Second, Dahlia Ravikovitch was a Jewish poet who was born on November 17th, 1936 (Cohen 1). Ravikovitch lived in Tel Aviv, Israel where she went to university ( Cohen 1). The experience of loss for her, death of her father which left her with a “permanent sense of loss” (Cohen 1). She later advocated for Palestinian rights in Israel after the Israel-Palestine military conflict of the 1980’s (Joffe 10). Ravikovitch known for translating popular poetry into Hebrew and writing books and collections of poetry (Cohen 7-8) . Her works involved "Israel’s propensity to venerate war, death and destruction” (Cohen 3). Ravikovitch was known for her protests of war through her poetry as she gained popularity as a poet by writing about the sins of oppression from nationalists in Israel.
Third of all, John Berryman was born in Oklahoma in 1914, and studied at Cambridge University (“Berryman” 2-3). At an early age he witnessed
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Critic Bryan Aubrey, Ph.D in English, analyzes that pride is built up within and when it “cracks” it happens without warning. This sudden change is a metaphor for sin’s effects on people in the community (“Pride” 178). Ravikovitch says “They don’t move, so the cracks stay hidden”(line 7). This suggests that sin comes from the inside, hiding inside the cracks, affecting the central part of the community. Aubrey says that the rock is “cracked not by a greater or mightier force, but a seemingly lesser one” (“Pride” 185). Showing that the smallest of sin is what causes the crack and breakdown on the community. The sin or the catalyst is described as “Whoever is going to shatter them hasn’t come yet” (lines 10-11). When this phrase is compounded with “And suddenly the rock has an open wound” (line 18), it shows that sin comes randomly and will have immediate repercussions. This would mean that the rock, or the community can be affected by small sin which will lead to immediate
Livia Bitton-Jackson was born in 1931, in Czechoslovakia. At the age of 13 she was taken to a concentration camp in Auschwitz, and was liberated in 1945. She studied at the New York University and is a Doctor of Philosophy in Hebrew Culture and Jewish History. For thirty-seven years, Bitton was a professor of history at City University of New York. One of her books, “Elli: Coming of Age in the Holocaust”, received numerous awards, such as the Christopher Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award and the Jewish Heritage Award. Some of her other books include: “I Have Lived a Thousand Years” and “My Bridges of Hope”. In her books, Bitton describes events she took part in, such as her life in Auschwitz. In her books, the author describes her own experiences, which makes her a credible author.
Alan Shapiro was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 18th, 1952. He is the son of Harold and Marilyn Shapiro. Growing up Shapiro was a part of a Jewish household. Shapiro received his education at Brandies University. While attending Brandies University he discovered that his one and only passion was for the astounding art of poetry and he found an escape from all the devastating disasters he encountered in his youth (Garbett). Shapiro is also now an educator at Stanford University and he has also worked at Northwestern University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As Shapiro conveys in many of his works after researching Shapiro’s life it is known Shapiro’s brother and sister both died of cancer while Shapiro was very young, and these events highly contribute to Shapiro’s work as a poet. The memoir that Shapiro wrote which was entitled Vigil is about the tragic death of his sister due to the unfortunate events of being diagnosed with breast cancer. As it is well known Shapiro’s poems are very tragic and sorrowfully oriented it is no fault to say that different people happen to react and cope with death in different ways and Shapiro expresses his sadnes...
Lydia Chekovskaya wrote about Sofia Petrovna and the transformation she had undergone to closely reflect the state of mind and changes experienced by citizens of the Soviet Union during that time. As people began to suffer from the purges and other hardships due to Stalin’s incompetence, their minds and logic, much like Sofia Petrovna’s, became impaired leading them to try their best to rationalize Stalin’s actions. They believed in the party wholeheartedly, but when they finally realized the wrongdoing of the party, it was far too late.
The Holocaust was a tragic event in history which instilled fear and sorrow in so many. This time can be seen as one without order, because the law at the time said the actions taken were just (epigraph translation). A poet was able, however, to take such a chaotic time in history in the poem The Book of Yolek, and create a more personal attachment (for the reader) to the topic. The poet Anthony Hecht has taken the Holocaust (more specifically the moving of Jewish orphans to a concentration camp) and made it simple and nostalgic, taking a more calm approach to the subject ("5th August 1942: Warsaw Orphans Leave for Treblinka"). By using the form of a Sestina (very precise form difficult to properly do), along with the images, rhetorical use of grammar, and the tone portrayed throughout the piece, Anthony Hecht demonstrates a peaceful outlook can be given to the most chaotic moments in human life (Strand et al. 20). However, he also demonstrates the need for emotional attachment when referring to an occurrence (in history) of the past.
Abraham Sutzkever was a Yiddish poet who was known as the “greatest poet of the Holocaust.” He was born on July 15, 1913 in Smorgon, Russian Empire, now Smarhon, Belarus. He wrote poetry from an early age, initially in Hebrew. He was among the Modernist writers and artists of the “Young Vilna” group in the early 1930’s. He wrote many famous Yiddish poems. His poems consist of his memories from his childhood in Siberia, his life in the Vilna during the World War II, and his escape to join Jewish partisans. Through his poems, he recalls his early childhood experiences. He became a major figure in Yiddish letters and throughout the world as he was one of the creative artists who had lived through and survived the devastation. His poems are imagistic and filled with metaphors. Through his works in, A Little Flower, Scorched Pearls, and A Moment, the impressions of hardships endured are more symbolic and metaphoric.
The film explores how resistance, to the Israeli occupation, has taken on an identity characterized by violence, bloodshed, and revenge in Palestinian territories. Khaled and Said buy into the widely taught belief that acts of brutality against the Israeli people is the only tactic left that Palestinians have to combat the occupation. In an effort to expose the falsity of this belief, Hany Abu-Assad introduces a westernized character named Suha who plays the voice of reason and opposition. As a pacifist, she suggests a more peaceful alternative to using violence as a means to an end. Through the film “Paradise Now,” Abu-Assad not only puts a face on suicide bombers but also shows how the struggle for justice and equality must be nonviolent in order to make any significant headway in ending the cycle of oppression between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
There are only two types of people in a time of war and crisis, those who survive and those who die. Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, shows how Elie, himself, faces difficult problems and struggles to survive World War II. Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, tells a story about a young soldier thinking of himself before others during World War I. The poem “Mary Hamilton” shows how a mother killed her child
World War I and II brought the worst of times for some people; loved ones were lost, families were separated, homes were destroyed, and innocent lives were taken during this time. There are many ways to deal with these hardships; Jewish poet, Avrom Sutzkever, used his hard times as inspiration for his writing and as a way to deal with the war and survive it (INSERT CITATION). This part of history also resulted in other great works of art as a way to deal with what the war brought, during and after the war was over. Avrom Sutzkever wrote his poem “Frozen Jews,” using such dark and depressing imagery, connotation, and diction because of his historical and biographical background.
Naomi Shihab Nye’s collection of poetry teaches the reader that the people of the Middle East are human, too. After 9/11, many people’s opinions of people from the Middle East changed significantly in a negative way. I think that a lot of people were worried about other potential attacks happening in the United States. Even now, because of recent events, many people feel threatened and they are scared of what is going to happen next. Nye’s poems remind everyone that not every person from the Middle East is threat. As she says in the introduction of her book, “A huge shadow had been cast across the lives of so many innocent people and an ancient culture’s pride” (Nye xv). Through this book, she wants to convey that they have their own lives and feel misrepresented by extremist actions.
Sylvia Plath’s life was full of disappointment, gloominess and resentment. Her relationship status with her parents was hostile and spiteful, especially with her father. Growing up during World War II did not help the mood of the nation either, which was dark and dreary. At age 8 Plath’s father of German ancestry died of diabetes and even though their relationship was never established nor secure, his death took a toll on her. “For Sylvia, who had been his favorite, it was an emotional holocaust and an experience from which she never fully recovered” (Kehoe 90). Since she was so young she never got to work out her unsettled feelings with him. Even at age eight, she hid when he was around because she was fearful of him. When she was in his presence his strict and authoritarian figure had left an overpowering barrier between their relationship. Sadly enough by age eight Plath instead of making memories with her dad playing in the yard she resented him and wanted nothing to do with him (Kehoe). These deep-seated feelings played a major role in Plath’s poetry writings. Along with his “hilterian figure,” her father’s attitude towards women was egotistical and dismissive, uncondemning. This behavior infuriated Plath; she was enraged about the double standard behavior towards women. Plath felt controlled in male-dominated world (Lant). “Because Plath associates power so exclusively with men, her conviction that femininity is suffocating and inhibiting comes as no surprise” (Lant 631). This idea of a male-dominated world also influenced Plath’s writing. Unfortunately, Plath married a man just like her father Ted Hughes. “Hughes abandonment apparently stirred in her the memories and feelings she had struggled with when her ...
The theme of death in the poems “War Photographer”, “Remember”, and “Mother in a Refugee Camp” were all portrayed in different forms to explore death and the suffering it brings. The variations of death in the three poems create a diverse image of death, which some people can relate to through the different situations of loss. “Remember” by Christina Rossetti fashions an image of death because the speaker wanted her husband to remember all the memories they had shared during her life. Rossetti found it necessary to portray death as a spiritual place rather than a physical state of decomposition so that she can finally escape to a place of silence to avoid all the darkness in her life. “War Photographer” by Carol Ann Duffy is about a man who takes photographs of death in vivid, dark and disturbing images of conflict, which Duffy conveys thoroughly throughout the poem to powerfully showcase his grief and disheartening on the situation. “A Mother in a Refugee camp” by Chinua Achebe, displays the struggles of a mother desperately trying to support and save her child while writhing in her caressing arms at death’s doors. These are the poems that represent the theme of death.
Lucy Dawidowicz, the author of “The War Against The Jews 1933-1945” grew up in New York. She was born in 1915. Lucy started her undergraduate at Hunter College, where she studied English. After completing her undergraduate with tremendous achievement she started going to Columbia University to finish getting her masters in English Literature. While she was studying profusely she interrupted her studies to “work and study Jewish culture at Yivo, the legendary research institute in Vilna, Poland.” (Lucy Dawidowicz, The War Against The Jews 1933-1945 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1986), Front Cover.) She studied here for a rewarding year and then returned to New York to study more with the Yivo. After the debilitating WWII ended, she went over to Europe where she helped the Jewish people “recreate schools and libraries, and she recovered vast collections of books
Within the 20th century European epoch a new kind of poetry emerged, one permeated by its current political situation, both complicating and encouraging contemporary writer’s ability to exercise agency. Carolyn Fouchè, an American poet and Human Rights activist found her in this situation whilst working in El Salvador for Amnesty International. It was in these journeys that Fouchè came face to face with the gross human injustices of twentieth century which she perhaps, like many other individuals, chose to silence. In exposing the dictatorship littering the Eastern European, Fouchè becomes concerned with a central thread of contemporary literature – human rights.
Mahmoud Darwich was one of the Palestinians who spent his life defending Palestinian problem through his political activism and his literary writings. Identity Card by Mahmoud Darwich, written in 1964, is a poem about Palestinians’ feelings and restrictions on expulsion. He’s expressing in this poem, the spirit of resistance of Palestinians in the face exile. It is extremely praised in Arabic poetry because it demonstrates emblems of the association between identity and land. Fadwa Touqan known as the “ Grande Dame” of Palestinian letters or the “Poet of Palestine” is one of the best contemporary poets. She wrote I shall not weep in 1968 when she went to Yaffa to meet the other resistance poets. One of them was Mahmoud Darwich. These are
Through her dark and intense poetry, Sylvia Plath left an eternal mark on the literary community. Her personal struggles with depression, insecurities, and suicidal thoughts influenced her poetry and literary works. As a respected twentieth century writer, Sylvia Plath incorporated various literary techniques to intensify her writing. Her use of personification, metaphors, and allusions in her poems “Ariel,” “Lady Lazarus,” and “Edge”, exemplifies her talent as a poet and the influence her own troubled life had on her poetry.