painfully reminded that the violence of humanity’s past would neither be forgiven nor forgotten. Through his captivating symbolic imagery, Kinnell is able to capture and emphasize the grief of the living, and the infectious nature of hate and war.
The ‘Rite of Passage’ by Richard Wright has a preeminent place in the literary world because this book teaches a lesson of survival, white power, and influence. Wright is an American author who wrote novels, poems, and short stories. He is best known for his book ‘Black Boy’ and ‘Native Son’. The book ‘Rite of Passage’ written by Richard Wright is about a 15 year old boy who has straight A’s in school and the people he has lived with all his life is not really his family, which leads to his debacle journey. As Johnny goes through this difficult stage in life he decides to run away not thinking about where he’s going to stay or how he’s going to get food. He decides to join a gang of orphans with his best friend Billy in order to survive. This novel is still widely read today because it provides an inhuman image of brutal conditions African Americans faced in Harlem of 1940’s.
The life of immigrants living on the Lower East Side in the late 1800s early 1900s was tough. Coming to a new country itself is difficult. Immigrants didn’t have much to begin with. Most of them had jobs that allow them to barely live. Anzia Yezierska’s short story “The Lost ’Beautifulness’” depicts the immigration experience. The experience of the characters represents the experience of living immigrants of the twentieth century. They had a different type of living conditions, type of work, social and legal injustice, and daily struggle faced by the characters in the short story.
All over the world books are getting banned with the intention of protecting people, but most importantly protecting children from inappropriate things. People such as librarians, parents, teachers, and others give their opinions about the content in books, which leads to the banning of a book or titled as challenged. Jack London 's book The Call of the Wild got banned between the 1920 's and 1930 's in Yugoslavia and Italy. Besides being banned, it also was burned in Nazi Germany. They said that the socialism in the book angered and threatened them. Also, the animal cruelty made them think that London was accepting of it (Banned Books). Due to this book London was called a "nature faker" by President Theodore
The infamous Jamaican slave-owner, William Thomas Beckford, recounts his experiences on the sugar cane island in this two-volume novel. He provides a well-rehearsed argument that advocates for the perpetuation of slavery in the industry and expounds on its importance to the production of sugar. He begins his defense of slavery by bestowing a title of honour upon the slaves and claiming that they are awarded with the sense of freedom that they would never have been able to receive if they had still
In Ann Petry’s The Street, the urban setting is portrayed as harsh and unforgiving to most. Lutie Johnson, however, finds the setting agreeable and rises to challenges posed by the city in order to achieve her goals. Petry portrays this relationship through personification, extended metaphor, and imagery.
Most people envision a perfect place as a place peaceful and secluded. However, this place may not always seem perfect. A canyon that is a perfect, untouched place is the setting for the short story All Gold Canyon by Jack London. This story has a human vs. nature conflict in it that is the basis for the whole story. To truly understand this story one must know that symbolism of nature, the conflicts, and why Jack London probably wrote this story.
Published in 1975, the book Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow is a story of the oppression of different social groups whether it is immigrants or other races. The novel takes place during the period of American history called “The Gilded Age”, coined by the author Mark Twain in 1873 in his novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, referred to gilding, or the application of gold to different surfaces which manifested the homes of the American elite, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, imitating the homes of the Czars in Russia. The Gilded Age showed the rise of extremely wealthy families who had risen above all and created large wealth gaps between the social classes, resulting in the rise of socialism and communism, ultimately leading to the creation of labor unions and strikes. The passage in chapter thirty-four takes place during a storm on the beach in Atlantic City, where Tateh and Mother look for the little boy and girl. Doctorow uses imagery, anaphora, cataloging, and similes to represent that even in harsh times there was still hope which embodies the American dream.
The theme of marginalization in society and how it has impacted on people’s lives is a significant theme for all. Marginalization is where a certain group of people are treated differently than others due to their race, gender or beliefs. The marginalized are not usually considered “main stream”, which means to have the power in society, and thus have no say in how you are treated. We see this theme in four texts, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, To Kill a Mockingbird directed by Robert Mulligan (1962), The Test by Angelica Gibbs and The Worn Path by Eudora Welty. Each of my selected texts has a character who is marginalized (Crooks & Tom Robinson & Marian & Phoenix Jackson) and is considered not part of the mainstream of society, consequently
I was a fourth grader when my dad told me that we were moving to the Unites States, “land of wealth, excitement, and fabulous cities.” But there clearly was a mistake; I was brought to the middle of nowhere in the arid region of the Hopi Native American Reservation in Arizona. Our family’s migration to the United States was not a well-planned search for lucrative opportunity, international education, freedom, or happiness. Rather, it was a call to mission. Yet I struggled to accept it, because I thought that I was only forced to follow my parents. They always told me, “you came to Hopi for a reason too,” nevertheless "Yup, I know. I know," was my sarcastic response.
Lamb begins politely with an apologetic tone used to display the intent of his letter, used as a means to prepare Wordsworth for not only his justification of the city of London, but also as a means to transition into a sort of tearing apart of the romantics and their lives in the country. As he was listing the different characteristics of London that made it so worthy, he seized this opportunity to compare the country to the city, and ultimately point out the lack of wonder and amazement that he finds in the country.
In the passage, the Henry James’ diction reflects the humble and admiring tone that shows affirmation at the funeral and towards Mr. George Odger. When describing Mr. Odger, James describes him as a “humble” man who happen to “distinguished himself” by a “perverse desire to get into Parliament.” Through the use of these words James shows the overall humbleness of Mr. Odger.
Literature has been a constant expression of artistic emotion throughout history. Over the course of the years, Literature has developed and changed due to America’s evolution. These changing time periods can be classified into 9 eras: Colonial, Revolutionary, Romantic, Transcendental, Realism, Modern, Harlem Renaissance, Beat Generation, and Postmodern. Throughout the changing history, new literary eras have begun in response to previous eras and events. American Literature has changed over time by adapting previous values, beliefs, and literary characteristics when a new era presents itself; this progression is due to changing societal views in
Jack London’s short stories are held in high regard to this day, and are still considered to show the true harshness of mother nature and the ignorance of man. London himself knows all too well the unforgiving vexation of the Klondike Gold Rush, having developed scurvy and an injury that permanently affected the use of his leg. His stories are also influenced by the literary movement of naturalism, which focuses on extreme conditions that shape human mentality. London’s usual writing style consists of very long, drawn out descriptions of the characters or the scene around these characters. A large sum of his stories focus on the instincts of animals and the questionable survival of man in extreme conditions and situations. A recurring theme