In the poem, "Ordinary Life," by Barbara Crooker, the speaker uses irony to signify how her life is anything but but ordinary. To the speaker, "this [is] a day when nothing [happens]," however, the readers can clealy see how busy the speaker's day is throughout the poem (1). The speaker's first duty of the day is to get her children ready to go to school. Then she spends her entire morning building "block stacks in the squares of light on the floor" (5-6). When "lunch [blends] into naptime" for the baby, the speaker "[cleans] out kitchen cupboards" (7-8). This indicates that the speaker is a hard working mother and does not relax until she finishes all her chores. Furthermore, in the afternoon, she "[peels] carrots and potatoes" for dinner
while listening to her children talking about school events. This cements the speaker as an exemplary mother and housewife, because she is able to balance her duties while commnicating with her children. After an exhausting day, the speaker does not show her tireness but instead feels grateful that this cold winter day ends on a joyful note.
Both Stephanie Coontz in “Great expectations” and Archena Bhalla in “My home, my world” address the issue about marriage and arranged marriages. While Stephanie mostly speaks on couples don’t make marriage their top priority and don’t last for a long time. And she gives an example by saying that “People nowadays don’t respect the marriage vowels.” She also believes that in the 18th and 19th centuries, conventional wisdom among middle-class men was the kind of woman you’d want for a wife was incapable of sexual passion which has changed in the 20th century. Also that marriage was viewed in the prospective that work relationship in which passion took second place to practicality and intimacy never was important with male. Bhalla speaks
In the articles “Springing Forward” by Barbara Kingsolver and “Are Engineered Foods Evil?” by David H. Freedman, the main topic of discussion is about genetically modified foods. When reading the two articles there is are some similarities and differences between them. The two authors have different views on genetically modified foods.
The main character in this story is a Jewish girl named Alicia. When the book
In the poem, “My First Weeks” by Sharon Olds, Olds makes an ordeal for her storyteller, gives her the recollections of this time we all might want to recall. The foundation of this piece has various pictures depicted so well they turn out to be outwardly captivating, and an all-inclusiveness of human experience. Regardless of whether the elocutionist’ owns particular experience was as delicate as the speakers or not, every one of us was conceived and (more than likely) can't remember our first weeks.
In the young life of Essie Mae, she had a rough childhood. She went through beatings from her cousin, George Lee, and was blamed for burning down her house. Finally Essie Mae got the nerve to stand up for herself and her baby sister, Adline as her parents were coming in from their work. Her dad put a stop to the mistreatment by having her and her sister watched by their Uncle Ed. One day while Essie Mae's parents were having an argument, she noticed that her mothers belly was getting bigger and bigger and her mom kept crying more and more. Then her mother had a baby, Junior, while the kids were out with their Uncle Ed. Her uncle took her to meet her other two uncles and she was stunned to learn that they were white. She was confused by this but when she asked her mom, Toosweet, about it her mom would not give her an answer one way or the other. Once her mom had the baby, her father started staying out late more often. Toosweet found out that her dad was seeing a woman named Florence. Not long after this, her mother was left to support her and her siblings when her father left. Her mother ended up having to move in with family until she could obtain a better paying job in the city. As her childhood went on she started school and was very good at her studies. When she was in the fourth grade, her mom started seeing a soldier named Raymond. Not too long after this, her mother got pregnant and had James. Her mother and Raymond had a rocky relationship. When James was born, Raymond's mother came and took the baby to raise because she said that raising four children was too much of a burden for a single parent to handle. Raymond went back to the service for a while but then when he came back he and Toosweet had another baby. Raymond's brothers helped him build a new house for them to live in and they brought James back to live with them. During this time Essie Mae was working for the Claiborne family and she was starting to see a different point of view on a lot of things in life. The Claiborne's treated her almost as an equal and encouraged her to better herself.
Upon reading Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody, in my honest opinion I thought the book would be boring, I am happy to say that I was wrong. This memoir about Anne’s life was really interesting and inspiring. Throughout Anne’s memoir I read about all the discrimination that went on in her life, the constant change that kept happening, with the death in the family her father leaving and marrying someone else and all the half siblings she had. Through all that Anne still wanted to make a difference despite the odds and all the negativity and lack of support from her family. This memoir shows a lot of racism, discrimination, judgement based on race, color, level of education, and wealth. Living through
The United States of America, the land of the free. Mostly free if the skin tone matches with the approval of society. The never ending war on racism, equality, and segregation is a huge part of American culture. Prior to the Civil Rights Movement equality was laughed at. People of color were highly discriminated and hated for existing. During the years nineteen fifty to nineteen seventy, racism began to extinguish its mighty flames. Through the lives of numerous people equality would soon be a reality. Through the Autobiography “Coming of Age in Mississippi” by Anne Moody first person accounts of all the racism, social prejudice and violence shows how different America used to be. The autobiography holds nothing back, allowing the author to give insight on all the appalling events and tragedies. The Re-telling of actual events through Anne Moody’s eyes, reveal a connection to how wrong segregation was. The “Coming of Age in Mississippi” is an accurate representation of life in the south before and during the Civil Rights Movement.
A Stolen Life by Jaycee Lee Dugard is an autobiography recounting the chilling memories that make up the author’s past. She abducted when she was eleven years old by a man named Phillip Garrido with the help of his wife Nancy. “I was kept in a backyard and not allowed to say my own name,” (Dugard ix). She began her life relatively normally. She had a wonderful loving mother, a beautiful baby sister,, and some really good friends at school. Her outlook on life was bright until June 10th, 1991, the day of her abduction. The story was published a little while after her liberation from the backyard nightmare. She attended multiple therapy sessions to help her cope before she had the courage to share her amazing story. For example she says, “My growth has not been an overnight phenomenon…it has slowly and surely come about,” (D 261). She finally began to put the pieces of her life back together and decided to go a leap further and reach out to other families in similar situations. She has founded the J A Y C Foundation or Just Ask Yourself to Care. One of her goals was, amazingly, to ensure that other families have the help that they need. Another motive for writing the book may have also been to become a concrete form of closure for Miss Dugard and her family. It shows her amazing recovery while also retelling of all of the hardships she had to endure and overcome. She also writes the memoir in a very powerful and curious way. She writes with very simple language and sentence structures. This becomes a constant reminder for the reader that she was a very young girl when she was taken. She was stripped of the knowledge many people take for granted. She writes for her last level of education. She also describes all of the even...
Barbara Katz Rothman, professor of sociology, once said "Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength." This illustrates clearly the symbol of the mothers in this society. This symbol could also shape people’s thinking about mothers. I totally agree with her assessment. For instance, I believe that everyone is using his or her own symbols during social interaction, such as languages, gestures and other sign language. In another way, this is called symbolic interactionism.
A women doing life is a book that talks openly about women in prison. The author of the book who is also an inmate is known as Erin George. She explains vividly about women life in prison and what she was going through as an inmate. The book also gives other stories about other female inmates. The book presents a realistic of what women goes through on daily basis in prison. The issues addressed are both physical and psychological challenges. She talks on behalf of those women facing challenges on daily basis in prison. The books explain life events that tragic and heartbreaking those changes later to be uplifting and humorous. She gives a story of how she is able to cope and manage in hard situations. The women’s humanity inside the prison is well shown in this book as they try to make ends meet in their daily life. This book is vivid and very compelling for women. It is one of the best contributions of the author in literature. The book has a virtually flawless pedagogical approach. The author’s writing is to a great extent excellent and it has helped in creating awareness in literature about the historical context of women in prison. It explains beyond the little information presented in the media about women life in prison and the challenges they face as inmates.
Ann Hodgman’s essay “No Wonder They Call Me a B@#*H” is about an experiment when Hodgman ate canned and dry dog food. When she was a young girl, she always wondered if dogs’ food tasted like humans’ food. Since the food was so bad, Hodgman understood why her dogs’ breath smelled so bad. Companies that make dog food advertise real meats in the food, but sadly it is just poultry by-products. Therefore, dog food it is made from parts of an animal, not the animals’ meat. Hodgman explains that the different dog foods were either hard, soft, noncook able, or unpleasant to the eye. Dogs eat different foods as they grow; therefore, Hodgman tried every stage of dog food, and each looked and tasted different. Treats for dogs taste better; just like treats
There are many themes that occur and can be interpreted differently throughout the novel. The three main themes that stand out most are healing, communication, and relationships.
We learn that the wife suffers from depression and must take vacations and time off from work to get better. However, her husband refuses to believe that she is ill and just tells her to relax rather than trying to treat her depression. Here we see the first instance of irony. On page 649, She says, “I am glad my case is not that serious! But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing”. She claims her case is not serious yet still finds dread in her situation. In this context, the use of the word “depressing” implies that the situation is more dire than we are led to believe and her illness is more serious than her husband leads her to believe. We see irony appear again later when she begins to describe her room in better detail. She updates the reader on her mental state and talks about the yellow wallpaper in the room, which she finds fascinating, but also repulsive. She begins
In the oral history “Just a Housewife” Therese Carter tells her life experiences of being a housewife in Downer Grove Estates, West Chicago. What strikes me about this oral history is the importance that Therese places on knowing that she is just a housewife. She says that she has no special talents and is content with doing duties for her family because that is how she wishes to spend her life. The common pattern in this history is Therese’s acknowledgement that being a housewife is low on the totem pole, but she feels that the work she provides is necessary. Her feelings toward the work she provides is rewarding because she enjoy pleasing people and wishes to raise her kids right. Terkel gives voice to Therese by allowing her to not seem
Irony can often be found in many literary works. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is masterfully written full of irony. The characters of the short story, Mrs. Mallard, Josephine, Richards, Mr. Brently Mallard, and the doctors all find their way into Chopin’s ironic twists. Chopin embodies various ironies in “The Story of an Hour” through representations of verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony.