In the book Revolutionary Mothers, author Carol Berkin discusses women’s roles in the American Revolution. She separates out the chapters so that she can discuss the different experiences and roles of women during the period. She utilizes primary and secondary sources to talk about how women stepped into their husband’s shoes and maintained their livelihoods and how they furthered the war effort on both sides, as well as how classes and race effected each woman’s experience. Berkin’s main goal was for the reader to understand that although women’s roles aren’t traditionally discussed when talking about the American Revolution, nevertheless, they played a major part in it.
Real life bandits have always been of great interest for writers. Those symbolic heroes, who by doing wrong do right, have always represented a great opportunity to express ideologies, viewpoints and opinions about an economic, political, or even judicial system. La Pintada, Joaquin Murieta, and Pancho Villa are great examples of this.
Using distinctively visual, sensory language and dramatic devices in texts allows the reader and audience to view as well as participate and relate to different emotions. In the fictional play “Shoe Horn Sonata” written by John Misto, 1995, Misto sets the scene by using dramatic devices to address the extremely confronting circumstances that the protagonists, Sheila and Bridie experience. Similarly, in the poem “Beach Burial” by Kenneth Slessor, 1944, Slessor too uses extremely strong visual language on the subject of war to overcome the gruesome realities of the subject matter.
Stories are the foundation of relationships. They represent the shared lessons, the memories, and the feelings between people. But often times, those stories are mistakenly left unspoken; often times, the weight of the impending future mutes the stories, and what remains is nothing more than self-destructive questions and emotions that “add up to silence” (Lee. 23). In “A Story” by Li-Young Lee, Lee uses economic imagery of the transient present and the inevitable and fear-igniting future, a third person omniscient point of view that shifts between the father’s and son’s perspective and between the present and future, and emotional diction to depict the undying love between a father and a son shadowed by the fear of change and to illuminate the damage caused by silence and the differences between childhood and adulthood perception.
The Mirabal sisters were revolutionaries who opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. During the revolution, they were given the code name “Las Mariposas”, or “the butterflies”. The term “mariposa” suits each sister in a different way. Patria, Dedé, Minerva, and Mate Mirabal each have their one reason to be compared to a butterfly. The nickname “mariposa” shows who the Mirabal sisters are; they transformed from domestic, innocent mothers and wives into brave, defiant martyrs for national freedom.
Everyday people are judging and being judged by others with unique criteria that we, as inhabitants of Earth deem necessary checkmarks to be met to afford and be afforded tokens of civility. In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the Latin Woman” the memoir is brimming with personal accounts of fetishiztation and discrimination the author experiences as a Latin woman that have vast influence on her life. Throughout the text Cofer conveys the significance of how deep the status “exotic” to describe Latina women is held inside the minds of people which the author alludes to on page 879, “I thought you Latin girls were supposed to mature early,” [1] after being given a sudden, non-consensual kiss at a dance by her date. The author expresses the cultural dissonance between
For the most part the reader is able to identify some common themes in responding to death between the two short stories. One of these themes is connection and a longing for understanding. In “The Things They Carried” it is stated “Almost everyone humped photographs”
Even time, one of the most seemingly constant things in life is relative. Within this relative space is queer time. The queer movement has had its own timeline and relationship with time both within and outside of the dominant timeline. Unlike in the dominant culture in which one’s past remains in the past and the future is always progress, queer time constantly looks simultaneously forward and backward, appreciating the importance of the past for the creation of the future. This more fluid definition of time is demonstrated through editing and framing in “Hollywood Je T’aime” and the historical basis of “A Slacker and Delinquent in Basketball Shoes” as is the idea that people are not forgotten, simply because they are in the past.
With a honeyed Sam Cooke worthy croon and a slicked style reminiscent of the Dapper Rebels, Leon Bridges is in all aspects a rarity.
“Nineteen”, by Elizabeth Alexander uses language and tone to form a multi-sensory poem about remembering her youth and desire to connect to her past Vietnam vet lover. These aspects of language and tone are embedded in the outer form of the poem, as the author forms an imaginative recreation of her young adult life, which directly impacts the reader to allow for an enjoyable simple read. The elements of language and tone formation ensure the translation of Alexander’s emotions or feelings of her youth for the audience to relate and understand.
The American Revolution was a very long and extensive war that lasted from 1775 until 1783, and as a result America gained its independence. It is very imperative to highlight the significant role that women played during the American Revolution. During this era a woman was often portrayed as illiterate, child-bearing mother, and a homemaker. Women were considered inferior to men; they had to rights and most of all no voice. Typically, as the old saying goes ‘they were to be seen and not hear’. Revolutionary Mothers, by Carol Berkin tells of the general stereotypes of women in America, the roles in which they played during the America revolution, and lastly it tells the story of the women through their own words.
The two novellas “The Metamorphosis,” and “The Death of Ivan Llych” both describe the stories of two men suffering from dramatic events in their lives. The two men both suffer from the feeling of alienation from their families. The two stories can be compared in many ways, and give insight into the way these two characters found peace in their deaths.
In Sherman Alexie’s short story, “War Dances,” the narrator unravels in thoughts and takes us through events in his life. He picks up by speaking about a cockroach that ends up dying in his Kafka baggage from a trip to Los Angeles. The cockroach still appears many times throughout the story. The narrator spends quality time in the hospital with his father, who is recovering from surgery due to diabetes and alcoholism, all along the way while he, himself, discovers he might have a brain tumor, leading his right ear to talk about his father. Using a style of tragedy and care both incorporate together a symbolic story that would make even a plain reader feel touched, leading to the major occurrence of a theme of the importance of family.
The queer historical past has been characterized positively, with aspects such as identification, desire, longing, and love highlighted (31). In contrast, Heather Love seeks to focus on the negative aspects that characterize the relationship of queer history amid the past and present, in her work, “Emotional Rescue: The demands of Queer History,” the first chapter in her book, “Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History” (31-32). According to Love, some queer critics have failed to include the harsher accounts when studying queer cross-historical relations. The negative aspects of the past that queer figures can relate to makes it relevant. In her article, Love critiques various works to identify the negative aspects present within the queer history.
of the Classical Association of Canada, vol. 7 no. 3, 2007, pp. 213-245. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/mou.0.0029