Dudley Randall's Ballad of Birmingham Dudley Randall's Ballad of Birmingham gives a poetic account of the bombing of a Birmingham church in 1963. The poem was written in ballad form to convey the mood of the mother to her daughter. The author also gives a graphic account of what the 1960's were like. Irony played a part also in the ballad showing the church as the warzone and the freedom march as the safer place to be. Writing the poem in ballad form gave a sense of mood to each paragraph. The poem starts out with an eager little girl wanting to march for freedom. The mother explains how treacherous the march could become showing her fear for her daughters life. The mood swings back and forth until finally the mother's fear overcomes the child's desire and the child is sent to church where it will be safe. The tempo seems to pick up in the last couple of paragraphs to emphasize the mothers distraught on hearing the explosion and finding her child's shoe. The poem also focuses on what life was like in the sixties. It tells of black freedom marches in the South how they effected one family. It told of how our peace officers reacted to marches with clubs, hoses, guns, and jail. They were fierce and wild and a black child would be no match for them. The mother refused to let her child march in the wild streets of Birmingham and sent her to the safest place that no harm would become of her daughter. Going to church in the ghetto in Birmingham was probably the safest place a mother could send her child. But this is where the irony takes place. The irony makes the church the warzone and place of destruction while the march was the safest place to be. The child was depicted as combed hair, freshly bathed, with white gloves, and white shoes, which is also ironic. The mother had sent an angel dressed in white to a firestorm from hell called church. The mother was completely sure that her daughter was safe until she
The tragic poem, “The Ballad of Birmingham,” begins with a young child asking an imploring question to her mother, “May I go downtown instead of out to play” (Randall, 669)?
Nursing homes initial purpose was to provide care to the aging population in a home-like environment. With the creation of social security, the elderly had the opportunity to be taken care of and supported through the healthcare system. Ultimately turning nursing homes into a hospital setting. Now people are mostly thought of as patients and their disease first rather than human beings. Basic needs are meet such as shelter, food, and medication, but interpersonal human needs have been lost. Covering the cost of medications which sometimes numbs a persona are far easier, than personal music which could help retain a person’s sense of
It is very likely that Louise Erdrich experienced some kind of racism or prejudice in her lifetime. Segregation laws were still in use while she was growing up in the fifties, and in the sixties, many of the same people still felt racist, with or without the laws. Boarding schools were not an exception to this fact either. School authorities probably did take advantage of the fact that boarding schools are away from home and not under the watchful eye of any parent. This poem demonstrates the truth of what it really felt and feels like to have lived through such bad treatment. It is disturbing to think that instead of just learning at school, Louise Erdrich, amongst other children, may have learned what it felt like to be hated. At such early ages, they taught these children that the way they were treated was how the world was supposed to be. It displays the painful scars embedded so deeply into a child, from a time that should have been the most nurturing part of his/her life.
Although the little girl doesn’t listen to the mother the first time she eventually listens in the end. For example, in stanzas 1-4, the little girl asks if she can go to the Freedom March not once, but twice even after her mother had already denied her the first time. These stanzas show how the daughter is a little disobedient at first, but then is able to respect her mother’s wishes. In stanzas 5 and 6, as the little girl is getting ready the mother is happy and smiling because she knows that her little girl is going to be safe, or so she thinks. By these stanzas the reader is able to tell how happy the mother was because she thought her daughter would be safe by listening to her and not going to the March. The last two stanzas, 7 and 8, show that the mother senses something is wrong, she runs to the church to find nothing, but her daughter’s shoe. At this moment she realizes that her baby is gone. These stanzas symbolize that even though her daughter listened to her she still wasn’t safe and is now dead. The Shoe symbolizes the loss the mother is going through and her loss of hope as well. This poem shows how elastic the bond between the daughter and her mother is because the daughter respected her mother’s wish by not going to the March and although the daughter is now dead her mother will always have her in her heart. By her having her
In 1536 a man by the name of John Calvin authored a book titled, “Institutes of the Christian Religion.” In this incredibly detailed theological work, Calvin outlines and defines the doctrines and systematic theology of the Protestant faith. Prior to the release of Calvin’s book, there were little to no reformation movements that were operating on a large scale in the nation of France. But as the impact of Calvin’s work began to grow, there became a growing mass of followers interested in the biblical framework Calvin highlighted. One group, the Huguenots were followers of Calvin and soon began to take steps in starting a Protestant Reformation within the nation of France.
In conclusion, this whole poem has symbolic historic value because of its theme surrounding The Children’s March and The Birmingham Church Bombing. The author successfully brought the pain and impact the event made by taking Addie Mae Collins’ death. “He makes the sadness of an infamous tragedy vivid and heartfelt to everyone who reads it, whether they have connection to the tragedy or not.” (Devitt, 1) By approaching these
culture here. The speaker is allowing the reader to make a mental picture of one
Throughout society there are a lot of identities one might categorize themselves within; based on knowledge and opinions and fundamentally a way of life. The Social Identity theory, proposed by Henry Tajfel in the 1970’s is designed to explain and help aid in the understanding of how it is one might develop a connection and belonging to particular groups within society; but more importantly providing an understanding as to how the mechanics of discrimination regarding other groups work.
Throughout history music has had a profound effect on a person’s mind, body, and consciousness. A song or piece of music can trigger vivid memories, and induce emotions ranging from deep sorrow to unabashed joy. Music can drive listeners to patriotic fervor or religious frenzy, or it can soothe the savage beast we call human. There have been many advances in technology that have let us study how music affects the brain. Music causes all sorts of activity in the brain, especially during musical improvisation. Music can tremendously help people with certain mind damaging diseases, and in some cases it can have negative effects.
The Protestant Reformation: What it was, why it happened and why it was necessary. The Protestant Reformation has been called "the most momentous upheaval in the history of Christianity." It was a parting of the ways for two large groups of Christians who differed in their approach to the worship of Christ. At the time, the Protestant reformers saw the church- the Catholic church, or the "universal church- " as lacking in its ways. The church was corrupt then, all the way up to the pope, and had lost touch with the people of Europe. The leaders of the Reformation sought to reform the church and its teachings according to the Scriptures and the writings of the Apostles. They sought to simplify the church by returning to its roots, roots long lost by the Catholic church at the time, or so the reformers believed. After the fall of the Roman Empire, life in Europe declined rapidly into the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages were a time of misery and darkness. There were only two socioeconomic classes: the very rich nobility or the very poor peasants. Small kingdoms popped up everywhere, and were constantly at war with one another. Whole libraries were destroyed, and the only people who remained literate were the clergy of the Christian church. Life became such a struggle to survive that, for a period of five hundred years, very little artwork or literature was produced by the whole of Europe. Eventually, around the year 1000, the conditions in Europe began to get better. This marked the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Crusades began as an effort to revitalize the spirits of the people. However, things still weren't very good. Plagues ravaged the land, carried by rodents and destroying whole villages. With th...
In a typical family, there are parents that expected to hear things when their teenager is rebelling against them: slamming the door, shouting at each other, and protests on what they could do or what they should not do. Their little baby is growing up, testing their wings of adulthood; they are not the small child that wanted their mommy to read a book to them or to kiss their hurts away and most probably, they are thinking that anything that their parents told them are certainly could not be right. The poem talks about a conflict between the author and her son when he was in his adolescence. In the first stanza, a misunderstanding about a math problem turns into a family argument that shows the classic rift between the generation of the parent and the teenager. Despite the misunderstandings between the parent and child, there is a loving bond between them. The imagery, contrasting tones, connotative diction, and symbolism in the poem reflect these two sides of the relationship.
The “Ballad of Birmingham” is a poem created to remember a horrific event and view a strong relationship between a mother and her daughter during the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama. Dudley Randall expresses their relationship through a ballad, as if writing a hymn to remember a strong bond between a mother and child, only to have the bond ripped away by racial violence. Through Randall’s dialog between the daughter and mother, the reader can sense the close bond as the daughter pleads:
In order to apply Goffman’s theories in a contemporary context, it’s important to first understand and recognize the main concepts outlined in his work. To begin, the performance can be defined as “all the activity of a given participant on a given occasion which serves to influence in any way any of the other participants” (Goffman 1956:8). A performance is central to every social interaction. It can be seen as the manner in which the participants interact, react, and make meaning of their encounter. The audience then, is the individual(s) observing your performance. They become highly influential in the manner with which the interaction ensues, as the performer will constantly alter his behavior in an attempt to gain or receive a desired response from the audience. Likewise, the setting of an interaction is central in determining the type of behavior displayed. For instance, behavior in a formal upper-class restaurant will undoubtedly differ from the behavior patrons will display while socializing at a local pub. Appearance “may be taken to refer to those stimuli which function at the time to tell us of the performer’s social statuses” (Goffman 1956:15). Thus, the appearance of an individual portrays their current social status or role within society. A person wearing a white lab coat may caus...
Being able to identify with a certain group has been an issue that individuals hesitate with daily. Am I Black, are you a girl, what religion do you practice? These are all common questions that society has forced individuals to concentrate on. Should an individual have to pick a side or is it relevant to the human race to identify with any group? One may believe not, but for others having and knowing one’s own identity is important, because it is something that they have been developing their entire life. Along with how their identity influenced their life chances and their self-esteem. This can also affect how society interact with whatever identity an individual chooses to live. Which is why it was important to recognize how identifying
This stanza of the poem is joyful, but the reader cannot help but feel that there is so much to be done before the injustice ends. When Angelou mentions that African Americans need to “stop impostering [their] own history”, she means that they must accept the past and learn from it, not attempt to hide it. Earlier in the poem, Angelou uses alliteration to add rhythm to the poem, pairing it with the dark subject matter she describes. The narrator takes the form of a slave hundreds of years ago and describes a scene “under a dead blue sky on a distant beach, / [in which she] was dragged by [her] braids just beyond [her family’s] reach” (“Million Man March Poem” 10-12). Angelou alternates the hard sound of “B’s” with the consonant sound of “D’s”, giving the poem a heavy rhythm. This strong, dark pulse, meant to emphasize the importance of her diction, was characteristic of African American literature during the Civil Rights Movement (“African American Literature” 1). At the Million Man