...Moving, Riveting, and Triumph are only 3 choice words that could be used to describe Rebecca Skloot’s nonfiction writing of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta, wife of David and mother of four, had cells taken from her body without her consent. The Lacks family did not know this until a much later date. Henrietta’s cells are now referred to as HeLa which is the pattern of which most doctors used to label the cells they took from patients, willing and unwilling: First two, Last Two. This hides the identity of the patient. Throughout this memoir you will be taken back and forth between 2 points of view, the story of Henrietta’s life as well as the struggles Rebecca Skloot goes through to contact and speak with the Lacks family....
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...discussion because half of the people that attended were my age and the other half was about two generations older, so there was a very diverse pool of perspectives and opinions. But because there was a large generation gap it was a bit more difficult for me to share my views, so I mainly listened and observed other people’s thoughts. The discussion itself was very helpful because of the different views people had about the memoir. One of the themes of A Long Way Gone that we discussed was the importance of hope. We mainly talked about how this theme was not constant throughout the memoir and that it changed with time. For example one person brought up how at first Ishmael’s only motivator was the hope of his parents being alive, then when he realized that he would never be reunited with them he had lost his hope. It was only when he remembered what his father had said about a person only lives if they have something to live for which gave him his hope back. As far as themes that’s really the only one that we discussed, but we did discuss a lot of other interesting aspects of the memoir. We discussed the validity of Ishmael’s timeframes given within the memoir and talked about the criticism that A Long Way Gone has received. Most people in the group thought that even if the times were off it is insignificant with regards to what he’s been through as a child soldier and the main message that he’s trying to project through this memoir....
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...about my writing skills than I thought I had. In the beginning I had neutral feelings about how well I would do in this course. I’ve always known that I had good writing techniques, but have been out of school for over 10 years and wasn’t sure if I could still write like how I used to. When I was in high school I remember writing essays, research papers, and even memoirs but was only the basics of how to properly write. It gave me practice on my vocabulary as well as sentence and paragraph structure. It also allowed my imagination and thoughts to come out on paper and let the reader indulge in my stories. But how good of a writer was I? After taking a course called Composition 1 in college, I found that my writing skills; even though pretty good, had to be improved. I feel that my writing has improved due to learning how to properly brainstorm ideas and set up my research findings before I put them on my final paper. I also learned how to cite my findings which is a skill they don’t stress about in High School. Writing Essays, or Research Papers aren’t difficult for me, however I must say that writing a Memoir would have to be the most difficult because I don’t like talking about myself let alone have people know personal details of my life. Now that I’m at the end of my course in Composition 1 My attitude and feelings toward writing now has changed. I feel more confident and more knowledgeable in writing and now have a higher level of experience. During my time...
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...Personal Response “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habit” Kim wrote the memoir “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habit,” in 2004. Her memoir was first published in The New York Times. The purpose of her writing the memoir was to give you her point of view growing up comes from riches to rags. Main Idea Kim’s father was a millionaire in South Korea while when she was a child. Kim talks about how she was rich growing up until she started the seventh grade. When Kim reached the seventh grade her father went bankrupt. Being that bankruptcy is punishable by law her family fled to North America. They went from living in a hilltop mansion to the upstairs of a two family home in Woodstock. Genre Memoirs unlike autobiographies are written to describe a momentous event that changed ones life as apposed to their whole life. That said event to Kim was when she was 13, when her father lost everything. Growing up rich she was driven to school by a chauffeur, now it poverty she had to ride public transportation for the first time. Being rich the first part of her life and all of a sudden facing poverty there was a lot that she had to become accustomed to. Audience Her audience seemed as if it was more so for Koreans or others from different nationalities that are in a different place for the first time in life. Not necessarily just other nationalities, but just anyone who was in a different place in life and for some reason or other had to relocate without notice. Tone Although...
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...experience that so many things shape who you are and how you’re going to turn out: specific situations, people, items, it’s honestly endless. With endless possibilities comes an endless exploration to find one’s self. I must say though, people have shaped me more than anything. As you begin to get close with people you really get to know them, when this happens you may find flaws. Above all the closer you get with someone the more their behavior can change. I feel that change in behavior is what made me think about people. Some good things and some bad. This exact behavioral change has made me feel different from many. I feel like sometimes people just don’t care enough, but being going to my high school in particular has made me see only a very small piece. I am looking to find more out of people, and by coming here to Utica I have met new people that have shown me there is more culture and kindness in the world. This will give me more hope for myself and more hope for the world, to find others that are more like me, things that have already begun to happen. Situations are almost equally as important, each and every day I face situations that change how I view others and myself. This could be as small as a problem with one of my friends to having a full on verbal argument with someone I may not like very much. That is just to name a few, there are also lots of good things that have changed me and shaped me. Receiving my black belt in karate was a moment I will never forget...
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...his life became surviving. For months, Beah had to survive by overcoming hunger and violence. Survival was the most important theme in the book. Ishmael had to survive the war and in the forest all alone. He lost his family and friends. To stay alive during war, he had to join the army. He had to overcome his hunger, the violation, and the isolation. The book states “Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds and no one had any control...
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...is a quote that comes to mind and seems appropriate when discussing the importance of memoirs and the impact they have on readers. As much as we prefer to view the world through rose-tinted glasses and cling to our belief that ignorance is bliss, all we really succeed in doing is blinding ourselves to the truth, but even in the darkest of times and among demons we seem to find some shed of hope and light. Ruth Kluger and Primo Levi are able to express their darkest and hopeful moments and thoughts through their exquisite and precise wording of their memoirs. Ruth Kluger’s memoir is titled Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood...
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...Dear Bardes (aka the best teacher ever), Throughout my memoir, I reflect upon the meaning of a home to me, and how it’s definition to me changed over time. I also try to use innocence and ignorance highlight the misunderstandings of the real world through the mind and eyes of a child. My narrative includes stories of immigration from Israel, the struggles to fit in, and accepting myself for being one of a kind. This belongs to Unit 4 in particular because it easily relates to the idea of immigration, and transition, and feeling left out of the crowd, which is what Oscar felt and experiences in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I also tried to use humor to spice up my memoir with statements such as “And if your mother [...] case red rain boots.” which as silly as it may...
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...Northup’s distinctive voice throughout the memoir had been largely influenced by his persona as a slave working under the adverse supervision of Epps. The memoir had been derived from his perspective as a slave; thus, revealing his response towards key issues that perpetuated throughout the novel. Northup was able to explore the fundamental issue of the role of female slaves during the post-colonial period in America, specifically the sexual exploitation of female slaves. Northup’s persona towards the dire treatment of black female slaves is that of extreme animosity and disgust. His stance against female marginalisation was presented through the use of stylistic features; namely, the inherent employment of figurative language when discussing...
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...really happened. They wanted the people of the world to realize how viciously they were treated. On top of wanting us to understand, they also want to understand why this happened. Why did the Lord let this happen? Why did the people of the world stand by and let such a thing happen to so many people? Today in the 90's we cannot think of letting so many people suffer, as those seven million people did in the mid-40s. Perhaps the most recognized writer of the holocaust is Elie Wiesel. He was taken from his home and put into the concentration camps when he was still a young boy. Wiesel once said, "I write in order to understand as much as to be understood." He was liberated in 1945 and, once he was liberated "he imposed a ten-year vow of silence upon himself before trying to describe what had happened to him and over six million other Jews." In a lecture on the dimensions of the holocaust Wiesel said, ""The Holocaust as Literary Inspiration" is a contradiction in terms. As in everything else, Auschwitz negates all systems, destroys all doctrines. They cannot but impoverish the experience which lies beyond our reach." "How can one write about a situation which goes beyond its very description? How can one write a novel about the Holocaust? How can one write about a situation and not identify with all its characters? And how can one identify with so many victims? Worse, how can one identify with the executioner? How could a victim say...
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...THHS Rachel Kupferberg, Rachel Maschler AP Literature-Band 6 May 1, 2011 Major Works Data Sheet- Night Title: Night Author: Elie Wiesel Date of Publication: 1958 Genre: autobiography, memoir Historical information about period of publication: World War II, and the Holocaust, ended in April 1945 when the liberating Allied armies came through the conquered territories in Nazi Europe. Night describes 16 year old Elie’s loss of faith in God, humanity, family and morality in general. Elie, therefore, vowed to not speak of his experience in Auschwitz, Buna or Buchenwald (or any event between 1943 and 1945, from the beginning of the occupation of Hungary to Germany’s liberation in 1945) for ten years, until he had time to internalize this dramatic loss, and regain his faith and possession of his memory and life. In 1954, after realizing that even less than ten years after the end of the Holocaust, the world was already forgetting and Jews were abandoning their roots, the time had come to testify and justify to the world that Hitler had not succeeded. Biographical Information about the author: Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in Sighet Romania, where his memoir Night begins. In his childhood (up to the Nazi occupation of Romania) his father encouraged his study of the Torah, other Judaic texts and other literary works. As described in the beginning of Night, Elie was also curious about the realm of Kabbalah, Jewish...
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...First off I would like to say that I had about a whole paragraph typed up explaining why I never had literature change my perspective before. I don’t like to read at all and I have only read 3 books in my entire life. Two of those books I was forced to read due to school. There was one book that I rented from a library in high school that actually not only changed my perspective but it molded my thinking of what I wanted to do in my life. The book was called House to House A Soldiers Memoir. Staff Sergeant Bellavia’s book tells about his time he spent in Fallujah which is located just outside of Baghdad. As I was reading this book it was so graphic and horrifying you would think it was a fictional book. That wasn’t the case though. The things the soldiers in this book went through left me wondering what I was doing for others and most of all my country. I really want to elaborate on how this book changed me. I remember the first day I understood why I love our great nation. I was just a kid when it happened. It was the year of 2001, in the ninth month, on the eleventh day of the month is when I watched the towers fall. I began to see how people come together as a country. So lets fast forward nine years with this book in my hand. The second battle of Fulljah was one of the bloodiest battles of the Irag War. The way these soldiers looked out for one another while they were battling evil. This wasn’t fairy tale evil either, this was real evil. I felt sorrow for the soldiers that...
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...The Glass Castle has been a great memoir to allow readers to make sense of what Jeannette Walls had gone through as little girl on the many journeys with her family and with herself. It addresses the many social issues such as: neglect, sexual abuse, homelessness, unsanitary conditions, and alcohol abuse. In this memoir we are able to see a glimpse of how Rex and Rosemary Walls choose to educate their children to see the better side of their daily hardships. To show that no matter what nature throws at us we can handle it. Rex and Rosemary Walls may not have been the best parents however they were able to turn their children into well-educated adults. They were able to accomplish this by ensuring them that they loved them and would never fail them. Also by finding creative ways to teach them important life lessons. Like to learn how to face your fears and what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. Although many people would not necessarily agree with the manner these parents educated their children we can certainly accept the fact that most of the children gained exceptional values that otherwise may have not been learned. The positive effects of the Walls parents parenting skills were; their children learned important values, they learned what it means to stand by each other, and they gained the importance of having something to inspire them to a great future. The Walls children learned important values like humility, loyalty, forgiveness, and appreciation. These young...
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...Peter Lovenheim had breathed on the similar street in inhabited Rochester, New York most of his life. But it was simply after a ruthless murder-suicide astounded the area that he was hit by a datum of modernized life in present American societies: No one actually discerned someone else. Therefore initiated Peter's hunt to encounter and get to recognize his neighbors. Being nosy, he did further than just familiarize himself. He requested ever so graciously, if he might nap over. With a vulnerable mind and an inquisitive soul, Lovenheim proceeds us inside the homes, hearts and minds of his nationals and requests a provocative question: Do neighborhoods still matter and is something mislaid when we animate as outsiders next door? There are number...
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...Holocaust- destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war. A long time ago, thousands of Jews perished inside concentration camps, but some of them lived to tell the tale. In his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel describes the rough tragedies he’s been through and the sorrow he encountered during the Holocaust. Before the Holocaust, Elie lived a normal life with his family and friends who he loved dearly. He believes strongly in his faith and he has a daily routine like most teenagers do nowadays. While inside the concentration camps, Elie struggles with a constant battle of survival and tries to keep his father alive. After some time, he starts getting doubts on helping his father because of the events that happened during the Holocaust. He only starts thinking of himself because he wants to survive. However, while he tries to stay with his father and help, the Holocaust and the events that happen...
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