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The novel Drown was written by Junot Diaz and it is a compilation of short stories. Yunior is the narrator and the main character in the story. He jumps from one period of his life to another throughout the book. The poem “America” was written by McKay, a poet from the Harlem Renaissance. The American dream can be interpreted differently among individuals. For immigrants, it means, that success can be attained through hard work and determination. For Americans, it is the aspiration to do better than your parents. These two authors’ perspective regarding the American Dream is similar because they both think that as a person of color it is harder to achieve it. Also, the both of the characters figuratively are drowning. However, their perspective is different because Diaz’s tone and word choices are more hopeless than McKay, therefore, McKay’s attitude of …show more content…
the American Dream is more optimistic. One similarity is that they both believe that as a non-white person, the American Dream is hard to achieve.
Struggles prevail when facing racist mistreatment considering that equality does not exist during this time period. This justification is evident when it states: “Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, / And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,/ Stealing my breath of life, ”(McKay, 1-3) If living in America is difficult then pursuing the American dream require an arduous effort. Similarly, Diaz talked about how a person of color encounters limited opportunities that can get them out of poverty or a closer step toward gain prosperity. In the story, Yunior encounters some opportunities that can possibly improve his poverty-stricken family, “Son, I know somebody who’s hiring. It’s the United States government. Well. Sorry, But I ain’t Army material. That’s exactly what I used to think, he said, his ten piggy fingers buried in his carpeted steering wheel. But now I have a house, a car, a gun and a wife.”(100) Yunior only has one option that can possibly get him out of the ghetto but he refuses this
chance. Another similarity is the imagination of drowning. In the poem, the black man was figuratively drowning due to the overwhelming feeling created by racism in America. He uses a simile to get his point across,“Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.”(McKay,7). He felt as an insignificant human being living in a powerful nation. Comparably, in Drown Yunior was symbolically drowning One difference is the tones and word choices. Diaz’s tone is hopelessness while McKay’s tone is ambivalent. McKay’s attitude towards American Dream is bitter-sweet. For instance, when McKay wrote: “I will confess/ I love this cultured hell that tests my youth.”(3-4) Mckay sees the potential that lies within America. Diaz’s tone set a scene that compares the American dream to a sacrifice due to the fact that numerous immigrants often exchange everything that they have but never really receive what they want. The teacher told the students that “The majority of you are just going to burn out. Going nowhere.” Teachers are supposed to be a motivation to strive in school but in this case, the teacher spreads the discouragement. In conclusion, Mckay and Diaz’s viewpoint on the American dream is very similar yet very different. The resemblance in their perspective is the hardship that needed to endure in order to succeed as a foreigner and the symbolism of drowning. Contrastly, Diaz’s voice created an ambiance of pessimism whereas McKay’s tone develops a conception that the American Dream is promising.
In the article Skin Deep written by Nina Jablonski and George Chaplin, they discuss and look deeper into the diverse differences in skin color. Our skin color has developed over the years to be dark enough to prevent the damaging sunlight that has been harming our skin and the nutrient folate that it carries. At the same time out skin is light enough to receive vitamin D.
The American Dream can be interpreted in many different ways, but a universal definition would not fit for everyone. Both The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown and The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald represent different aspects of how the American Dream can be achieved. The Boys in the Boat believe the American Dream is to conquer an inner goal by winning Olympic gold, opposed to Gatsby’s American Dream which is to find love and to have money. One dream is not more valid than the other because the American Dream is an individual dream and cannot be defined.
The short story, Ashes for the Wind by Hernando Tellez, the central conflict is focused around two groups, the all-powerful government and powerless farmers. The struggle that is going on is one that is commonly seen in poor third world countries where the government controls everything and where the people make up the complete work force. The story reveals Juan Martinez’s inner beliefs, that he is a stubborn yet proud man that will stand for everything that he owns even if that means death. Even after voting for the wrong side, Juan protects his family from the evil that is the law. Arevalo’s motivations were such that he did not stand up for the family that he grew up with. His betrayal of the political system and his father leaves Simon’s
As a journalist in 1920 for the New York Herald Tribune, Sophie Treadwell was assigned to go to Mexico to follow the situation after the Mexican Revolution. (Mexican Revolution 1910-1917) She covered many important aspects of the Mexican Revolution during this time, including relations between the U.S. and Mexico. She was even permitted an interview with Pancho Villa in August 1921 at his headquarters. This interview and other events that she experienced in Mexico are presumably what led her to write the play Gringo. In Gringo Treadwell tries to depict the stereotypical and prejudicial attitudes that Mexicans and Americans have about each other. There is a demonstration of how Mexican women are looked at in the Mexican culture and how they see themselves. The play also corresponds to similar events that occurred during the Mexican Revolution.
This novel is a story of a Chicano family. Sofi, her husband Domingo together with their four daughters – Esperanza, Fe, Caridad, and Loca live in the little town of Tome, New Mexico. The story focuses on the struggles of Sofi, the death of her daughters and the problems of their town. Sofi endures all the hardships and problems that come her way. Her marriage is deteriorating; her daughters are dying one by one. But, she endures it all and comes out stronger and more enlightened than ever. Sofi is a woman that never gives up no matter how poorly life treats her. The author- Ana Castillo mixes religion, super natural occurrences, sex, laughter and heartbreak in this novel. The novel is tragic, with no happy ending but at the same time funny and inspiring. It is full of the victory of the human spirit. The names of Sofi’s first three daughters denote the three major Christian ideals (Hope, Faith and Charity).
In the poem pride, Dahlia Ravikovitch uses many poetic devices. She uses an analogy for the poem as a whole, and a few metaphors inside it, such as, “the rock has an open wound.” Ravikovitch also uses personification multiple times, for example: “Years pass over them as they wait.” and, “the seaweed whips around, the sea bursts forth and rolls back--” Ravikovitch also uses inclusive language such as when she says: “I’m telling you,” and “I told you.” She uses these phrases to make the reader feel apart of the poem, and to draw the reader in. She also uses repetition, for example, repetition of the word years.
The first encounter with Helga Crane, Nella Larsen’s protagonist in the novel Quicksand, introduces the heroine unwinding after a day of work in a dimly lit room. She is alone. And while no one else is present in the room, Helga is accompanied by her own thoughts, feelings, and her worrisome perceptions of the world around her. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that most of Helga’s concerns revolve around two issues- race and sex. Even though there are many human character antagonists that play a significant role in the novel and in the story of Helga Crane, such as her friends, coworkers, relatives, and ultimately even her own children, her race and her sexuality become Helga’s biggest challenges. These two taxing antagonists appear throughout the novel in many subtle forms. It becomes obvious that racial confusion and sexual repression are a substantial source of Helga’s apprehensions and eventually lead to her tragic demise.
This is How You Lose Her is a book written by Junot Diaz consisting of short stories, told by the protagonist, Yunior. Yunior’s character is described as the Dominican guy who struggles with infidelity and unable to love others full-heartedly. Diaz also shows how in Dominican culture; men carry the reputation of being womanizers and usually is pass from one generation to the next. Throughout the book, he tells us stories pertaining to the relationships he had with the women he had in his life, and his family. From the stories one can assume that Yunior, caught up in a vicious cycle was destined to follow into patriarchy; a father who cheated on his mother, and an oldest brother who followed
“Who is more to blame though either should do wrong? She who sins for pay or he who pays to sin?” Throughout “You Foolish Men” by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz the central question lies around who is to really blame for the suppression of women. De la Cruz attempts throughout her poem to portray men as ludicrous for their a double standard of women. However, De la Cruz blames human nature more than men for the suppression of women.
In the American society, we constantly hear people make sure they say that a chief executive officer, a racecar driver, or an astronaut is female when they are so because that is not deemed as stereotypically standard. Sheryl Sandberg is the, dare I say it, female chief operating officer of Facebook while Mark Zuckerberg is the chief executive officer. Notice that the word “female” sounds much more natural in front of an executive position, but you would typically not add male in front of an executive position because it is just implied. The fact that most of America and the world makes this distinction shows that there are too few women leaders. In Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In,” she explains why that is and what can be done to change that by discussing women, work, and the will to lead.
Each character in the novel has their own interpretation of the ‘American Dream – the pursuit of happiness’ as they all lack happiness due to the careless nature of American society during the Jazz Age. The American Dreams seems almost non-existent to those whom haven’t already achieved it.
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
A few days later a woman died while giving birth to a child. A diviner
The novel Upside Down, by Eduardo Galeano depicts the injustices and unfairness of several branches of the global society. The differences between the colonized and the colonizer as Galeano writes is always growing and so is the gap between rich and poor. The author challenges western and eurocentric minds as to why on average, countries in the northern hemisphere have a higher standard of living than countries in the southern hemisphere. At first as a reader I thought the writer was whining about the unfairness of the world, but it is the social opiates such as the false idea of capitalism and choice that keeps us in check in this so called democracy. The author forces the reader to open their hearts to a concept that today's capitalist, power hungry society has almost forgotten
A person's ability to develop is due to two factors, maturation and learning. Although maturation, or the biological development of genes, is important, it is the learning - the process through which we develop through our experiences, which make us who we are (Shaffer, 8). In pre-modern times, a child was not treated like they are today. The child was dressed like and worked along side adults, in hope that they would become them, yet more modern times the child's need to play and be treated differently than adults has become recognized. Along with these notions of pre-modern children and their developmental skills came the ideas of original sin and innate purity. These philosophical ideas about children were the views that children were either born "good" or "bad" and that these were the basis for what would come of their life.