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Symbolism in modern poetry
Symbolism in modern poetry
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“My Uncle’s Favorite Coffee Shop”, by Naomi Shihab Nye, conveys the cultural experience of an immigrant by connecting it to an immigrant’s relative who first came to a new country and was describing his initial experience by using repetition and symbolism. The character in the poem has trouble with initially trying to fit in with the new culture in the country he came to. The author uses anaphora by repeating “Immigrant” in lines 19-20, “Immigrants had double and nothing all at once. Immigrants drove the taxis, sold the beer and Cokes.” This shows that immigrants arrived in a new country with barely anything, and started from the bottom. Saying that “Immigrants drove the taxis, sold the beer and Cokes,” was inferring that immigrants began their
According to Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life, between 1880 and about World War I, the vast majority of Eastern European Jews and Southern Italians came to the United States populating neighborhoods in New York and the Lower East Side is the best example. One thing, which was common to the immigrant experience is that, all immigrants come to the United States as the “land of opportunity”. They come to America with different types of expectations that are conditioned by their origins and families. But every immigrant comes to America wanting to make himself/herself into a person, to be an individual and to become somebody. In this case, the author showed in Bread Givers, Sarah’s desire to make herself into something and bring something unique to America, which only she can bring. It is an effort to understand the immigrants, particularly Jewish immigrants, from a woman’s point of view. The book shows that it was a challenge for Jewish immigrant children, particularly females, on the account of the intensity of their family’s connections and obligations that was so critical for the immigrant communities. This was true for the immigrants who came to settle in the neighborhoods like the one Sarah and her family settled in.
In the novel Life of a Sensuous Woman, Ihara Saikaku depicts the journey of a woman who, due to voraciously indulging in the ever-seeking pleasure of the Ukiyo lifestyle, finds herself in an inexorable decline in social status and life fulfillment. Saikaku, utilizing characters, plot, and water imagery, transforms Life of a Sensuous Woman into a satirically critical commentary of the Ukiyo lifestyle: proposing that it creates a superficial, unequal, and hypocritical society.
The world today can sometimes be a hard place to live, or at least live in comfort. Whether it be through the fault of bullies, or an even more wide spread problem such as racism, it is nearly impossible to live a day in the world today and feel like it was only full of happiness and good times. Due to this widespread problem of racism, often times we tend to see authors go with the grain and ignore it, continuously writing as if nothing bad happens in the world. Fortunately, Claudia Rankine, is not one of these authors. Rankine manages to paint a vivid picture of a life of hardships in her lyric Citizen: An American Lyric. In this lyric Claudia Rankine shows that she truly has a very interesting and not commonly used approach to some literary
Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker expresses prominent themes of language and racial identity. Chang-Rae Lee focuses on the struggles that Asian Americans have to face and endure in American society. He illustrates and shows readers throughout the novel of what it really means to be native of America; that true nativity of a person does not simply entail the fact that they are from a certain place, but rather, the fluency of a language verifies one’s defense of where they are native. What is meant by possessing nativity of America would be one’s citizenship and legality of the country. Native Speaker suggests that if one looks different or has the slightest indication that one should have an accent, they will be viewed not as a native of America, but instead as an alien, outsider, and the like. Therefore, Asian Americans and other immigrants feel the need to mask their true identity and imitate the native language as an attempt to fit into the mold that makes up what people would define how a native of America is like. Throughout the novel, Henry Park attempts to mask his Korean accent in hopes to blend in as an American native. Chang-Rae Lee suggests that a person who appears to have an accent is automatically marked as someone who is not native to America. Language directly reveals where a person is native of and people can immediately identify one as an alien, immigrant, or simply, one who is not American. Asian Americans as well as other immigrants feel the need to try and hide their cultural identity in order to be deemed as a native of America in the eyes of others. Since one’s language gives away the place where one is native to, immigrants feel the need to attempt to mask their accents in hopes that they sound fluent ...
Throughout the poem, Baca uses imagery to express prejudice misconceptions that Americans have of immigrants. In lines one through three, “Do they come on horses with rifles and say, Ese gringo gimmee your job,” the writer creates an exaggerated image to demonstrate how racist Americans think immigrants are taking away their jobs. In addition, lines eight through ten, “Do they sneak into town at night, and…mug you, a knife at your throat, saying, ‘I want your job?’” depict immigrants as being evil and violent. The author portrays immigrants as physically taking over the work force and doing so with vicious actions. “Do you, gringo, take off your ring, drop your wallet into a blanket spread over the ground and walk away?” (4-6). Baca defends immigrants by asking Americans if they would pack their belongings and leave their families behind to move to a different country. Immigrants leave their home country and families behind in hopes of obtaining the American dream and creating a better life. Through powerful imagery, the reader can witness how Mexican immigrants are stereotyped as using violence to obtain employment.
La Migra is a poem about two children a girl and a boy, who are playing a game about Mexicans crossing the American border. This poem is divided in two stanzas, because it expresses two different points of view; the girls point of view that is pretty much as the point of view an Hispanic or any immigrant would have, and the boys point of view that would be the point of view a racist border patrol or just anyone racist would have. Change in the point of view of the two children implies realism into the poem La Migra. The main point of this poem is to remind the reader about human feelings, and remind the reader about illegal immigration into the United States. Pat Mora uses Image, blank verse, and anaphora to develop her theme of immigration
A mother drives her three kids to soccer practice in a Ford minivan while her husband stays at the office, rushing to finish a report. Meanwhile, a young woman prays her son makes his way home from the local grocery without getting held up at knife point by the local gang. Nearby, an immigrant finishes another 14-hour shift at the auto parts factory, trying to provide for his wife and child, struggling to make way in a new land. Later, a city girl hails a cab to meet her girlfriends at their favorite club to celebrate her new promotion over cosmopolitans. These people – the suburban soccer mom, the tired immigrant, the worried mother from the hood, and the successful city girl – each represent the different realities or fantasies that exist in the American society. They are all living or working towards what they believe to be the coveted American dream. Some of these people are similar to the Chinese immigrant, Ralph, in Gish Jen’s novel Typical American. However, all are confused as to what the American dream really is and whether or not the dream is real.
In the novel The Tortilla Curtain, written by T.C Boyle the reader is presented with two distinctive families who both shared the same dream—the American Dream, without even taken any notice of it. Boyle separates both families by giving them a different form of life styles distinguishing them from one another. In one side living at the top of the hills we have the Mossbacher’s, who live in a wealthy community; at the bottom of the hill the Rincon’s live out in the open—literally. This indicates that the Mossbacher’s represent the wealthy and the Rincon’s represent the illegal immigrants in America. Through the use of symbolism such as the car accident, the coyote and the wall, T.C Boyle unfolds the unattainability of the American Dream for
While many people around the world look to America and see a better life waiting for them and the American Dream waiting to be lived, often times this dream never comes to fruition, even if they do reach America. Such is the case in the short story Grandma’s Tales, by Andrew Lam in which a recently deceased Vietnamese grandmother becomes reborn as a much younger and improved version of herself ready to live life to the fullest. This rebirth symbolizes the life that she wishes she lived, however due to constant conflict and famine in Vietnam, and her deteriorating health in America, was never able to do so. Instead of mourning this fact, in her final days the grandmother chooses to live her life through her granddaughters,
The image uses labels to show how different people view immigrants. Groups like average citizens, workmen, and health officers viewed migrants as menaces, labor threats, and disease ridden. While politicians, contractors and Uncle Sam himself see these newcomers as sources of votes, cheap labor and strength. We see whiteness in “The Immigrant” as American society is more willing to consider accepting white European immigrants into American society, while simultaneously refusing to allow chinese immigrants into the country. Migrants of white decent were also allowed U.S. citizenship after remaining in the country for only two years and showing good moral character. This led to an increasing white population which promoted the idea of Americanness and whiteness being nearly interchangeable. When looking at both images side by side we see the biases of white and
It is quite ironic that these "nativists" came to America for the same reasons as the immigrants who came in the time period of 1880-1925; however, they do not accept the immigrants who came in that period, just as they had once wanted to be accepted. Emma Lazarus’ "The New Colossus", which is on the Statue of Liberty, reads "Give me you tired, your poor, Your huddled mass yearning to breathe free," but in fact, many Americans, nativists, did not want these poor, huddled mass at all.
In the first Chapter of the book ‘A Different Mirror’ by (Takaki, 1993) the author embarks on a descriptive narrative that tries to elaborate the concept of a multiracial America. The chapter begins with the author taking a taxi ride in which he is subjected to racial discrimination. The taxi driver questions the author’s origin owing to the fact that his English is perfect and eloquent. This incident prompts a discussion that transpires throughout the chapter as the author tries to explain to his audience that America is a multiracial country with different ethnic groups that moved from their homelands to settle in the United States. The chapter discusses the settlement of various racial groups such as; English immigrants, African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicanos and the Irish.
The symbolism of being lost is a universal immigrant theme that occurs throughout many immigrant literatures, particularly in Henry Roth’s Call it Sleep. Language, or lack of understanding it, has a profound contribution to the process of being lost. This contribution is shown earlier in the book, in a passage where David is lost trying to find his way home (Passage 1) and is mirrored later on in the book, when David and Aunt Bertha are lost in a museum (Passage 2). The restriction of the usage of language in both passages portrays to us the inevitable and ubiquitous immigrant dilemma: I talk, eat, and live like this new country with the intention of assimilation, but my lack of freedom with the language parallels my lack of freedom and acceptance in this new country – how can I overcome it? The similarities, differences, and dramatic ironic symbolism in these two passages will attempt to answer that question.
The story “All Summer in a Day” and the excerpt from “Immigrants” are similar in many ways. Immigration takes place in both texts. In “All Summer in a Day”, Margot and her
Sitting in my local Starbucks, casually gazing at the people walking in, who are anxiously awaiting their coffee fix. Noticing people struggling to find which blend of ingredients sounds most appetizing to them. Listening to the soft alternative background music giving a soothing vibe to the coffee shop. I’m taking in the soulful artwork on the walls, the muted tones of the walls, the sounds of papers turning and shoes clacking on the tile ground, the rings of cell phones, the smell of freshly ground coffee beans, the red velvet chairs and the brown leather couches that have so many wrinkles from the countless bodies that have sat upon them as well. The calming lighting that doesn’t blind you when you walk in. Sitting here, I notice many people