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Literature and different cultures
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The short story, What I Have Been Doing Lately by Jamaica Kincaid, in my perspective was a representation of two cultures. This story focuses on the two cultures that Jamaica Kincaid came from and also the change in location. What I Have Been Doing Lately, I believe, is a story about how Jamaica feels about the change of scenery when she moves from Antigua to Vermont. The story talks about how the cultures are different but it also captures what it feels like to be homesick. The author of the story, Jamaica Kincaid, was born and educated in Antigua in the West Indies and now she lives in Vermont. In the story, the setting is described as a Caribbean island. The climate and landscape describe is cloudless skies, monkeys, and flowering trees. In the story the narrator says, “…I saw tall flowering trees. I looked up to a sky with no clouds…” With these descriptions I can tell that it is a similar description to Antigua, which is where the Author used to live. This story reflects on when the author moved, it shows that both cultures were different. In my opinion it was different because she was used to being around people whom she shared the same culture with, and now she …show more content…
Ever since the move the story reflect that she now feels lonely, and perhaps separation from where she came from and who she was. The first part of the story I believe was before she moved. It was the narrator being back where she felt at home and like she belonged. The first part of the story she was in control and comfortable. For example the story stated talking about how she saw a figure coming towards her and that she was not frightened of it. To me this shows that she was in total control of that dream because she was comfortable with where the dream lead her, back to Antigua. The second story showed the narrator likes the people from Vermont but it is harder to be comfortable around them because they come from a different culture than
On an ordinary day, Leslie opens the main door of her house, when she walked inside she saw her mom and sister Islla sitting on the coach. Islla was crying, and Leslie ask her “What happened?’ Why you crying?’”. Islla told her that she is pregnant and that she wants to keep the baby even if her boyfriend will be against the baby, but she will need to drop out from her University. In a few minutes of thinking, Leslie decided and told her sister “You don’t need to drop out I will help you to babysit with my nephew.”
History can significantly influence the ways in which a place, along with its community, evolves. Now considered postcolonial, not only are Hawaii and Antigua heavily defined by their colonial pasts, but they are also systematically forced into enduring the consequences of their unfavorable histories. Through their unconventionally enlightening essays, Jamaica Kincaid and Juliana Spahr offer compelling insights into how the same idea that exists as a tourist’s perception of paradise also exists as an unprofitable reality for the natives who are trapped in their pasts yet ironically labeled as independent. The lasting impacts of colonialism on the history of Antigua and Hawaii can be noted through their lasting subservience to their colonizing
In the Next Room, or the vibrator play written by Sarah Ruhl premiered at the Berkley Repertory Theatre in February 2009, and later premiered on Broadway at Lincoln Center in November of 2009. Taking place at the dawn of the age of electricity around 1880 in a wealthy spa town on the skirts of New York City, this play follows the events taking place in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Givings. Mr. Givings is a scientist and a doctor, treating women for hysteria out of his home by using a clinical vibrating machine to induce paroxysms, or what we know today as orgasms. These induced paroxysms are strictly scientific, and are believed to release any congestion in the female womb, which is understood to be the cause of these hysterical symptoms. His wife, Mrs. Givings, quickly becomes curious about her husbands work, which remains under lock and key, in the next room. As Catherine follows her innocent instincts and her undying thirst for knowledge and human connection, she realizes her desire to find true intimacy with her husband. The result of her investigative work to find this intimacy is her first experience with the vibrating machine. It causes her whole world to shift upside down. Sarah Ruhl exposes the play’s thematic issues through this shift in Catherine’s world, and the experiences of her other characters. Through repeating her theme of lightness and darkness, in various manners and forms, visually and textually, Ruhl paints a metaphor for the prevailing struggle of moving forward, embracing social practices and new technology, and preserving current practices. Through this identified struggle, questions arise about the importance of the child in the home and the child’s influence on the structure of marriage, the sep...
Gilbert begins his book by informing the reader that the sole thing a psychologist will be remembered for is one thing: how they finish the sentence, "The human being is the only animal that _______." So, after serious contemplation, he concludes that "[t]he human being is the only animal that thinks about the future" (Gilbert 4). He then goes on to explain that our ability to imagine is what allows humans to ponder the future. The frontal lobe of our brain is what advanced homo habilus into homo sapien; it is where we plan and think about the future. Additionally, whenever we think about the future, we often think about good things happening to us, leading us to believe those events will actually occur; or, we think about the future so that we can try and control it, since humans have an innate need for control.
The book Unwind by Neal Shusterman is about the concept of unwinding an human being. Unwinding is the concept or process in which a child or teen’s organs and other parts of the body are taken out. These organs and body parts are then used to save other people’s lives. For example if a person doesn't have an arm then they could get an arm from an unwind. If someone is missing an organ then they could get one from an unwind. Many people may say or think if you unwind a person you are killing the person. However the government of this society says that they are still alive but just in a different way.
In this paper we will be look at the book called “Lying on the Couch”. I will be going over what I saw as the biggest ethical issues that I read about in this book, I will also go over my thoughts on this book and the ethical problems that I saw for Dr. Lash, Carol and Marshal Streider. I will explain my personal opinion regarding self-care and my reasoning as to why it is so important to maintaining clear boundaries.
The Stranger Beside Me is a true crime book by Ann Rule. It takes an engrossing twist on the classic biographical true crime story in that Rule actually knew Ted Bundy, the serial killer that the book is about. She masterfully intertwines her personal relationship with her friend and the story of the murderer’s vicious crimes into a page-turner that incites sympathy towards one of the most notorious serial killers of all time. Ann Rule’s career is to write books like this one, and that was her job when she was volunteering at a Crisis Center in Seattle when she first met Ted Bundy. The two bonded over late nights answering phones to help people struggling with suicide and other internal conflicts. Due to her ‘in’ with law enforcement,
Kincaid’s experience starts us with putting us as the readers into her text as the tourists of Antigua. Noting the tourists find the place of absolute beauty, but the natives of Antigua find the tourists ugly. She then goes on to the old times when Antigua was in colonial possession, but now has their people enslaved, which has corrupted the island. The people of Antigua dislike the tourists out of envy, in spite of being so poor they are not able to travel anywhere, and are ‘stuck’ in their homeland, just watching the travelers take in the beauty of their land when they are trapped in.
In Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, the vignette “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes” teaches that, in order to mature, one must accept where they come from. In “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes,” the protagonist, Esperanza, finally accepts her past community. Cisneros writes, “I am going to tell you a story about a girl who didn’t want to belong… I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much. I write it down and Mango says goodbye sometimes. She does not hold me with both arms. She sets me free” (Cisneros 110). When Cisneros uses the phrase “a girl who didn’t want to belong,” she shows that Esperanza was ashamed of where she came from. Specifically, by using the words “didn’t want” she displays how Esperanza truly felt about Mango Street, but now, Esperanza accepts her past community which has helped her to become more mature.
On a scale of 1-5, I would rate the book,“My life in black and white,” by Natasha Friend, as a 4. The book itself had an intriguing plot, however the end of the storyline felt rushed and almost seemed as if the author was indecisive in how to end the book. The plot consisted of a 15 year old teenage girl who had suffered from a nearly fatal car accident. Before the accident, she had what most would consider as a “perfect” life that consisted of gorgeous looks, being part of the popular crowd, and excelling in athletics. However, following the accident, her life was flipped upside down in the fact that half of her face was damaged in the accident, removing what beautiful looks she once had. The story unfolds describing her life after the accident
In Jamaica Kincaid’s passage, the narrator clearly struggles with her assimilation to her newer, more modern world. She has experienced an arguably better lifestyle since she left her home, but these “firsts” make her “smile with my mouth turned down”(11). These new experiences do not make her happy or make her feel comfortable. She’s living out of her own skin in a different and jarring new life. Nothing is familiar, and nothing from her former life fits in with her present. However, her past is a part of her sense of self, and the new and demanding current situation threatens her “familiar and predictable”(40) past, although “a not very nice situation”(53-54). The narrator identifies more with her past than her new environment.
The past is something that most people tend to wish they can change. If someone asked another
Between character differences and overall structure of the memoir Girl, Interrupted written by Susanna Kaysen, it is difficult to find ways the book is similar to the film. Changing the way Kaysen perceives and shares her story with the audience changes the meaning behind her experiences illustrated throughout the text. Rather than seeing the gritty details of being hospitalized in a mental institution as described in the memoir, James Mangold, the director of the movie, portrays a less abrasive version so as to be visually pleasing and relatable to the viewer. In Girl, Interrupted we see a harsh change in the substance of Kaysen’s work compared to Mangold’s film. Characters are either toned down or changed entirely to suit the norms and restrictions of ratings and public opinion. When looking closer there are many factors to take into consideration as to why the film differs so much from Kaysen’s memoir such as the audience, budget, and casting. It may also go without mentioning that personifying someone’s life experiences as perceived in a memoir can prove to be difficult. Despite the many differences it is almost impossible to envision a better representation of the memoir as the movie has portrayed. The director and cast did the best they could in order to make Susanna Kaysen’s memoir come to life on the big screen.
“Men in suits and bow-ties and smart hats, dark scruffy coats with hand-knitted scarves”. This is a fascinating and emotional quote told by the characters Hortense, a very strong mannered Jamaican woman who arrives in the city of London for the first time to pursue her dream as a teacher. The quote briefly covers most parts of the story in the book Small Island, because it sketches a picture of England between 1948 and de situation before the wars, when the Jamaican immigrants were arriving in England. The unexpected welcoming shows the disparity between the white and black people. This was her first impression of the English people. Moreover, with this quote she describes the differences between their living conditions and income to their own small Island Jamaica. Hortense, was also experiencing a major racial prejudice in Britain. The book gradually ends with how the war changed the British society. This is an emotional and at the same times a fun book that made me smile. Andrea Levy, makes the readers sympathize with the Jamaican characters, because these people who dream of seeing the larger world and relocate to England were counting on a better life, but unfortunately this was too good to be true. The book is quite appealing, because the characters in the book are confronted with various challenges for instance, racial issues, gender issues and colonialism. Furthermore, the book has multiple themes. It is a story about slavery, friendship, loyalty, race, love, displacement and empire. Therefore, Small Island is definitely a novel worth reading.
"Singapore" is a poem written in which the author, Mary Oliver, compares a cleaning lady to nature with her use of imagery. Mary Oliver writes about how a woman, a tourist, is at an airport in Singapore. While at the airport the woman sees what seems to be a cleaning lady who is cleaning an ashtray in the toilet water and the author compares this to nature. The author was disgusted by what she saw so to rid her mind of this image she brings in images of nature to ease her discomfort. However, when the cleaning lady smiles at the tourist she then changes her mind, therefore, thinking that cleaning the ashtrays in the toilet can be blissful and beautiful. In the poem "Kingfisher", Mary Oliver, writes about the good found in the bad. With her poem Oliver shows us that death is an intricate part of life. The