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Toni Morrison and Charlotte Perkins Gilman
In this age of electric cars, flying machines, and Chinese take-out, it is easy to let certain every-day flaws slip past us. Take for example language. What percentage of American's say "I don't got any money" when in reality they don't have any money? Sure it's just a minor flaw, a minute blemish that could easily pass unnoticed. But, what about the next person who says, "I ain't got no money." Is there a limit? Is there a limit to how badly language can be mutilated, destroyed, or is death the ultimate confinement? Nobel Prize winner, Toni Morrison, expresses her disgust and fear of such a death in her 1993 Nobel Prize Lecture.
She tells the story of an elderly blind woman whom is known and respected in her community for her wisdom and knowledge. Morrison explains that "Among her people [the old woman] is both the law and its transgression" (Morrison 1993). On one occasion, the woman is approached by some young people who are intent on taking advantage of her blindness. They say, "Old woman, I hold in my hand a bird. Tell me whether it is living or dead." After some time the woman replies, "I don't know. I don't know whether the bird you are holding is dead or alive, but what I do know is that it is in your hands. It is in your hands." (Morrison 1993)
Morrison interprets the bird to be language and the woman to be a practiced writer. Morrison states that "[The woman] is worried about how the language she dreams in, given to her at birth, is handled, put into service, even withheld from her for certain nefarious purposes. ...She believes that if the bird in the hands of her visitors is dead, the custodians are responsible for the corpse" (Morrison 1993). The woman is aware that language, her very way of communicating with the world, her sole instrument of expression in modern society, is dying. As language continues to die, the woman and her medium for expression become increasingly confined, with death as the final outcome. She is shackled and detained by her inability to halt the holocaust, the complete and utter desecration of the language she loves so much.
According to the Louisiana society, Edna Pontellier has the ideal life, complete with two children and the best husband in the world. However, Edna disagrees, constantly crying over her feelings of oppression. Finally, Edna is through settling for her predetermined role in society as man’s possession, and she begins to defy this. Edna has the chance to change this stereotype, the chance to be “[t]he bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice” (112). The use of a metaphor comparing Edna to a bird proves her potential to rise above society’s standards and pave the pathway for future women. However, Edna does not have “strong [enough] wings” (112). After Robert, the love of her life and the man she has an affair with, leaves, Edna becomes despondent and lacks an...
The story “A Brutal Murder in a Public Place” by Joyce Carol Oates follows a person in an airport who hears a small bird but cannot seem to find it. Oates uses imagery and symbolism between the narrator and the bird to show how trapped and overlooked the narrator truly feels.
Freedom can be defined very differently by society. The concept of freedom is abstract in its self like “Love” or “God.” It is something questioned, fought, and searched by people from the being of civilization. Among the centuries of struggles, the liberation of blacks and cultural difference are focuses we continue to examine and learn from. The works of two great writers, James Baldwin and Jamaica Kincaid are dissected by readers every day to obtain insights and understands in regards to personal liberation.
Toni Morrison was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Beloved, a novel whose popularity and worth earned her the Nobel Prize in literature the first ever awarded to a black female author. Born in the small town of Larain, Ohio, in 1931, to George and Ramah Willis Wofford, Morrison's birth name is Chloe Anthony Wofford (Gates and Appiah ix). Morrison describes the actions of her central character in Beloved, as: the ultimate love of a mother; the outrageous claim of a slave. In this statement we find an expression of the general themes of Morrison's mainly naturalistic works. One of these is the burden of the past or history (i.e. slavery and being black in a predominantly white controlled society). Another is the effect on the individual and society from distinctions of race, gender and class. A further theme still is the power of love, be it positive or negative it is a powerful transforming presence in her characters and novels, one through which many find redemption and freedom.
In the book Sula by Toni Morrison, Morrison’s ambiguous link between good, evil, and guilt, she is able to show that these terms are relative to each other and often occur mutually. In her comparison of good and evil, Sula states that "Being good to somebody is just like being mean to somebody. Risky. You don't get nothing for it" (145). Good and evil are being compared as if they are equal and that is how the book is structured. For instance, Eva's burning of Plum is a complex conjunction of motherly love and practicality and cannot be described as simply being a good act or a bad one. The killing of Chicken Little is a similarly ambiguous situation from which Sula and Nel's feelings are unclear. Lastly Sula, upon her death bed, questions what it means to be good and suggests that it what may be considered bad could in reality be good. Both in the syncopated style of Morrison's writing and the morally ambiguous portrayal of characters, cause the reader to question morals and think about them on a larger scale.
What are the most common things associated with the exchange and how did they influence cultures on both sides of the Atlantic?
Considering the Constitution excludes the four groups which make-up a majority of America during the time; women, slaves, indentured servants, Native Americans and men who have no land, how can one regard the constitution as a democratic document? Although the Constitution excluded a majority of its citizens and was founded by elitist framers, because it is a document that depends solely on the interpretation of its reader, it has progressed overtime. As Madison notes, it is our diversity that unites us as a nation. Without the Constitution, perhaps I wouldn't even have had the opportunity to write this essay and question my country's Constitution.
The end of World War II presented an opportunity for Winston Churchill to regain some of the power and influence that the Imperialistic British Empire once possessed. Churchill took advantage of the trust and respect that the American public and President Truman shared about his character. He saw Truman's lack of political experience as an opportunity to restore British imperial authority. Winston Churchill tainted Harry Truman's beliefs and preservations about Russia, because his personal agenda and imperial policy where vital to the supremacy of the British Empire. Churchill manipulated Truman and the American public. He caused them to believe that Russia was a legitimate threat to the free world, thus he created the origins of the Cold War.
There are many reasons why the Civil War started. Some experts claim that it was built up tension between the North and South states. Others claim that it was a social clash between slave-owners and abolitionists. What is certain, however, is that slavery was the main issue and the issue that ignited the fuse that led to blood and devastation. In whatever way from whatever perspective, slavery was the primary issue at hand and would be decided by the outcome of the war (Foner, “The Civil War”).
In her acceptance speech, Morrison tries to communicate the idea that we must be careful with how we use our words. She analogizes the use of language to the life of a metaphoric bird in a tale of a wise, old, blind woman. Toni Morrison opens her speech by referring to a tale of two young people who, in trying to disprove the credibility of this wise woman, ask the question, “ ‘Is the bird I am holding [in my hand] living or dead?’” (11). Of course, being blind, the woman does not know and must say so. However, she adds that, “ ‘What I do know is that it is in your hands. It is in your hands’” (11). In saying this, she tells the youngsters that the fate of the bird’s life is their responsibility. The bird, in this case, represents language. Morrison explains, “So I choose to read the bird as language and the woman as a practiced writer” (12). The bird has either been found dead, been killed, or has the ability (if it is alive) to be killed, much as language, being looked at as a living thing, can live or die; be saved or destroyed. Language is “susceptible to death, erasure; certainly imperiled and salvageable only by an effort of the will” (Morrison 13). That will is the responsibility of those who ...
Bird usually portrays an image of bad luck that follows afterwards and in this novel, that is. the beginning of all the bad events that occur in the rest of the novel. It all started when Margaret Laurence introduced the life of Vanessa MacLeod. protagonist of the story, also known as the granddaughter of a calm and intelligent woman. I am a woman.
The birdcage represents how Mrs. Wright was trapped in her marriage, and could not escape it. The birdcage door is broken which represents her broken marriage to Mr. Wright. It also represents Mrs. Wright escaping her marriage from Mr. Wright. When the door is open it allows Mrs. Wright to became a free woman. At one point in time the cage door use to have a lock that locked the bird inside the cage. This represents how Mr. Wright kept Mrs. Wright locked up from society. Mr. Wright knew that by keeping Mrs. Wright locked up, she would never be able to tell anyone how he really acted. Mr. Wright was very cruel to his wife.
In the poem, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou juxtaposes two birds to demonstrate the harmful effects of oppression. One bird is allowed to soar freely through the skies, while the other is shut in a cage and can only hope to be released someday. Angelou uses this comparison to show the importance of. Throughout the poem, the author’s use of diction and rhetorical devices make her message more powerful to the reader.
Within Toni Morrison's Beloved the character represent different themes and ideas that are expressed in the book. Beloved is the story of a woman, named Sethe, who struggles with her past when her daughter she killed get reincarnate back into her life. This characters name is Beloved as the major theme she represents is the past. Sethe also has another daughter, Denver, who represents the future. These two themes weave in and out of this book.
“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” , Toni Morrison, Beloved. Toni Morrison was an the author of the book called Beloved. The novel that she wrote had to deal with a African-American woman who was a mother ,wife and a lover who was living during the American Civil War era. She found a sense of relief to forgive herself within this novel and Toni Morrison wanted to capture these moments to let women know that we must not blame ourselves for what has happened in our lives whether we committed them or not.