Kali: the Ying/Yang of Women Goddesses “Is my black Mother Syama really black? Is my black Mother Syama really black? People say Kali is black, but my heart doesn’t agree. If She’s black, how can She light up the world? Sometimes my Mother is white, sometimes yellow, blue, and red. I cannot fathom Her. My whole life has passed trying. She is Matter, then Spirit, then complete Void. It’s easy to see how Kamalakanta Thinking these things went crazy.” - by Kamalakanta. English version by Rachel Fell McDermott(McDermott) Kali is a goddess rumored to be from the Ganges drainage basin. She is the mother of millions of Indians. She is one of the most well known and adoreed Hindu Goddesses. Her name is from the Hindu …show more content…
The poem states: “Sometimes my Mother is white, sometimes yellow, blue, and red” Her image is usually blue or dark; she has many arms, and looks very intimidating. Her face is blue or dark, with mottled yellow, at first glance of her is savage; her disheveled and bristly hair is usually shown splayed and spread like the tail of a peacock and sometimes braided with green serpents. Her lips are often staying out with …show more content…
From Wheelock, article "A Discussion of Hindu Myth”: Hindu gods created Kali during the war, when they fight with the demon lords Shumbhu and Nishumbhu. The Goddess Ambika created Kali. She was created to fight those demons. After her birth, Kali killed the demons Chanda and Munda. Kali is so hardcore that she become a demon killer. Kali faces the demon army leader Raktabeeja. Raktabeeja has a very special power to create another himself from his blood, which means when he drop his blood he will clones a same demon as himself. his almost nearly unbeatable. Facing all those “Raktabeeia” army, Kali chooses the only way - she drank all of Raktabeeja’s blood and ate all his clones. She killed him with honer. But after drinking all of Raktabeeja’s blood, Kali started eating the other slain demons and went into a blood-crazy dance of death. While when she dance, the earth started shaking and thousands upon thousands of lives were claimed. Shiva worries about the human in the earth. For protect human and calm her down, Shiva allowed himself to be trampled by Kali. Realizing that she is stepping on Shiva, this is also the reason why the picture of her is standing on her
She was merely teaching her son a lesson, or maybe she was scolding him, and using that as a life lesson. Either way, she was the inspiration for the poem. I was unable to locate online the reason that the poem was initially written - however, I can only assume that he is remembering a time when his mother was right, and he’s wishing he had listened. Maybe he is now older, wiser, and faced with a decision where he wants two things equally, and needs to make a decision.
A child’s upbringing can severely affect who they are later in life. In particular, their transition into adulthood and the way they are initiated into this new stage of their lives is essential to their adult personalities. In “The Demoness Kali”, Shyam Selvadurai writes a story in which formal features of initiation are placed upon its main character, Shivan to demonstrate his coming of age. Through separation, mentors, and tests, Shivan is able to initiate into adulthood.
The symbols that stand out to understand the central concern of the poem are the camera, the photograph of the narrator and the photograph of the narrator’s grandmother. The camera symbolizes the time that has passed between the generations of the grandmother and the narrator. It acts as a witness of the past and the present after taking the photos of the narrator in the bikini and the grandmother in the dress. Her grandmother is wearing a “cotton meal-sack dress” (l. 17), showing very little skin exposure, representing
In Francis Ellen Watkins Harper's poem "The Slave Mother, A Tale of Ohio," she uses a shifting tone as well as other specific literary techniques to convey the heartbreaking story of a slave woman being separated from her child. This story specifically draws light to the horrific reality that many slaves faced: families were torn apart. Because this poem tells the story of a mother and her son, it also draws light to the love that mothers have for their children and the despair that they would go through if anything were to ever happen to them. Harper's poem addresses both race and gender, and it effectively conveys the heartbreak of the mother to the audience.
The poem is about the early stages in the narrator’s pregnancy. The doctor gives her news that the baby may be unhealthy. In a state of panic, we see the narrator turning to the methods of her homeland and native people to carry her through this tough time, and ensure her child’s safe delivery into the world. Da’ writes, “In the hospital, I ask for books./Posters from old rodeos. /A photo of a Mimbres pot /from southern New Mexico /black and white line figures—/a woman dusting corn pollen over a baby’s head/during a naming ceremony. /Medieval women/ingested apples/with the skins incised with hymns and verses/as a portent against death in childbirth” (Da’). We not only see her turning to these old rituals of her cultural, but wanting the items of her cultural to surround her and protect her. It proves her point of how sacred a land and cultural is, and how even though she has been exiled from it, she will continue to count it as a part of her
The poem starts out with the daughter 's visit to her father and demand for money; an old memory is haunting the daughter. feeding off her anger. The daughter calls the father "a ghost [who] stood in [her] dreams," indicating that he is dead and she is now reliving an unpleasant childhood memory as she stands in front of his
“The Mother” (Gwendolyn Brooks) has three stanza has and aabbccdd etc. rhyming scheme that is called couplets. The first stanza The first stanza started of “abortions will not let you forget” (Gwendolyn Brooks) this is a strong statement that supported the theme of this poem. Then Brooks go on and telling how the mother did not get to hold the child that she aborted and how sad it was for her.
...t she has put on a new “costume” and is now a completely different person. The stockings are “night-black” representing the backyard and its negative connotation. In line twenty, the author writes that she wants to “strut down the streets with paint on [her] face,” again emphasizing Brooks’ new rebellious nature since crossing over into the backyard. The “paint” suggests that her rebellion is just and act, and as soon as she removes the paint, she can return to the front yard if she pleases. The repetition of “and” at the beginning of the last three lines illustrates Brooks’ desire to completely rebel against her mother and the front yard life since it shows how she wants to rebel in so many ways. The main theme of the poem highlights the desire people have to experience what they do not have and live life on their own terms.
One of the words that are used in the poem is ochred which means a pale yellow colour. The word originated as “ōkhra” which was the greek term for yellow. The Greek word, “ōkhra” was later transferred to the Old french word, “ocre” which meant yellow until the English language used the term as ochred. The poem uses the word “ochred” to describe the walls of Uluru. The poem also uses the word, “caress”. The words origins went from the Latin word, “caras” to the Italian word, “carezza” to the French word, “caresse”. Many noun groups are used such as, “That echo against your ochred walls”. I this line the word, “that” is the article, “echo” is the main noun and “against your ochred walls” is the adjectival phrase. Another noun group is “the secrets of your dreaming”. In this line, the word, “the” is the article, “secrets” is the main noun and “of your dreaming” is the adjectival phrase. There are no sound devices used because this is a free verse poem.
In the novel This Earth Of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, discrimination against social structure, race, and gender is apparent. The setting is in the Indies, or now called Indonesia. At that time, there are terms for different races in the book, which are “Native” indicating someone who is pure Indonesian, “Indo” a half European and half Indonesian, and “Pure Blood” or “European” when someone is pure European. An Indo and a Pure Blood receives more respect in society than a Native. Furthermore, European or Pure Blood is at the top of this social hierarchy, people who are European or Pure Blood receives the utmost respect in society. Differences in gender is prevalent in this novel, where most women in this book have power in their own homes, but in society is looked down upon. Female characters experiencing these are Annelies, the main character’s love interest, Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies’ mother who is a concubine, and Magda Peters, the main character’s European teacher. Women in this novel are portrayed differently according to what race, social structure, and gender they are born in, which can be seen through Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies, and Magda Peters.
In Hinduism there is a figure by the name of Sati in this religion; she however did not burn herself to death at...
The poem The Mad Mother describes a woman that is going through hard times. She has lost her dignity and status as a wife because her husband has left her. Consequently she is stigmatized as crazy by her community and does not receive support from them. However, despite what she is going through, she is a happy woman because she has her child. She says, "Sweet babe!
That transition from object to subject ruptures the power dynamic and kills her. "They just stood there doing nothing just as people had always done nothing to help
Appearing in later Vedic literature of the Hindu religion are two goddesses, Durga and Kali. These goddesses have many similarities and differences. Kali and Durga are different in three ways. 1) Durga is a radiant warrior goddess and Kali is a bloodthirsty monster goddess. 2) Durga and Kali are both associated with the Hindu god Shiva. The two goddesses play different roles when they are with Shiva and affect him in different ways. 3) Durga maintains the balance of the cosmos while Kali destroys the balance. Durga and Kali are alike in three ways. 1) Neither of the goddesses fit into the normal social position for Hindu women. 2) Kali and Durga are one in the same. 3) Both goddesses are worshipped by blood sacrifice.
Hindu mythology has been around for ages; it is the world’s oldest surviving religion. Hinduism was formed through diverse traditions in the year 2,000 B.C.E. There is no single person that gets the credit of developing Hindu Mythology because one person did not create it. Hinduism was originated in India, where it is the most practiced now. Hinduism has over a billion followers and about two-thirds of those people are in India. There are many temples open to worship gods and goddesses. “The needs of the gods would be met by the worshipers who have to prepare themselves through purification rites to draw near to their god” (Organ,193) Hinduism is not only the oldest religion but one of the biggest, with Islam then Christianity being above it.