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Wole soyinka's telephone conversation and introduction to racism
The telephone conversation wole soyinka essay
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Commentary on Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka Wole Soyinka recollects vividly in Ake Mrs. Huti talking about white racism. He was thus mentally prepared to cope with the racism before he left for England. The race problem which has been treated with levity in the immigrant poems is treated from the poet’s personal experience in “Telephone Conversation.” “Telephone Conversation” involves an exchange between the black speaker and a white landlady. This poem more than any other is enriched by Soyinka’s experience of drama. It appears that the speaker is so fluent in the landlady’s language that she is unable to make out that he is black and a foreigner. But he, knowing the society for its racial prejudice, deems it necessary to declare his racial identity rather than be rejected later when she discovers that he is black. When he tells her that he is African, she seems stunned and there is “Silenced transmission of/Pressurized good-breeding.” When she speaks, her voice is Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled Cigarette-holder pipped. These details are evide...
In the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel remembers his time at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Elie begins to lose his faith in God after his faith is tested many times while at the concentration camp. Elie conveys to us how horrific events have changed the way he looks at his faith and God. Through comments such as, “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God, my soul, and turned my dreams into dust,” he reveals the toll that the Holocaust has taken on him. The novel begins during the years of 1942-1944 in Sighet, Transylvannia, Romania. Elie Wiesel and his family are deported and Elie is forced to live through many horrific events. Several events such as deportation, seeing dead bodies while at Auschwitz, and separation from his mother and sisters, make Elie start to question his absolute faith in God.
In the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda is entering high school completely alone. She has no friends and she has no one to turn to, even the people she doesn’t know hate her. All of this is happening to Melinda because she called the cops at an end of summer party and no one even bothered to ask her why. Something terrible happened that night at the party and memories of the event terrify and haunt her. There’s something about that night that she tries to forget, something she tries to not remember. Throughout the book you see ways Melinda is coping with her trauma. In the process of it all her nightmare, Andy Evans, comes and attacks her again, but this time Melinda isn’t so quiet about it. By the end of the book, Melinda uncovers her secret that has been trapped in her thoughts. Anderson develops a theme that if something traumatic
“There is no longer any reason to live; any reason to fight” (Wiesel 99). In the book “Night”, worte by Elie Wiesel, it depicts the many struggles of the prisoners of the Holocaust. Elie writes about his own experiences and his own struggles. Elie’s life changed and was influenced by what happened during the Holocaust. His life changed by his faith cheapening, having only his father, and the things he had seen.
This poem is related to night and the idea of not giving up when all seems lost. The people of Sighet never lost hope until the end, sometimes they are ever too optimistic, “Every encounter filled us with joy-yes joy: Thank God! You are still alive!” (pg. 35). When Elie thought about giving up, dying, whether it be in the last few months of Buna, on the death march to Gleiwitz, or the trains to Buchenwald, he did not give up because of his father, which motivated him to keep on surviving and not give up. And what if he were dead, as well? I called out to him. No response. I would have screamed if I could have. He was not moving. Suddenly, the evidence overwhelmed me: there was no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight.” Elie without
The year was 1943, young Elie Wiesel began to slowly realise the danger of the German Army and its leader; Adolf Hitler. Elie was one of the millions of the Jewish faith that was sent to concentration camps during the period known to all as the Holocaust. Throughout the journey to the camp, Elie and all others were promised that they would not be separated from their families; however, they soon learned the cold, hard truth that they were to be separated, “Men to the left, women to the right.” (Wiesel, 2006, pg. 29) Throughout the entire recap of Mr. Wiesel's experiences, everyone looked for something to give them the strength to survive, or the will to die. Night, by Elie Wiesel, shows the reader examples of objects taking on more than their
...ites a short 33-line poem that simply shows the barriers between races in the time period when racism was still openly practiced through segregation and discrimination. The poem captures the African American tenant’s frustrations towards the landlord as well as the racism shown by the landlord. The poem is a great illustration of the time period, and it shows how relevant discrimination was in everyday life in the nineteen-forties. It is important for the author to use the selected literary devices to help better illustrate his point. Each literary device in the poem helps exemplify the author’s intent: to increase awareness of the racism in the society in the time period.
“When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitives become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion or political views that place must become the center of the universe,” said by Elie Wiesel’s speech.
“One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength … from the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look … has never left me" (Wiesel 115). Elie Wiesel, a well known Holocaust survivor and activist, uses graphic, meaningful quotes to bring importance and raise awareness on the wrongdoings of the Holocaust and other human rights atrocities. He dims light in this quote, by recounting the night a couple days after his camp became liberated in ninety forty-five. This is where he first gazes his reflection, since his family were at the ghettos. These last lines leave the reader with a sense of hopelessness for the innocence he has lost. Not only Elie, but many Holocaust survivors lost a sense of innocence in some sort
Elie Wiesel’s novel ‘Night’ is a tragic, deeply poignant and heart-wrenching autobiographical account of his life in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. A traumatized survivor of the Buchenwald camp, through this novel expresses his anguish about the brutal incarceration and genocide that took place there and in numerous other camps in Europe during Hitler’s rule. However, what Elie Wiesel attributes as one of the main factors that allowed the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to continue their operations unabatedly was the all pervasive ‘silence’ which they encountered during their assault on the Jewish community. The author himself lived with the knowledge of these crimes against humanity in anguish and silence for
Starving, burning, shooting, beating, and death. These are just a few examples that tormented Elie.The parents should have listened when they recieved their first warning signs that the germans were approaching, little did they know their future would be filled with hardship and pain. Concentration camps were no place for a human being to encounter daily. Nazi’s decided that blonde hair and blue eyes are what made you acceptable to the world, and others without were worthless, especially jewish people.These countless acts against jews made some question their religion and or even the existence of god.
In Rita Wong’s poem “Write around the absence,” it showcases the importance of having the courage to stick to one’s own cultural interpretations despite living in a country where your culture and or values are considered a minority. With the narrator being of a Chinese descent living in an English majority, she describes and questions the dominant nature English has over her thoughts, expressions, and life; despite being equally bilingual. Expressing the anxiety and oppression she feels about having the “tones” (Wong 8) she wishes to express be “steamrolle[d]” (13) and marginalized to the corner by the powers of the English linguistic. Therefore, she finds the determination to try to fight back this dominance in unique ways, not allowing herself
It is true that old days were really hard to live in, especially if the person was dark skin. This poet’s main idea of this poem “ I, too” was that, he wanted to let people know what he, and most of the African American people were going through. He wanted to let people know that color should not define your personality, and people should accept the fact that people with dark skin were humans just like others. People should have accept them and treat them equally and respectfully. Also one of the things I liked in the poem was that, he was using word sing as a expression of a word of talk, he was not really singing but he was saying it
Throughout ‘To the Welsh Critic Who Doesn’t Find Me Identifiably Indian’, Arundhati Subramaniam argues that the “the business of language”, or the language that one speaks, should not dictate one’s identity. This becomes crucial in her poem as she uses this argument in response to a Welsh Critic, who does not identify her as being Indian. The poem substantiates her perspective of language through various techniques. For instance: Subramaniam reinforces the critic’s cultural assumptions in a defiant tone; she questions him, repeatedly, about language and eventually she challenges him, insisting he should explain to her how he would receive her as “Identifiably Indian”.
He is prohibited anyone to write about love, poem or anything who described love because is racist still out there. In addition, there is no point of confessing love where there is lot hatred, animosity, confusion, hypocrite, .and they need to fix what is broken. Where the point of is confess, preach or write about love if there is many hatred incident towards all the race, so you think oh I am the only one. Racial issues need to be addressed more often in the United State. In the last five, lines the author reassures and remind the African –American their root where they from whom their ancestors were, from and how they had it back then and how is that the ancestors were free from slavering that same the author is predicting the positive mindset and
In today’s society, Technology is the main player in the way we communicate. Cell phones and social media made the communication easier for people to contact each other. It extends time less to connect between long distance friends. Also, it helps people to spread and enlarge circle of friendships around the world. However, people are losing the way of face-to-face conversation. Sherry Turkle is an expert on culture and therapy, mobile technology, social networking, and sociable robotics argued in her article “the flight from conversation” how using technology can affect our behavior in conversation.