Octavia Butler's Speech Sounds, By Octavia Butler

The three of them stayed in abandoned building whereas the other three children had their own condos. Jeannette was working her way up to becoming a successful journalist, Brian was a police officer, and Lori, a successful artist. Maureen did not take education as serious as them and as a result, settled for temporary jobs as a bartender. In Welch, Maureen depended on neighbors to provide for her and now, in New York, she used her beauty to charm men to help her out. Yet, the boyfriends never lasted longer than the jobs (274). Ultimately the lack of self-sufficiency resulted to her outbreak: “Six months later, Maureen stabbed Mom. It happened after Mom decided it was time for Maureen to develop a little self-sufficiency by moving out and finding a place of her own” (275). Although Jeannette and Maureen were in the same setting during their childhood, it is the effect of secondary characters that contribute to their mentality. Jeannette, Brian, and Lori struggled together and learned skills of resilience, independence, and understanding the importance of education. In contrast, Maureen was handed everything in life and was dependent on other people instead. As she is thrown into the real world, her lack of experience caused confusion and led to her mental breakdown.

The story takes place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in America, when desegregation is finally achieved. Flannery O’Connor’s use of setting augments the mood and deepens the context of the story. However, O’Connor’s method is subtle, often relying on connotation and implication to drive her point across.

Joyce Oates’s “Hi Howya Doin” depicts the violence that has captured and encapsulated today’s culture. The un-deemed murder of an innocent jogger in the end of this story validates and justifies the fear that so many individuals feel. In Oates’s short story, “Hi Howya Doin”, the protagonist is depicted as a “Good-looking husky guy six-foot-four in the late twenties or early thirties, Caucasian male…..solid built as a fire hydrant, carries himself like an athlete, or an ex-athlete” (214). Through the police report, giving the description of the protagonist, Oates foretells his surprising fate at the beginning of the story which in turn, creates tension and suspense for the reader as the protagonist goes about what

In the essay, “On Being a Cripple,” Nancy Mairs uses humorous diction and a positive tone to educate people about life as a cripple and struggles of people with disabilities. She does this to show how hard it is to be disabled and how it differs from the life of someone without a disability. She talks about the struggles and the fears that disabled people must deal with on a daily basis. Mairs use of rhetoric creates a strong sense of connection and understanding for the reader. Nancy Mairs is successful in using detailed imagery, diction, and tone to educate her readers about the difficulties of living with a disability.

The tongue is a needed part to the body which has many functions. The tongue is used to taste scrumptious foods which we crave, and more importantly, is used to form words. These words however, can be used for good, or for bad. Each and every word that is whispered, uttered, spoken or yelled from a mouth, will either be accepted, or hated. The words that are hated are taught to be put on a leash, but “Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out.”(374) In Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Ms. Anzaldúa states the quote above. Although bold, I agree and disagree with this quote at the same time. I agree that wild tongues cannot be tamed, but I disagree that wild tongues can only be cut out. I believe once a tongue utters it’s first words, there is no way to limit what comes out.

Audre Lorde’s essay The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, she talks about what silence is, what it means to her, and what it means to “transform silence into language and action.” She feels that we need to speak up and stand up for ourselves, because otherwise we will get nothing but trampled on throughout life no matter if it’s about our interests or the way we dress. After being diagnosed by two doctors, supposed to be having surgery, and with every odd against her, the only thing she regretted most out of everything was her silence. She took her life or death situation and turned it into something more. That’s what it took for her to speak up, but not just about her silence, but everyone's silence and the effect that it

“I wish I had the luxury of being sick instead of having to go to work every day.” (Copen[CNN]). But for so many people being sick is their full time job. Imagine waking up every morning and being just as tired as the night before, imagine taking a shower and being down for the count— when you live with a chronic illness this is a day to day normality. Living with a chronic illness is exhausting. But, people still wake up each day and go on, some as if nothing is wrong. Many chronic illnesses are also invisible to untrained individuals. When most people think of a disability, they think of someone in a wheelchair, someone who walks with

“Alzheimer’s” by Kelly Cherry was published in 1997 during a time of personal struggle for Cherry and her dad. This short, free verse poem consists of twenty nine perplexing lines. The poet’s nontraditional placement of line breaks cause some ideas to fall off in mid-sentence, while others never complete the thought. This creates enjambments which mimic the disease’s confusing nature. The speaker of this poem is the author, who is also the daughter of whom she writes about. Ideally, the writer narrates the poem in order to genuinely explain the turmoil loved ones face on a daily basis while dealing with this disease. The beginning of the poem creatively uses a simile to introduce us to “a crazy old man back

Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Lusus Naturae” portrays the story of a woman who has to face the problem of isolationism and discrimination throughout her whole life. In this short story, the protagonist very early in her life has been diagnosed with a decease known as porphyria. Due to the lack of knowledge at the time, she did not receive the help required to help her situation. Thus she was kept in the dark, her appearance frightens the outsiders who could not accept the way she looks, slowly resulting in her isolationism physically and mentally from the outside world. This even caused her to separate herself from the only world she knew her family. Ultimately resulting in her death. In Margaret Atwood’s short story, she asserts that being discriminated and isolated causes the narrator to have deep mental issues that lead to signs of depression through the protagonist’s unorthodox way of accepting her fate without any hesitation to prevent her life being taken away.

Individuals are usually judged by their superficial appearances and not by their characteristics, which could cause a wrong perception of an individual true self-leading their status and identity to become an outcast from the society. Furthermore, it could lead an individual to have psychological effects on their mental health. For instance, it could lead an individual to obtain the feelings of emptiness and hopelessness, to conclude with a decision to commit suicide. Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Lusus Naturae,” is written in a first person perspective, in which the protagonist tells the story herself. The readers of the story are able to know what is going on in the protagonist mind and how she is feeling throughout the story. However,

AIDS is the third leading killer of young adult Americans today. From the voice of one who knows the struggle all too well, political activist and author Mary Fisher, wrote the speech “A Whisper of AIDS”, presented at a Republican National Convention in 1992. In which she argues that AIDS should not identify a person, nor allow them to be hindered from experiences in their lives, which the Republican party can assist with. Fisher adopts a serious, compassionate tone in order to appeal to those infected with AIDS and their families. Fisher effectively convinces her audience that AIDS does not define a person and that these people deserve protection from society through the use of metaphors, meaningless words, emotional appeals and statistics.

California, the petri dish of global political activity. From its very beginning, Southern California has been a frontrunner in political thought and activism. Major political organizations have either started in California or at the very minimum have local political branch. But as Pulido points out “people cannot fully participate in social movements without undergoing a process of political awakening.” (Pulido pg 61). I would like to explore the process of political politicization and how it correlates with protagonist Jackie Ishida, a young Japanese American senior law student coming of political age in the novel “Southland” by Nina Revoyr.

Ever since the institution of the great nation, the United States has dealt with underlying social obstacles and complications that have deprived certain American citizens from exercising their universal, inalienable human rights and achieving a sense of equality in the society. During the early 1900s, little, defenseless children across the United States were employed in inhumane conditions or in violation of the state or federal laws, so several distinct feminist associations and individuals decided it was time to conclude the social injustices that affected millions. However, how can a single woman accurately express and describe the feelings of thousa nds of trapped souls under the social dogma to a blinded, indifferent audience by using

when Anna Adams had Jane Adams she was very happy like her mother.Then 5 years later passed and by 5 years later Jane was 5 years old. Jane was born November 11,1794. James passed away because he was very ill.

Anarchy, a social state in which human actions are governed by their morals, is considered to be the most liberating template to form society around. In an anarchical society, the absence of government allows absolute freedom for any individual involved, and in a society such as this, people are able do as they please without experiencing any governmental repercussions for their actions. Where this seems to parallel the society introduced to us in the short story, “Speech Sounds”, by Octavia Butler, it in fact contrasts the society that Rye lives in. While most authoritarian governments have a strong physical presence in society, the allegory "Speech Sounds" uses a virus to demonstrate the metaphysical oppressive force that is felt by a totalitarian