The poem “Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)” was written by Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni Jr. This poem was a part of a book she wrote called “The women and the men” during 1975. During this time women became to thrive. They were given more equal opportunities. Back in the day women were always treated inferior to men. They weren’t allowed to do certain things so of course that can make some people feel less confident about their selves. Women were meant to be seen and not heard as some would say. In the poem a women suggests that there may be a reason why African American women are here by showing her power as a women through history by displaying herself as a gazelle, a mother, and a goddess.
Giovanni writes about a gazelle in the poem. It says “with a packet of goat’s meat and a change of clothes/ I crossed it in two hours/ I am a gazelle so swift/ so swift you can’t catch me (18-22).”This woman did the impossible she somehow transformed herself into a gazelle and survived with only the resources that she obtained to make it across the desert as quickly as she possibly could. Although as fast as she ran you can assume that something was chasing her because a gazelle is prey to many different animals a menagerie if you will. By doing so she surpasses all of her enemy’s. However she never complained about being afraid of anyone. Her strength kept her pushing on to keep going until she arrived to her destination.
The woman also talks about becoming a mother and being one. Women are responsible for carrying children and bringing them into this world. Without them the world could not go on. This woman says “the tears from my birth pains / created the Nile (13-5).” That’s a lot of tears for anyone to cry to...
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... just because and they do serve a purpose in life. If only women could just wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and say “I am a beautiful woman” (15) then they could be more confident about themselves. You should always uplift and celebrate your own life especially if no one else is. Women are strong, beautiful, and powerful precious creatures.
Works Cited
Work Cited
“Beauty”. World Book Encyclopedia.3.
Bowker, John. "Goddess." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. (1997). October 25, 2013).Web.
“Confidence” Webster’s Dictionary. Ashland, Ohio: Landoll Inc., (1997).Print.
Giovanni, Nikki. “Ego Tripping: there may be a reason why. “The women and The men. New York: William Morrow and Co. Inc., 1975.n.pag.Print
Women are equated with water and the greatness that it possesses. In both poems Hughes displays African-American’s view of women and how they the key to maintaining a family. R. Baxter Miller states “her symbolic yet invisible presence pervades the fertility of the earth, the waters and the rebirth of the morning.” (35) Women are like rivers, they continue to flow, even when they cannot be seen. In Mother to Son the speaker reminisces on what his mother told him, which shows how powerful a woman really is. Water is also a very powerful source and contributes to everything. Just like water women contribute to life and the upbringing of children. The Negro Speaks of Rivers states “My soul has grown deep like the rivers” ( Norton Line 4, 2027.) In that one line Hughes demonstrates the likeness between women and water. Females contribute to the strengthening of one’s soul. Water is used as simile to compare the depth of the water, to the human soul.
"Her name was Connie. She was fifteen and she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right" (1). This quote shows the reader an astonishing truth about Connie. It shows her true insecurity that is rarely demonstrated to the outside world. Although she does not necessarily show this to the average bystander, by taking a closer look at her premature idea of acceptance, it also shows her constant yearn for approval from others to help boost her ego. At only the young age of fifteen, she is already attempting to prove her maturity and show that she can be independent. She does this by showing off her sexuality and strutting around. By showing off her
She says, “To mourn over the miseries of others, the poverty of the poor, their hardships in jails, prisons, asylums, the horrors of war, cruelty, and brutality in every form, all this would be mere sentimentalizing.” This reflects the personality of women to be very kind, but also shows that men don’t show the mercy or affection needed in some areas. She also showed this in the quote from the first paragraph, “...while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have been dead alike to love and hope!” She implied that men aren’t showing the love they must show in order to have peace, therefore bringing destruction. She then reminded us that mother nature is trying to repair all of the destruction in the world. She used the term “mother nature” because it causes the audience to connect the earth with the gender of the woman and how they are kind is
In individual searches to find themselves, Frank and April Wheeler take on the roles of the people they want to be, but their acting grows out of control when they lose sense of who they are behind the curtains. Their separate quests for identity converge in their wish for a thriving marriage. Initially, they both play roles in their marriage to please the other, so that when their true identities emerge, their marriage crumbles, lacking communication and sentimentality. Modelled after golden people or manly figures, the roles Frank and April take on create friction with who they actually are. Ultimately, to “do something absolutely honest” and “true,” it must be “a thing … done alone” (Yates 327). One need only look inside his or her self to discover his or her genuine identity.
Stage, Sarah J. Feminism, Narcissism, and the Family. American Quarterly. Vol. 35, No. 1-2. 1983.
For the most part of the poem she states how she believes that it is Gods calling, [Then ta’en away unto eternity] but in other parts of the poem she eludes to the fact that she feels more like her granddaughter was stolen from her [or sigh thy days so soon were terminate]. One of the main beliefs in these times was that when someone died it was their time; God needed them and had a better plan. Both poets found peace in the idea that God had the children now and it was part of the plan, but are also deeply saddened and used poetry as a coping mechanism.
As the women narrate the harm caused by men, they lose track of the beings that they once were and become different people in order to cause a reaction in others. These women are hurt in ways that cause them to change their way of living. The Lady in Blue becomes afraid of what others will think of her because a man impregnated her: “i cdnt have people [/] lookin at me [/] pregnant [/] I cdnt have my friends see this” (Shange, Abortion Cycle # 1 Lines 14- 16). Instead of worrying about the life of her child, she worries about how her...
Tannen, Deborah. “His Politeness Is Her Powerlessness.” You Just Don’t Understand: women and men in conversation. New York: HarperCollins, 1990. 203-5. Print.
The descriptive claim made by Psychological Egoists is that humans, by nature, are motivated only by self-interest. Any act, no matter how altruistic it may seem on the outside is actually only a disguise for a selfish desire such as recognition, avoiding guilt, reward or sense of personal ‘goodness’ or morality. For example, Mother Teresa is just using the poor for her own long-term spiritual gain. Being a universal claim, it could falter with a single counterexample. And being that I believe this claim to be bunk I will tell you why!
Freud, S., & Strachey, J. (19621960). The Ego and the Super-ego. The ego and the id (pp. 19-20). New York: Norton.
Connie’s narcissistic behavior and her knowledge that she is very popular causes her to pretend a self-confident, mature woman who follows the aim to be in a relationship and who enjoys every single moment of attention (Oates 120). Connie almost plays with different personalities to perfect her attractiveness because "[E] everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, [...] her laugh which was cynical [...] at home [...] but highpitched and nervous anywhere else [...]" (Oates 119-20). Through this charisma, she consciously attracts boys’ interest, but unconsciously, she also provokes men’s sexual desires (Oates 120-21). In other words, this false pretence naturally causes men to develop concre...
During the dinner table discussion, Mr. Tansley shows male supremacy when he thinks, “he was not going to talk the kind of rot these people wanted him to talk. He was not going to be condescended by these silly women” (85). Mr. Tansley’s thoughts in this quotation show that he is putting himself above women by staying independent of their conversation therefore showing that they have no power over him. Mr. Tansley continues to exhibit male supremacy when his need to assert himself arises.
In 1962 when the poem had been written women could not achieve any equality within the work place; Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women produced a report in 1963 that revealed, among other things, that women earned 59 cents for every dollar that men earned and were kept out of the more lucrative professional positions. When the 1964 Civil Rights Act went through Congress, an amendment made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender as well as race. Even though women’s rights were progressing, they had not progressed enough and women were still being dominated by males. She uses the phrase ‘any more back shoe, in which I lived like a foot’, the use of the word ‘foot’ could be referring to men as the shoe then women being the foot therefore the men have pursued the needs of women rather than it being the other way around which was a general ideology at the time.
Lorber, J. (1994). Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. Paradoxes of Gender (pp. 54-67). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ethical egoism can be a well-debated topic about the true intention of an individual when he or she makes an ethical decision. Max Stirner brings up a very intriguing perspective in writing, The Ego and its Own, regarding ethical egoism. After reading his writing some questions are posed. For example, are human beings at the bottom? Following Wiggins and Putnam, can we rise above our egoism and truly be altruistic? And finally, if we are something, do we have the capacity to rise to a level that we can criticize and transcend our nature? These questions try to establish whether or not we are simple humans, bound to our intrinsic nature, or far more intellectually advanced than we allow ourselves to be.