...“If the track is tough and the hill is rough, *thinking* you can just ain’t enough!” ~Shel SilverStein As a black girl growing up in the sixties and going to school was really rough. My mom was one of them; she was a young girl who was differentiated by teachers of the same race. She was made fun of by her teachers and treated awfully because she was not smart enough. Every time the teachers called her name, she gets all shaky like an earthquake thinking that she will get in trouble or humiliated in front of her classmates. My mom was born in a small town in Cherry Hill, Maryland and she went to Cherry Hill Middle School. Back then, black people were segregated, so they had to walk miles to get to their school even though there is a neighborhood school. She walked three miles to her school and back while the white kids rode on the bus. She lived in a big family, so money was scarce and she had to fight her older siblings before they ate all of the food on the table. She always followed her older brothers around wherever they went and instead of playing with dolls, she went outside to play basketball, jump rope and play tag with her brothers. Even though she did not have the best childhood memories of school, home life was different....
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...By Faythy Fillmore My mom, Melissa Murray, is the best mom there ever was. I know this because she's my mom and she always is there for me. Another thing is that she is helpful in every way. She is almost always positive by not yelling at me. In addition she accepts me for who I am by telling me that I can do anything I can put my mind to. My mom is helpful by encouraging me to believe in myself. She gives me confidence to help me out in life whenever it gives me lemons. In other words she is also helpful by making sure the house is in tip-top shape just in case any unexpected guest arrives. She always makes sure that we have a good meal in other words she make sure we have enough of that item for the amazing...
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...PERSONAL NARRATIVE 1 When taking a look at how my life has changed over the past five years I can truly and honestly say that I would never have expected the things that have happened. Back in June 2007 I was separated from my husband and moved into my own apartment. I was in the United States Navy for six and a half years at that time. My divorce was finalized in January 2008 and I deployed to Afghanistan in March 2008, for eight months. After coming home from a long deployment, I had orders to move to Lemoore, California. This area is nothing but farm lands and I did not like that at all. I was born and raised in Southern California and enjoyed the fast-paced life that I was living. It is amazing how things have changed. In July 2011 I was honorably discharged from the United States Navy and I moved back in with my mother and two younger sister. Growing up we lived in a condo in Diamond Bar, California, but that all changed over time. The same time that I got out of the military, myself, my sisters and my mother had to move out of our condo and into a two bedroom apartment. Talk about a huge change in life. This move has not been easy for any of us. There is no privacy and we all have to share the living space. I share a bed with my middle sister and my mother shares a bed with my youngest sister. I never thought that I would be unemployed for this long, but it has been over a year since I got discharged. It seems like nobody is hiring right now...
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...Africa through Theatre This paper sets out to explore how processes of theatre making employed by The Mothertongue project, provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Mothertongue works from the premise that the development and subsequent performance of stories in theatrical processes affords women the opportunity to re-write and remap their personal narratives and in so doing insert their voices into the landscape of South African Theatre. In an attempt to redress the gender imbalances and androcentricism prevalent in post-apartheid theatre, this paper speaks to the relationship between theatre, liminality and communitas. I am interested in unpacking how collaborative processes of theatre-making provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Remapping in this instance refers to processes of transforming lived experience through story. I address how, through engaging in ritual activities that are central to the stories performed, actors, audiences and the owners of the source stories are invited to physically participate in remapping and transforming lived experience. Linked to this is the choice of form(s) and how this affects or impacts on the performed stories as well as on the construction of performed rituals and ultimately on the processes of remapping personal narratives. I focus specifically on Mothertongue’s 2004 production, Uhambo: pieces of a dream. The production was an integration of theatre and visual art in the form of performances...
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...Novels are criticized to see if the author creates a book that will stand the test of time. Jane Eyre and The Joy Luck Club both connect the maternal figure and use the narrative language to tell the stories of the women in both novels. Charlotte Brontë has created a novel that is referenced often and allows coming of age novels to spring-board off of her beliefs. Amy Tan’s coming of age novel could stand to be the test of time and can be modeled after Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre not only stands the test of time by showing the importance of women in society through Jane, but also first person to iterate the importance that Charlotte Brontë draws the reader into the narrator’s feelings. The Joy Luck Club uses the narrative language which can stand the test of time for the future similarly to Jane Eyre and develop characters through first person. Often times Brontë does not mention Jane’s mother, however, when she does elaborate on a...
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...PSY/230 4/22/2012 Instructor Koenig Personal Narrative Personal Narrative 1 I think the younger you are, the more dramatically different you are from each year to the next. Infancy through young adulthood holds so many milestones and life-changing events. Those are the years when you can really tell how a person has changed since the year before. I think the difference between age 1 and 2, 12 and 13, 19 and 20, etc, is so much greater than 34 and 35, 46 and 47, 80 and 81, etc. For me, the past 5 years have been from ages 37 to 42. If you had asked me what the meaning of life was at a younger age, I probably could not have told you. I still can not probably tell you the answer to that question. Can anyone truly answer that question? Everyone has a different meaning to life that is their very own. As a teenage, like most teenagers, I thought I knew it all and had control of my life and it's direction, and found out I was wrong. I had made some mistakes on my life journey but I had learned from them. I became a mother at the young age of 18 which put my life in a whole new direction. Did I lose my youth? Yes. Would I have changed it? No. I ended up having three children by the time I was 23. That was the time when I thought my life had true meaning. I had three little human beings that depended on me for everything. Did I make mistakes along the way? Yes, what young mother doesn't? As they grew, I grew with them...
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...Which Essay is Better: A Narrative or A Descriptive? Ever read a story and say to yourself, “What’s happening?” Whenever I read a descriptive essay, that’s what I would say. In this essay I would be comparing and contrasting two types of essays, a narrative and descriptive. I have chosen “Are the rich happy?” by Stephen Leacock 1916 and “Sister Flowers” by Maya Angelou, n.d. By writing my essay, I want to give my views on each and decide which I would rather write. Narrative Essay A narrative essay reflects a personal opinion that is based on your own experiences. This helps you bring a reader into your very own mind and shows him/her the topic you’re writing about through your eyes. Telling a story or event the way it happened for you. It also could provide a sort of lesson or moral to be learned from the outcome of the story as well as what the writer did that contributed to it or not. It’s more on a personal level that any one reading could say that happened to them or that they learned from the story by not doing whatever it was that the writer did. In Stephen Leacock’s “Are the Rich Happy?” the author writes about his experiences with his friends, with of modest income. Most of it, all in his opinion, points out the problems or troubles those with an existential amount of funds in their bank accounts. He goes on to give some examples that he encountered several of his friends going through. “A friend of mine who has ten thousand dollars a year told me the other...
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...It is common to classify “Hispanics/Latinos” into a single category; however, these people come from a variety of countries, have their own cultures, and can even speak a variety of languages. It is important to remember that these people are human beings like any other group of people and they have their own unique lives and stories. These stories are rather important as they tell us the harsh reality of immigration through personal narratives, and many Hispanic immigrants like sharing their stories to inform others and give themselves a voice. Personal narratives tell us that Hispanic immigration to the United States needs to be reformed promptly. These narratives tell us that immigration will never end despite the current US government’s...
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...extract. Go on to compare how the presentation of mothers elsewhere in “In Cold Blood” and in “True History of the Kelly Gang”. In this extract Capote presents Mrs Hickock in a 3rd person narrative description of her reaction at the trial of her son, and also how she expresses herself and her feelings toward the matter. This extract is during the trial wherein they describe Dick’s crimes. Capote describes Mrs Hickock’s grief using verb phrases such as “simulated a smile” which is effective in emphasising how hard the smile truly was. The way in which Capote depicts Mrs Hickock and how she “expressed a need to confide” using the noun “need” in a way that exemplifies her how much of a necessity the talk was to her, which further represents her outlet of grief. Using several adjectives such as “rumpled” and adverbs such as “flimsily” suggest how weak she is feeling at this moment in time. Despite her grief Capote still uses the somewhat cheery adjectives “pudgy” and “agreeable” to describe Mrs Hickock which contrasts her inner turmoil which I feel somewhat represents Capote’s journalistic style at this time in contrast to his fiction style because throughout the extract he generally recounts it as a journalistic point, facts and his own memory of Mrs Hickock and then using those adjectives gives the impression he liked the woman, and was inputting a somewhat opinionated description of her. Capote depicts Mrs Hickock as a mother using a 1st person dialogue of when she was talking...
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...Describe the genre of Slave Narrative in his essentials on the basis of an example. What was the role of the genre for the abolitionist movement? Anti-slavery literature was very important for the abolitionists` fight against slavery. The Slave Narratives took a special importance because of the fact that slaves reported from the personal perspective. They described autobiographically how the life in captivity looked like. Consequently, they disputed the description of slave keeper, which were played down and romanticized. Frederick Douglass, one of the former slaves, wrote his story on his own, whereas some who couldn´t write and read (who were illiterate), dictated their stories to abolitionists. Those wrote and published these stories. Moreover, the Slave Narratives always were authenticated in preface and epilogues from whiteness. In the following part, I will quote many a time from the autobiography of the mentioned Frederick Douglass‘ “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass“ “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder. It required extraordinary barbarity on the part of an overseer to affect him. He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slaveholding. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers...
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...Taylor Hutson Dr. Dennis Winston English-104 13 October 2015 Writing in My Field Radio expands far beyond the bounds of hip-hop, rhythm and blues, and pop music streamed from countless stations across the nation. It is much more than mundane news, traffic and weather updates and is not limited to sports broadcasts. Much like a painted canvas radio paints a mental masterpiece, filled with life stories, musical applications and paired with contextual reporting and analysis. For me, radio grasps my mind from the familiar confines of the world around me and places me in a world far beyond anything that I have actually experienced. Accounts of how a French scuba diver nearly drowned to death in a pursuit to save the life of another diver followed by the scary reality of death among the lives of senior citizens in hospice care are only some of the many intriguing stories that inspire me write for radio broadcasting. “How A Woman’s Plan to Kill Herself Helped Her Family Grieve” written by Alex Spiegel is another story that specifically captures the listener within the confines of its broadcast. Sandy Bem had Alzheimer’s disease—a disease that corrupts the mind’s capacity to remember important family members, read, and write. This disease left Sandy feeling helpless and depressed, later causing her to “commit” suicide—assisted suicide. As Sandy’s health began to deteriorate her feelings of helplessness grew to the point of despair. After wallowing in sadness for countless months...
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...Personal Narrative Essay Title: “For Sale” Everyone knows that phrase: “The grass is always greener on the other side”. But as a child it was a hollow statement for me. Until the day I perceived it as my philosophy of survival. This story is of my purest memories following my relentless battles. Simplistic flashbacks of virtuous kids. Full of laughter and play with nothing to be feared except for the day’s end. All before the moment where the innocence was dissolved away by the acidic misfortunes of life. [a series of sentence fragments] To illustrate, the first setting in this world was in the town called “Ocala”. It was in South-central Florida, a place where nature thrived and creatures of all walks of life roamed. The most business we had there was a prison thirty miles away, and a Wal-Mart 30 miles further down the same road. So one would say it was pretty rural. Just a quaint ole town, where the trees outnumbered the people. My best friend Samantha and I loved the fact that we had mother-nature as our playground. Spending most of our waking moments playing in the open forests, we’d sneak around concocting strategic methods on how to collect lizards and insects, then place them in small decorated cages. Once we obtained our new pets, we would examine and befriend each one, always setting them free later. However, our nights were different, pictures were taken, video games were played and even dress up was included from time to time. Videogames helped enable our...
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...situation are viewed upon differently between a man and a woman. Obvious in the case of slavery, the two sexes were treated differently and so therefore their recollections of such events were-different Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, were both written during the same time period. Both authors go into many aspects regarding the cruelty of slavery, but they still had their differences. During each of the author’s childhood they explain how it was for them. When Harriet was growing up in her, she was shielded from slavery. Her Father was accomplished carpenter, whose wish was to someday buy his children. “I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise…” On the other hand Fredrick childhood was the opposite. Fredrick was born to a slave mother and an undisclosed white man. He did not know his age growing up he had to make educational guesses. ”I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.” Another way that Jacobs and Douglass narrative works were different is the tone and the writing style that each author writes in. In Jacobs’s narrative she writes with fear, and her writing style is free-flowing. She also directly addresses her reader at times, and asks questions to catch the reader and make...
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...Literacy and chiasmus in Douglass’s Narrative of the Life Slavery in a history was a time period where humans did not treat other as humans, just because of the color of the skin and their education. To support this white people in the new land (America) used great religious texts such as Bible to prove that what they are doing is part of nature and that’s what is also written in text that is foundation of great religion of that time. The education point that was used by the whites for slavery was later proved wrong by many great autobiographies, one of them is Narrative life of Frederick Douglas. Even though Douglas was a slave he was able to prove that if one has interest and support, anyone can be educated. We can see how he educates himself...
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...Introduction In this essay, I will discuss my experience of interviewing a family and constructing a genogram guided by their narrative. For this task, I purposely chose a family that is very different from my family of origin in terms of their cultural heritage. I will reflect on differences and similarities between our families as well as my prejudices and hypothesis that I inevitably constructed before and during the process. To identify this family, I had to approach some colleagues proposing to them to participate in the interview. Fortunately, one of them introduced me to her friend. Francesca had an interest in psychology, and since she was free and not much committed, I did welcome her with a cup of coffee to share more about the interview. After I formally introduced myself to her, I laid down to her the framework of the interview, and she agreed to participate with her husband, Matteo. Family context The family I interviewed comes from Italy, but they moved to the UK 3 years ago. I noticed that knowing these few details I was already constructing hypothesis based on stereotypes. I was dreading the interview because I was expecting to have difficulty in stopping them talking since I was concerned about getting enough information to construct the genogram. I also hypothesized whether being new to the UK makes them consider participating in projects like mine to increase a sense of belonging. Another hypothesis where I imagined them to have very firmly attachments to...
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