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Essay about tough times
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Have you had a time in your life, where everything just seemed to be going wrong, and life was hard. Then all of the sudden you actually have a good day. You made it through when times were bad. In the novels Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, and Shooting the Moon by Frances O’roark Dowell the theme getting through the hard times so you can see the good ones, is shown by Jacqueline and her family not being treated fairly, Jacqueline leaving her home, and Jamie's brother going to war. Jacqueline and her family aren’t treated fairly, because of the color of their skin. If they sit near the front of the bus, the driver will make them move. If there is a white person walking on the sidewalk the have to step off the curb and let
The bus was full of people with only one black person and he was smiling and polite he was still viewed as an outsider “I was embarrassed by him” (Andre Levy 691) she was just like him but felt embarrassed by him because he was like an alien to the others. The author talks about how she came to london from the caribbean “that made my family very odd. We were immigrants. Outsiders.” (Andrea Levy 692) living in london at that time and not being white instantly made you an outsider. “On one occasion my mom did not have enough money to buy food for our dinner. None at all. She worried that she might be forced into the humiliation of asking someone…..” (Andrea Levy 693) in the caribbean there family was middle class but in london they were poor. The effect the british colonization even made her family be ashamed of other caribbeans and isolated themselves from other black caribbeans and wanted nothing to do with them. This brainwashed the author she even says “in my efforts to be as british as i could be, i was completely indifferent to jamaica. None of my friends knew anything about the caribbean. They didn't know where it was, or who lived there, or why. And they had no curiosity about it beyond asking why black people were in this country. It was too foreign and therefore not worth knowing.” (Andrea Levy 694) the author grew up thinking that white people were superior and wanted to fit in which meant abandoning her true self and dropping her cultures and beliefs just to be accepted. The author later gets a wakeup call when she was working part time for a sex-education project for young people “one day the staff had to take part in a racism awareness course. We were asked to split into two groups, black and white. I walked over to the white side the room. It was, ironically where i felt most at
Throughout the story “Walk Two Moons” written by Sharon Creech, Mrs.Winterbottom is faced with internal and external conflicts that lead her to change.
Everyone needs hope to get through hard times. In the book Inside Out and Back Again Written by Thanhha Lai HA is going through hard times in Vietnam. Her country is at war and she sleeps to the sound of bombs. Ha is missing her father who went to war when she was just one and never came back. Ha and her family fled Vietnam and moved to Alabama
Being chauffeured around in a white person’s car and being a Negro did not mix well. When the car took a bad turn and crashed, Ethel and one other girl were pinned inside the crashed car. Ethel had hoped that someone would stop, and she prayed and prayed, but deep down she knew what had happened to Negros, who was in a white man’s car – they wouldn’t make it. When two white folks walked past and saw Ethel, they laughed and called them “Nigger bitches”. Ethel defended herself, “I’m suffering”.
...ism and segregation, it is what will keep any society form reaching is maximum potential. But fear was not evident in those who challenged the issue, Betty Jo, Street, Jerry, and Miss Carrie. They challenged the issue in different ways, whether it was by just simply living or it was a calculated attempt to change the perspective of a individual. McLurin illustrated the views of the reality that was segregation in the South, in the town of Wade, and how it was a sort of status quo for the town. The memories of his childhood and young adulthood, the people he encountered, those individuals each held a key in how they impacted the thoughts that the young McLurin had about this issue, and maybe helping unlock a way to challenge the issue and make the future generation aware of the dark stain on society, allowing for more growth and maximum potential in the coming years.
Rachel Perkins hybrid musical drama One Night the Moon set in the 1930’s Australian outback and Malala Yousafzai’s ‘speech to the UN’ in 2013 were composed to raise awareness and reveal truths of multiple perspectives, representing the voice of the unheard and disempowered in juxtaposition to the dominant and powerful. Both Perkins and Yousafzai challenge societal expectations of their context, advocating for all voices to be heard and for the potential unity between cultures and races through education and shifts in paradigm.
When she first is confronted by the problem or race it hits her with a thump. Bob takes Alice to dinner where she states, “I don’t want feel like being refused” (55). Alice does what she can to avoid the face of racism. She lacks the integration within the different community, which gives her a one-path perspective. While going to the restaurant with Bob, he asks, “Scared because you haven’t got the white folks to cover you” (55)? She doesn’t have the protection of her friends or her parents to shy away from the truth of her being African American. She is hiding behind a mask because she’s passing as white. She’s accepting the assumption that she belongs to their culture. When she goes out, “with white folks the people think you’re white” (60). But, when she goes out with Bob there is nothing to hide behind. She’s confronted with the truth. Already feeling low about the restaurant, and getting pulled over by the cops, she uses her wealth to get out of the situation. She says, “I am a supervisor in the Los Angeles Welfare” (63). The power of her family shows that she be treated better by the cops and others in the
One of the symbols used in this short story is the hat that Julian’s mother and the black woman on the bus wear. Ironically, these hats represent both women sharing the same rights and equalities; both races ride the same bus, sitting in the same seats; and both like the same fashions. Another symbol is the penny that Julian’s mother gives to the little black boy, representing th...
He imagined his mother lying desperately ill and his being able to secure only a Negro doctor for her. He toyed with that idea for a few minutes and then dropped it for a momentary vision of himself participating as a sympathiser in a sit-in demonstration. This was possible but he did not linger with it. Instead, he approached the ultimate horror. He brought home a beautiful suspiciously Negroid woman. Prepare yourself, he said. There is nothing you can do about it. This is the woman I have chosen. (15)
I think this play is a lot about what does race mean, and to what extent do we perform race either onstage or in life:
This movie takes place in Los Angeles and is about racial conflicts within a group of people which occur in a series of events. Since there are a wide variety of characters in this movie, it can be confusing to the viewer. In the plot, Graham is an African-American detective whose younger brother is a criminal. His mother cares more about his brother than Graham and she wants Graham to bring his brother back home, which in turn hurts Graham. Graham?s partner Ria is a Hispanic woman who comes to find that her and Graham?s ethnicities conflict when she had sex with him. Rick is the Los Angeles district attorney who is also op...
One of the biggest issues depicted in the film is the struggle of minority groups and their experience concerning racial prejudice and stereotyping in America. Examples of racism and prejudice are present from the very beginning of the movie when Officer Ryan pulls over black couple, Cameron and Christine for no apparent reason other than the color of their skin. Officer Ryan forces the couple to get out of the car
This short story makes the gender roles in the Southern culture very clear. Even though the grandmother is very talkative it is her mouth that put them all in danger. If she had not claimed to recognize the Misfit he probably would have let them go, but the grandmother also foreshadowed the dangerous situation happening before it happened. This irony is what I believe the author uses to draw attention to the gender roles within Southern culture. I believe the author allows the grandmother to have insight of how this misfit she saw the newspaper would be ultimately the end of their lives. If her son would have considered what she said about encountering the Misfit, he could have prevented their death. When her son chose to ignore her, it was a representation of how women’s opinion was ignored in society. The short story didn't seem to have much tension or mention about race other than the display of how the family interacted with themselves and with other African Americans. Finally, this story raises questions about class because it shows how the children treated people with a lower economic status. This family is portrayed as a working or middle-class family because the daughter knows how to tap dance, and their family is going on a vacation. The children treat people with a lower economic status poorly with a lot of disrespect. On page 4 the daughter speaks disrespectfully
One of the biggest elements is the theme. The theme of the story is that no matter what your skin color is we are equal. This is demonstrated by that hat which is a symbol of equality. “The hat was new and had coster seven dollars and a half”(Graff, Birkenstein 273). “She had on a hideous hat. A purple velvet flap came down on one side of it and stood up on the other; the rest of it was green and looked like a cushion with the stuffing out”(Graff, Birkenstein 285). Julian’s mother bought a new hat and decided to wear it to her reducing class at the Y. Later on the bus Julian saw a women with the same hat as his mother. Julian 's mother who is white and the black woman on the bus were wearing the same hat which makes them equal. If a white woman can have a purple hat so can a black women. Back in 1619 slavery began in America. White’s owned black’s meaning that the black’s worked for the white’s. Then blacks were considered less than white’s, blake’s were a lot more poor than whites. When desegregation started in 1957, black’s and white’s were considered equal. Another element is setting. The setting of this story is written shortly after whites and blacks are desegregated. Julian’s mother is still stuck in the past. “‘Of course;she said,’ if you know who you are, you can go anywhere’”(Graff, Birkenstein 275). White’s were always higher up than black’s. If you didn’t interact with blacks and stick with your skin color people would treat you like you were higher up, hence the “you can go
Throughout the story, the writer uses the different lives of an African family and their union with an African American to show the cultural rift that occurs. Their daily lives show how people of different cultures strive to live together under the same roof. The clash of cultures is portrayed in the way they react to each other in the different circumstances.