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Literature and society
Literature and society
Literature and society
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“Sometimes fiction is more easily understood than true events. Reality if often pathetic.” - Young-Ha Kim. Fiction is able to interpret reality in ways that are easier for people, especially the youth, to understand. It is able to show the truths of reality through a story that may not be 100% true, but is based on events that are. The novel, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, is based on the life of a teenage black girl who lives two seperate lives, one in the “hood” and the other at a preppy private school. When her best friend is unjustifiably murdered by a white cop, anarchy rises within the community. This novel interprets what occurs in everyday life for someone like the main character, Starr, who has to deal with gangs, police brutality, …show more content…
Perspective is one of the important topics of the book, The Hate U Give. When the riots began and the murder was all over the news, Starr had to fight with the media on how she and the incident were perceived. The truth kept on getting twisted around to justify the cop’s actions instead of the truth behind the victim’s death. How lessons are perceived in literature are depended on how it is portrayed. When it is portrayed in a way for the youth to relate and understand, their perspectives of the components and the circumstances of those situations change to understandment. How we perceive things determines our thoughts and actions. When we learn the good and the bad circumstances of situations, like the riots and police violence in poor neighborhoods, we learn how we should best handle those situations when they come across our paths. In the book, The Hate U Give, there were two main point of views in the book on who was the victim: The armed cop, or the defenseless teenager. In the book, we, the readers, can observe both sides of the incident. The truth: defenseless teenager shot multiple times because he was black, or the victim was the armed white cop. By seeing the consequences of believing either side and how that affected the community, the readers are able to form their own thoughts on how it should be dealt with. This helps influence the youth’s thoughts on how they should handle a similar situation if they are provided with that opportunity. When the youth forms their own opinion on matters they have learned about, their decisions and actions that they take will affect our future. The youth is our future and what they are taught now affects our future. Fiction literature should be allowed to remain in the curriculum because it allows the readers to gain a new perspective
Clive Barker, the author of The Thief of Always, writes a fantasy about Harvey(the main character) taken into into a place full of illusions. Soon he finds out that there was this horrible Hood that had taken his precious time and almost has eaten his soul. So, Harvey then tries to destroy this evil Hood who ends up to be the oh so perfect house. Hood is evil and different ways he is evil. There are many things that makes someone or something truly evil. Hood is ultimately evil. These are the things that make him who or what he is. Evil is significant to most stories because that is the major conflict. The antagonist, Hood, does a really good job of being the bad guy. Usually it’s a person who is has some kind of kindness inside,
Famous author Stephen King said in his book On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft that “ Every book you pick up has its life lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (King 145), but unfortunately not everyone agrees. In today's world, people are becoming more and more easily offended by simple things like the subjects in classic literature, for example To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and are even trying to ban it in a classroom setting. However, To Kill a Mockingbird should continue to be taught in schools because it positively affects society by changing the way people think about the world, through a very historically accurate setting, and by teaching its readers valuable lessons.
...lms these students get away with murder and still go on to college. This simply does not happen in real life; therefore, looking to Hollywood films for the true colors of schools is not in the best of interests. We have to realize that directors produce these films in their vision of American culture. We as Americans always look to the American Dream of sometime “making it.” The films neglect to see the loser’s point of view, meaning Hollywood films only look to a positive ending because it is in our nature to believe in the American Dream. This book allows our society to actually look past the films fantasies and observe the true inequalities in school. Although Hollywood films do correctly show how urban, suburban, and private students behave in schools, they do not show the true outcomes of real life.
In a country like the United States of America, with a history of every individual having an equal opportunity to reach their dreams, it becomes harder and harder to grasp the reality that equal opportunity is diminishing as the years go on. The book Our Kids by Robert Putnam illustrates this reality and compares life during the 1950’s and today’s society and how it has gradually gotten to a point of inequality. In particular, he goes into two touching stories, one that shows the changes in the communities we live in and another that illustrates the change of family structure. In the end he shows how both stories contribute to the American dream slipping away from our hands.
Poverty and homelessness are often, intertwined with the idea of gross mentality. illness and innate evil. In urban areas all across the United States, just like that of Seattle. in Sherman Alexie’s New Yorker piece, What You Pawn I Will Redeem, the downtrodden. are stereotyped as vicious addicts who would rob a child of its last penny if it meant a bottle of whiskey.
Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone should stay in Sterling High School’s English 4 curriculum because it teaches the reader that recovering from a horrible situation is possible, also Beah’s complex literal devices he uses to express his situation opens it up to the mind of a more experienced reader.
Throughout Fahrenheit 451, Montag’s stance on why books are important to their society shifts. Faber tells Montag, “Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore.” (82). After his conversation with Faber, Montag’s mindset about books dramatically shift. Faber tells Montag to be self-reliant and not always look to other people to do everything for you. Not only is this theme portrayed in Fahrenheit 451, but also in an article for Newsela. Paul Hirschfield wrote, “Racism helps explain why African Americans and Native Americans are particularly vulnerable to police violence. Racism, along with a prevailing American ideology of individualism and limited government, helps explain why white citizens and legislators give so much support to controversial police shooters and aggressive police tactics and so little to criminal sand poor people.” (Hirschfield). Many Americans believe that police shootings are due to lack of the police officers knowledge and skill. Clearly, the shootings are due to a ongoing problem of racism in our country and not simply police skill. This could change people’s opinions around this topic because it provides the real reason why there so many shootings. Even though knowing why can change your opinion on certain topics,
“Often fear of one evil leads us into a worse”(Despreaux). Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux is saying that fear consumes oneself and often times results in a worse fate. William Golding shares a similar viewpoint in his novel Lord of the Flies. A group of boys devastatingly land on a deserted island. Ralph and his friend Piggy form a group. Slowly, they become increasingly fearful. Then a boy named Jack rebels and forms his own tribe with a few boys such as Roger and Bill. Many things such as their environment, personalities and their own minds contribute to their change. Eventually, many of the boys revert to their inherently evil nature and become savage and only two boys remain civilized. The boys deal with many trials, including each other, and true colors show. In the end they are being rescued, but too much is lost. Their innocence is forever lost along with the lives Simon, a peaceful boy, and an intelligent boy, Piggy. Throughout the novel, Golding uses symbolism and characterization to show that savagery and evil are a direct effect of fear.
Death can both be a painful and serious topic, but in the hands of the right poet it can be so natural and eloquently put together. This is the case in The Sleeper by Edgar Allan Poe, as tackles the topic of death in an uncanny way. This poem is important, because it may be about the poet’s feelings towards his mother’s death, as well as a person who is coming to terms with a loved ones passing. In the poem, Poe presents a speaker who uses various literary devices such as couplet, end-stopped line, alliteration, image, consonance, and apostrophe to dramatize coming to terms with the death of a loved one.
Coates conveys that “[he] saw it in their loud laughter…[he]saw it in their brutal language…”(15). Here, “it” refers to the insecurities or inferiority the black children feel, which provokes them to act aggressive with “loud laughter” and “brutal laughter”. By employing this anaphora, Coates emphasizes the growing fear that black teenagers face that antagonizes them to react violently. Furthermore, Coates demonstrates that “[he] knew that there was a ritual to a street fight...attested to all the vulnerability of the black teenage body” (15). The fact that the “street fight” is “ritual” or mundane highlights that violence is a tradition that black teenagers are adopting. Thus, Coates employs violent imagery to prove that the result of this prevailing fear that builds up in black communities due to racism. Additionally, Coates articulates that “[he] would watch them after school” as “squared off like boxers” and “leaped at each other” (15). Here, Coates illustrates that the black teenagers showcase the violence in the black community “after school” as they “squared off like boxers” as to resolve conflicts. Through this violent imagery, Coates portrays how the racial injustice in black communities influences the black teeneagers
Starr Carter is a sixteen-year old girl stuck between her poor black neighbourhood and the fancy mostly-white prep school she attends. The balance between her two worlds is shattered when she witnesses shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police officer. He was unarmed, innocent and yet his murderer could escape justice. The Hate U Give is a timely tale of the world we live in, inspired by the Black Lives Matters movement.
The first way that the author connects with the real world is by the main events that happen in school. For example, the book begins with an open fire at the school by an angry student, who's trying to feel powerful. Our country deals with this impact everyday. Whether it’s in school or out of school, there is a shooting everyday. When I first read The Hate List I wasn’t sure if the story was based off a true story because the novel was written as a regular day in America. The book also relates with the real world by connecting with how media reacts to news. In The Hate List the media takes advantage of the school shooting. But yet the media takes any information on Valerie to make her look like a suspect, even though she is not. This is what typical news providers will do, they put a twist on the headline just to get more viewers.
Given all of the racial tension our country is going through right now, and the tensions between police brutality and the Black Lives Matter groups, this novel is one that students, and some educators, need to read. Many times in the media we only get one side of the story, this is a story from both sides. Rashad is a young, African America boy who is accused of trying to steal a bag of chips and is beaten by a police officer for it. Quinn is a white boy who has never experienced racism first hand until now, and is afraid to face the issues that he is witnessing right in front of him because the police officer in question is a close family friend.
Non judgmental and Compassion was a message in this movie. If more people would have compassion for others we would live in a better world. It is important to be non judgmental because people never know what happens in a person's life to cause them to act out in a certain way. Mrs. Erin Gruwell’s students were separated along racial lines and had few aspirations beyond street survival. Many people warned her that her students were all criminals who couldn’t be taught. With all odds stacked against her, she accepted the teaching position at Wilson High School. Erin Gruwell saw more in the students than a future as criminals and gang members; she saw them as people who have lost their ways in life. Instead of turning her back as society had done, she held out a helping hand. She had compassion and was non judgmental toward the children’s actions and hatred for one another. Being judgmental...
Non judgmental and Compassion was a message in this movie. Mrs. Erin Gruwell had no idea of what she gotten herself into when she volunteered to be an English teacher at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School, a highly gang affiliated high school in Long Beach, California. Her students are separated along racial lines and have few aspirations beyond street survival. Erin Gruwell saw more to the students than gang members. She saw what no one else could see, she was non judgmental and had compassion for the students. Being that it was her first year teaching, in the beginning the students saw her as a “babysitter”, and they hated her because she was white. Teenagers in Long Beach California thought it was their destiny to become gang members with their respective race. They believed to continue the fight that their ancestors started. During this time they felt like they were being force education by the government to go to school with different races they hate. Freedom Writers first portrays teenagers as students who don’t know anything but how to survive on the street. They felt that war had been declared and they were killing ...