...Throughout the years, American Literature has been drastically influenced by the Southern Gothic genre of Literature. This is largely seen through the traits of Southern Gothic that have been adopted and reproduced by American Literature. These traits of Southern Gothic are portrayed through the themes of novels and short stories. These themes include race, good vs. evil, unrequited love, being an outsider, and violence. Some stories that would fall into the true Southern Gothic genre include “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’connor, “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. The short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is about a family that plans a trip to Florida...
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...Diversity and Race in my Hometown Multicultural Families (HESC 4473) September 9, 2015 Introduction When speaking of multicultural families, we need to understand what it really means. The term culture was first used by the English Anthropologist Edward B. Taylor in his book Primitive Culture in 1871. Culture, said Taylor, is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Culture is also a way of life in the eyes of a set group of people. It is beliefs, religion, experience, knowledge, and material things. It is influenced by the people who make up a particular society. Culture really has no one meaning in my opinion, but rather, a many definitions. The most basic definition is that culture is a system of collective ideas, behaviors, beliefs, values, and artifacts that makes up a society of people. It is a learned behavior. How did the children of different ethnical/racial groups behave in your high school? Did they date interracially? Eat lunch together? Hang out together? In my hometown of West Memphis, AR we really didn’t experience a whole lot of open difference however, there was a lot of things going on behind the scenes or amongst the different set groups. I do not remember fighting amongst the different races and everyone seemed to get along just fine above the surface. It was actually during lunch that everyone seemed...
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...significant impact on their future opportunities. This statement in exhibited by the generations of my family. My grandparents Joe and Norma came from families that had some educational background. However, they were able to find areas of the towns they were...
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...of the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, demonstrating that our reputations are built on the way we handle our fears. To begin with, fears are meant to be overcome, but Harper Lee shows us a number of characters, like the jury and Alexandra, that succumbed to them instead, and in turn, they influenced many of Maycomb's townspeople to do the same. After being presented with bullet-proof evidence and Tom Robinson's convincing testimony, the unlawful jury took Mayella's side in the verdict because they were afraid of being labelled as "nigger-lovers". This idea was repeated by Atticus in chapter 23 when he advises Jem, "So far, nothing in your life has interfered with your reasoning process. Those are twelve reasonable men in everyday life, Tom's jury, but you saw something come between them and reason." (233) While Jem has never feared equality between races, the jury has because in the eyes of Maycomb, they would be betraying the white race. To avoid the endless knocks at their doors by white people questioning their loyalty, they decide to uphold the ridiculous assumption that all blacks are liars by declaring Tom guilty. This effects the entire town because a quick decision to hurt an innocent rather than face a fear will not only prove cowardliness, but also encourage racism within the community, demonstrating how easily a single reaction can determine someone's entire reputation. Always worrying about what others think of you is another fear left...
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...The novel The Narrows tells the story of a small town with a close knit group of people. When individuals from outside the community enter in, there are certainly some challenges and mishaps that cause the inhabitants of the Narrows to react in a way that could potentially affect their lives. The effects may have to do with their race, their class or their future destiny. The characters in The Narrows are greatly influenced by their environment and the people in their life. The male characters seem relatively content with the life they lead and respond to things that happen to them in a way that keeps their lives as simple as possible. But the main female character, Abbie Crunch is determined to makes decisions to better her own life as well the people she encounters. Rather than accepting a predetermined destiny like Link Williams and Mr. Powther, Abbie challenges situations and people so as to defy the lines of class and race. Link Williams is a characters in The Narrows who is very reactionary and makes decisions in accord with his predetermined destiny. He was adopted at a young age Abbie Crunch and this adoption may have influenced his “go with the flow” personality, but he continues to simply react to the things that happen to him, which he deems beyond his control. This type of reactionary behaviors starts when Link is very young is around when Abbie’s husband, The Major, passes away from a stroke. Due to the fact that Abbie is so grief stricken and can barely form a...
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...norms to conform to and spread among the community. Each culture has different ways of controlling the population into abiding by these norms. Some are influenced by religion, race, and their rank in the social hierarchy. The first article I read was about the use of biometrics by Coalition forces with the “war on terror”. The article explains how the use of biometric documentation of civilians is creating a system of controlling the population, and getting rid of life that is read to be potentially dangerous. The second article focuses on the racialization of surveillance in Canada’s North-West, and how the aim to manage the population of indigenous people is created by a system that still follows the societal normalities produced by settler societies. The system supports the racialization of society, and also feeds into the prejudice held against indigenous peoples. The third article I read focused on the racialized, and gendered sexual violence of honour crimes. Also the article looks at how honour crimes and cultural otherness brought on by people immigrating from places where the social norms are different or strongly held together by tradition and religion. The fourth and final article that I read talked about the tolerance at the Spanish- Moroccan border and the four racialized groups of people that occupy the border town of Ceuta. Through the reading of the four articles, there were three prominent themes that were found in most- if not all of them. I first recognized...
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...United States was experiencing a drastic change as new ideas and problems arose throughout the country. These problems and ideas not only swayed public opinion, but also influenced action (Rauchway 1). Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, lived though all of these events and felt their effects growing up while living in the Deep South. Looking at her only novel, it can be concluded that the similarities within it and reality are no coincidence. The Historical events that occurred during Harper Lee’s lifetime clearly influenced her writing of To Kill a Mockingbird as elements of the Scottsboro Boys Trials are undoubtedly evident in the trial of Tom Robinson, the Jim Crow Laws are unjustly in effect towards the African-American population of Maycomb, Alabama, and the deleterious economic hardships faced after the Great Depression are present in the citizens of the town throughout the novel. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, and the lawyer defending him. This fictional trial is in fact an almost exact recreation of a trial that Harper Lee lived through: The Scottsboro Boy Trials of 1931. Both the fictional and real trials of Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro Boys share several similarities, two of which are the race and crime of the defendant and the all racist white jury. The Scottsboro Boys were a group of “nine African American youths” who were “quickly sentenced to death for...
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...Racism assembles people to feel superior from other human beings of another race, or feel as if they are upholding pride within their race and therefore fulfilling some duty. "He’s nothin’ but a nigger-lover!”(9. 110). Atticus is assaulted of defending a colored man because he was appointed by the judge but he would accepted anyway. He took the case because he thought that the town might need to see that racism is not the code of life, and another reason is he wouldn’t be able to hold up his head in town and command Jem and Scout as to what they can or can’t do. Some people argue that you shouldn’t communicate with others that are not the same class as you considering that they are different. But in reality you shouldn’t be treated different because your race, skin color, or class. Just because you are being assigned to work with a negro or someone not your race doesn’t mean we have to criticize with them, all you are doing is just doing your job in order to...
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...America has come very far considering race relations. African american in the past have been treated with extreme cruelty. The white people of America always considered themselves superior to any other race until thing began to change starting with the Civil rights movement. While society has maintained some levels of discrimination towards African Americans and continual African American culture, race relations such as segregation being legally abolished and societies views of African americans in politics and civil rights have significantly changed between 1940’s-2000’s. Throughout American history, African Americans made many sacrifices to get rid of segregation. During the 1950’s segregation was at its peak and African Americans began fight for their rights. During this process they...
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...prejudice our society can be. Today we are taught that we shouldn’t discriminate other people based on their religion, race or gender. Most countries don’t have dictators anymore, but instead give the power to their people. Discrimination, prejudice and racism are often frowned upon these days. Those are just a few examples on how the Holocaust has really affected us in ways that we haven't really given...
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...fifth of eight children of John Hurston and Lucy Ann Hurston. She was born in Notasulga, Alabama, on January 7, 1891. When she was 3 years old, her family moved to Eatonville, Florida. Zora Neale Hurston felt like Eatonville was “home” so she claimed it as her birthplace. Hurston glorify it in her stories as a place where African Americans could live as they desired, independent of white society, once her father became mayor. She would later call Eatonville, Florida a utopia. Hurston's childhood in this all black environment may have shaped her later views on race. Zora Neale Hurston represented Eatonville as a perfect place in reality. It was a Negro town, a self sufficient, independent place, filled with African American pride. She didn’t felt the same way as all the rest of black people living there. Hurston believed in black individuals and places to gain economic and social justice for them. Eatonville may be a small town but bundle with African American account, traditions, and legacy. It is one of the oldest out of twelve that...
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...American Culture: A Medley of Food, Language, and Religion Bre McCauley COM/156 June 30, 2013 Sheri Jens American Culture: A Medley of Food, Language, and Religion I believe it was Marcus Garvey who said, and I quote, “a people without the knowledge of their past history, is like a tree with no roots.” You have to know where it is you came from, befriend that knowledge, and use what you know to move forward, to progress throughout life and make history based on your heritage. How many of us embrace our history? Never mind the pigmentation of our skin, or our style of dress, nor the way we wear our hair; keep in mind that being an American means that we are all influenced if not molded, by several other races who speak life into the way we communicate, the foods we eat, our interest in the arts, and even our beliefs of a higher power. As a child we are taught a variety of motor skills. The skills may include, but are not limited to, using our hands, crawling, walking, and of course speech. We are expected to mimic the sounds we hear from our moms, dads, siblings, teachers, and the world around us in order to communicate everything we see, hear and feel to whomever will listen. The power of language and communication is beyond words, in fact without language, how could we communicate? What is the value of communication without language? Well, according to martinfrost.ws “there are four major regional dialects ( A particular form of language that is peculiar to...
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...Nirvana is a popular grunge band of the early 1990s that was once called “The Band That Hates to Be Loved.” Kurt Cobain was born in a small town called Aberdeen in Washington on February 20, 1967. The town was very secluded and conservative. When Cobain’s parents divorced, he saw himself as an outcast because that was a rarity in that time. Going from a hyperactive infante to a withdrawn nine year old, he grew up with a distorted outlook on...
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...What is Prejudice? Researchers struggle to define prejudice. Some say it is “a negative attitude or feeling toward an individual, group, place or thing” ( (Bokanic, 2009). Others say that this attitude is based on assumptions, which leads to the prejudgments of others. Whatever the case, prejudices can be formed against another person because of race, weight, gender, language, religion, or virtually any difference. Prejudices lead to discrimination and stereotypes. For example, Wrenee, a French-American, was a victim of racial prejudice as a child. As she grew up, she searched for a place where people would not prejudge her based on her racial background. She became a doctor in a town in Southern Alabama, where her physical appearance...
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...not see the brutal and sometimes inhumane acts committed through the lack of reason. History can teach us that anytime we are presented with a moral issue, we should step back and ask, "Is this truly the right thing, or am I being deceived? Am I acting blindly?” Thinking in a moral way, using our mind to decide what is wrong and what is right, is something we continuously learn throughout our lives. We have to decide what we will label as immoral and what is moral. Religion can shape our viewpoints, helping us decide what we believe is wrong or right. Our parents, friends, and daily life all influence how we look at morality. Human beings have a natural ability to see something as right or wrong; however, much of it depends on what has influenced them in their life. When a person is confronted with a...
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