Have you ever wondered how your ethnicity can impact the way you interact with people? What about the conversation you might have with people? Do you have a voice in our society that allows you to speak for yourself or a group of people? In the poem “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question” by Diane Burns, the author focused on showing the importance poetic devices have through allusions, repetition, and imagery. Through poetic devices, author of “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question” shows how stereotypes from societies and her ethnicity affects her life. Diane Burns uses three poetic devices to communicate her tone throughout the poem. The authors usage of repetition helps readers understand how her ethnicity affected her life. Burns introduces how she becomes tired of explaining her culture to others. Diane says, “No, not from India. / No, not Apache / No, Not Navajo. / No, not Sioux. / No, we are not extinct” (5-9). Burns creates a tone of annoyance after repeatedly answering questions based on her ethnicity. Subsequently, Diane constantly has people come up to her after believing they believe they are connect to her. Burns uses a variety of phrases and says, “Oh, so you’ve had an Indian friend?” (18) “Oh, so you’ve had an Indian lover?” (20) “Oh, …show more content…
Diane Burns, the author of “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question” used repetition, imagery, and allusions to help readers understand how important poetic devices are. Throughout this poem the author wanted to speak for all Indian-Americans who do not have a voice in the world, she made sure that her tone was visible in this poem as she used poetic devices. This relates to the outside world because a lot of people do not have a voice, they depend on other people to speak out for them and this is what Diane Burns did. After reading this poem multiple times I was left with one question, does every ethnicity have a voice in our
In the poem, “Sure you Can Ask Me A Personal Question” By Diane Burns. The theme of story is “ Dont form ideas of someone if you dont really know them”. I was influenced by the word choice and phrases in the story, such as NO which, the author brings up alot. In many lines the author will answer saying “No i'm not from Indian”, “No werent not extinct” and “No I dont know where you can get Navajo rugs real cheap”. The list of evidence clearly shows you how the questioner keeps making assumptions on things that many Native Americans did in their culture, without getting to know her fully. Throughout the story the author has perpetuated theme, because constantly you see comments or stereotypes thrown at the Native American girl. On the last two
In “Queens, 1963”, the speaker narrates to her audience her observations that she has collected from living in her neighborhood located in Queens, New York in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. The narrator is a thirteen-year-old female immigrant who moved from the Dominican Republic to America with her family. As she reflects on her past year of living in America, she reveals a superb understanding of the reasons why the people in her neighborhood act the way they do towards other neighbors. In “Queens, 1963” by Julia Alvarez, the poet utilizes diction, figurative language, and irony to effectively display to the readers that segregation is a strong part of the American melting pot.
Throughout history society has created many stereotypes and assumptions based on race and nationality to confine us into categories. The reality is, not every individual fits a specific category because we are unique even within the same ethnic group. In “On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black person” Allison Joseph illustrates some speech stereotypes that come hand in hand with her racial background and how even people from the same racial background and house hold don’t all sound alike. The author portrays that race and linguistic has such a huge impact on our daily life and how society sees her differently to others when they see she does not fit in the stereotype of sounding “like a black person” and feels frustration to being compared
It is a way to crucially engage oneself in setting the stage for new interventions and connections. She also emphasized that she personally viewed poetry as the embodiment of one’s personal experiences, and she challenged what the white, European males have imbued in society, as she declared, “I speak here of poetry as the revelation or distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, too often, the white fathers distorted the word poetry to mean — in order to cover their desperate wish for imagination without insight.”
Sociologists often employ intersectionality theory to describe and explain facets of human interactions. This particular methodology operates on the notion that sociologically defining characteristics, such as that of race, gender, and class, are not independent of one another but function simultaneously to determine our individual social experiences. This is evident in poetry as well. The combination of one poet’s work that expresses issues on class with another poet’s work that voices issues on race, and so forth, can be analyzed through a literary lens, and collectively embody the sociological intersectionality theory.
Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker expresses prominent themes of language and racial identity. Chang-Rae Lee focuses on the struggles that Asian Americans have to face and endure in American society. He illustrates and shows readers throughout the novel of what it really means to be native of America; that true nativity of a person does not simply entail the fact that they are from a certain place, but rather, the fluency of a language verifies one’s defense of where they are native. What is meant by possessing nativity of America would be one’s citizenship and legality of the country. Native Speaker suggests that if one looks different or has the slightest indication that one should have an accent, they will be viewed not as a native of America, but instead as an alien, outsider, and the like. Therefore, Asian Americans and other immigrants feel the need to mask their true identity and imitate the native language as an attempt to fit into the mold that makes up what people would define how a native of America is like. Throughout the novel, Henry Park attempts to mask his Korean accent in hopes to blend in as an American native. Chang-Rae Lee suggests that a person who appears to have an accent is automatically marked as someone who is not native to America. Language directly reveals where a person is native of and people can immediately identify one as an alien, immigrant, or simply, one who is not American. Asian Americans as well as other immigrants feel the need to try and hide their cultural identity in order to be deemed as a native of America in the eyes of others. Since one’s language gives away the place where one is native to, immigrants feel the need to attempt to mask their accents in hopes that they sound fluent ...
7). Consequently, one can define this use of race as individuation; which Ito and Senholzi’s article define as a process “involve[ing] discriminating individuals through attention to their unique attributes” (1098) in their article on race perception. Unique attributes such as speech, behavior or motives which Morrison develops within the story can greatly affect the reader’s perceptions of the
As a European immigrant in the USA, I have encountered many new cultural phenomena in the last 4 _ years that have challenged me to perceive who I am differently. This experience has been even more polarized by the fact that I have lived most of that time in Los Angeles, a melting pot to be reckoned with. Coming to America, I expected these adaptations to my Irish self but the intensity of becoming cognizant of my label of 'whiteness' has mocked the limitations of my anticipations.
Xu, Ben. Memory and the Ethnic Self: Reading Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. An excerpt from MELEUS, Vol. 19, No.1 (Spring 1994). 1994. The Society for Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. 5 May 2010.
Mukherjee begins her essay with an exposition of her and her sister’s story. She uses repetition in order to emphasize the main differences between the two. For example, she states, “I am an American citizen and she is not. I am moved that thousands of residents are finally taking the oath of citizenship. She is not.” This line is used to set up her subject. She is stating that she is an immigrant whose dream was to envelop the American culture, while her sister does not believe that she should be assimilated into it. The use of repetition also appeals to her audience, Americans, by capturing their attention. Many Americans are nationalistic, if not jingoistic, and believe that America is the greatest country in the world. The notion that others do not feel this way may intrigue them, or potentially offend them, causing them to read on in attempt to find flaws within her argument.
We live in a patriarchal society were inequalities amongst men and women are still very prevalent. We are improving, but every day we are striving to fight for more equality amongst the sexes, especially when it comes to voicing opinions. Women are often shunned from the thought of being outspoken, still based on the old beliefs that women should be “seen, not heard”. This collection of poetry is dedicated to giving a voice to one of the most silenced demographics in America, black women. All of these poems are written by African American women throughout various stages of their life. Within these poems, the inner thoughts, sentiments, and viewpoints that five women have on society will be showcased through their own narrative, similar to an entry in their diary.
Through the decades, there have been different types of social issues that affect many people. “The personal is political” was a popular feminist cry originating from civil rights movements of the 1960s, called attention to daily lives in order to see greater social issues on our society. This quote can relate back to many social issues that still occur till this day that many people are opposed of. One of the major social issues that still exist today, for example, is discrimination against colored people. In Javon Johnson’s poem, “Cuz He’s Black,” he discusses how discrimination affects many people, especially little kids because they are growing up fearing people who are supposed to protect us. Johnson effectively uses similes, dialogue
We all have our own identity in this world that is bursting to come out. But our identity gets strip from us when we don’t step out of society’s image. Stereotypes plays a huge role in the way society structures our image. Although everyone has their own identity, we stereotype all races putting them in categories stripping them of their own identity. In the short article “Stereotyping...
Discrimination and prejudice throughout American history has left behind a legacy of oppression towards minorities and women. In spite adversity and harsh circumstances Maya Angelou’s poems “And Still I Rise” and “ Phenomenal Woman” leave the reader with the impression that “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise” (Victor Hugo). These optimistic, prideful poems are anthems of strength and overcoming power for minority groups, especially the African American community. Angelou depicts that hardships and struggles are able to strengthen and aid one to conquer any obstacles they may face in life.
From attending lectures and reading assignments, I learned that there are many ways American Indian stories are told. American Indian stories are told through explorers, colonizers, pioneers, newspapers, magazines, politicians, anthropologists, archeologists, historians, biographies, travelers, fiction writers, and poets. As you can see, American Indian stories are told through many ways. The different ways in which these stories are told through, sometimes give off negative insights of how non-Indian individuals portray them. With all the varieties from wh...