...April 2014 The Contribution of Slave Narratives to American Identity Literature as a whole has contributed to the totality that constitutes American identity. It is a powerful tool because of its ability to create conceptions that shape the thoughts and ideas of its readers. It gives glimpses into history by the experiences of its characters; the power of suggestion and information implants ideas into the minds of those who care to explore its pages. From the literature of Native Americans to that of modern day authors, each category has developed a different facet of the definition of an American, and each is needed in its own unique way. The same is true of the writings of those who were forced into slavery in America, who came against their will and suffered under horrific circumstances. Their stories expand the definition of an American into broader territories and reveal the difficult journey that many faced as they endeavored to find their place in a country that championed liberty yet enslaved them. Writers like Harriet Jacobs helped jump-start a new genre in American literature that came to be known as the North American slave narrative which greatly contributed to the defining of American identity. The North American slave narrative was unique in that its authors went to great lengths to present their own personal narrative of their experiences while remaining in the confines of the genre expectations. The goal of these narratives was of course to end slavery; ironically...
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...Whale Rider Themes In the film the Whale Rider, the once complimentary narratives that governed the Maori culture: Gender, Identity, and Traditions are competing against one another. The fundamental elements of these narrative has stayed unchanged; However, some characters are interpreting these liturgies to their own personal narratives, causing conflict within the Maori Culture. Synopsis of film During a time of modernization, poverty, and the decentralization of the role the Maori culture play in the people lives, one local leader (Koro) looked upon Hope in a form of a prophet. According to the Maori's traditions, the ancient ancestor Paikea descendants: the eldest son are the rightful tribe leader and will centralize the community again...
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...not American sports teams – however I tried to read the article with an open mind. Litsky and Williams (2011) wrote the article in a very fact-based, typical news story way, which meant that if the reader is not at all interested in the subject matter, the narrative style does nothing to make the reader interested in reading on. Even the title sparked little interest; I was surprised they did not use the words, ‘terrorist attacks’ in the title, as most media like to grab the reader’s attention immediately. Thompson (2011) on the other hand, wrote a completely different kettle of fish that did not focus so much on sport, but more about the shocking 9/11 attacks. Thompson (2011) aptly described, “Football suddenly seemed irrelevant, compared to the scenes of destruction and utter...
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...Jones-White, D., Radcliffe, P., Huesman, R., & Kellogg, J. (2010). Redefining Student Success: Applying Different Multinomial Regression Techniques for the Study of Student Graduation Across Institutions of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, 51(2), 154-174. doi: 10.1007/s11162-009-9149-4 This is a quantitative case study measuring the success of university students’ ability to attain a degree within a specified period since enrollment or transfer to another institution of higher learning. In the study mixed methods were implemented in order attain accurate and reliable results. The sample was obtained from the National Student Clearing house (NSC) and the data focused on 3 cohorts of University of Minnesota- Twin Cities students entering college for the first time. Finding a new definition for academic success in university among first year or transferring students was the key question. The prevailing definition of success was distorted because only the students who completed their studies at initial universities regarded as academically successful. This study focused on broadening the definition of success by including any students who transferred and graduated in another university. The new definition of academic success consisted of students who graduated from the initial university and those who transferred and graduated from other institutions. Factors that helped to broaden the definition of success were analyzed implementing the Binary...
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...Personal Narrative If someone was to ask me whom im more like my mother or my father? I would immediately say my mother. Im constantly told im a”mini Chrissy” and when I was much younger I would cringe at hearing that, but now I understand why were really exactly the same. From our voices to the shape of our noses I am clearly my mothers daughter. And don’t even get me started on our personalities it’s like having a clone or looking in the mirror, scary to think how similar we are. But that shifted quickly of course we still had the same little button nose and our voices were identical but her fun side seemed to go out the window. It was July of 1999 and God seemed to have another plan for my family. A plan that none of us were on board for. Today when I think about the month of July a million things instantly come to my mind. I could make a list of all the good and an even longer list of all the bad. Lets start with the bad, why not just cut to the chase? July 19th 1999 I could remember this day in my sleep. We were at Westchester Country Club and it felt like I had the world at my fingertips. And for a four year old that was pretty grand. I was wearing my favorite green Lilly Pulitzer bathing suit with a matching green cover up I felt like the coolest chick around and no one was about the bring me down. Until my Aunt came running down to the baby pool pointing her finger at me, making me feel as though she was accusing me of doing something wrong, but that wasn’t...
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...magnificently in this case only because Mohsin Hamid is a superb writer with formidable powers. He grips the reader's mind with polished and haunting prose. The hero of the novel, Changez, a student from Lahore, Pakistan, attends Princeton University. After graduation at the top in his class, he secures an excellent and well-paying job at the elite valuation firm Underwood Samson. He becomes well-adjusted and well-accustomed to the American way of life, falls in love with the beautiful and elegant, Princeton-educated Erica, who hails from an aristocratic family. For the first time in his life Changez is happy. Then, unexpectedly, on September 11, 2001, two planes crash into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. As a result, the towers collapse. And along with the towers, Changez's personal world also collapses. When the terrorists are identified as Muslims from Saudi Arabia, and people, and the media speculate about the reasons for the attack, Changez finds himself questioning the injustices by America abroad. His priorities...
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...“Out,Out-“ is a miniature dramatic narrative by Robert Frost. Frost depicts the abrupt death of a young boy whose hand has been severed by a buzz-saw. “The poem was apparently based on a true story of a boy's death whilst working in New England.”(Wikpedia) The account though heart-rending is described in an objective manner by the poet. The fact that no personal comments are made on part of the poet, exemplify that he does not intend to emotionally drain the readers. Rather he intends on intellectually stimulating the readers into the inevitability of death and the futility of life. The title has been taken from Macbeth’s soliloquy in which he ruminates over the death of his wife. The hollowness and insignificance of life is hinted at in this soliloquy, by the eloquent image of the candle that mirrors the transitory nature of life: "Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." Analysis: At the outset, the buzz-saw is shown to be snarling and rattling. The twin-sided aspects of life are echoed here .The buzz-saw at once transforms itself into the metaphor of the Giver of Life:it gives ,yet it takes. The verb ‘snarled’ echoes how it is animate, yet machine-like; human, yet devoid of emotions. The verb ‘rattled” sounds the rattle of the child and the rattle of the snake: innocence and iniquity...
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...[Indiana University Libraries] Date: 24 February 2016, At: 16:43 Journal of Postcolonial Writing Vol. 46, No. 1, February 2010, 65–75 “He does not understand our customs”: Narrating orality and empire in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Jarica Linn Watts* University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA Downloaded by [Indiana University Libraries] at 16:43 24 February 2016 jarica.watts@utah.edu Jarica 0 100000February 46 2010 &Article OriginalofFrancis 1744-9855 (print)/1744-9863 JournalandPostcolonial 10.1080/17449850903478189(online) RJPW_A_448194.sgm TaylorLinnWatts 2010 Writing Francis This article delineates different strains of Achebe’s narrative technique in Things Fall Apart, arguing that earlier critics have failed to account fully for two fundamental principles in Achebe’s narrative: the myriad phrases that are repeated throughout the first part of the work; and the formative shift, the poetic volta, that takes place between parts one and two of the novel. Drawing on Achebe’s assertion that “anyone seeking an...
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...greatest desire. With Victor, on the other hand, there seems to be a gulf between him and the rest of society. * Justine’s trial testifies to the inhumanity of man. What is important to note is the way this links in to a vital theme of the novel, which is the presentation of the creature himself. He starts off innocent and wanting a relationship with his maker. It is the way that he is shunned by his maker and by humanity and treated cruelly that forces him into cruelty, but this cruelty is only paralleled by the monstrous nature of humanity as displayed in incidents such as the trial of Justine. We cannot expect the creature to be good when he has no model of goodness on which he can base his behaviour. * Frankenstein's lack of personal responsibility lead to tragedy? 1. Victor's decision to make the monster and then doing nothing to take care of him demonstrates his selfishness and unwillingness to accept that what he does has consequences not just for him but also for many others. He creates the monster to bring himself...
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...administration, or other agencies within the US government, were involved is also huge. The problem with summarizing the information is that the scale of the operation and its cover-up are so vast. Finding smoking guns is like picking up litter on a field. It's hard to move in a straight line. That makes it hard to create a simple narrative. My personal questioning of the events of 9/11 began a few years later, when my sister went to a 9/11 conference and brought back books, DVDs, and enthusiasm. I watched the DVDs and became especially fascinated with one clip where the North Tower appeared to be literally erupting as it fell. One streamer caught my eye because I was able to follow its trajectory. I did some simple measurements right on the TV screen and estimated that the horizontal ejection velocity of that stream of debris was around 60 mi/hr. These ejections of material were from high in the building. How could heavy steel members be thrown sideways so fast when even the downward collapse had not picked up very much speed? This did not seem to me to be consistent with a purely gravitational collapse. I was hooked. I started using some video analysis tools I use in my teaching to analyze the motions of various ejecta and the buildings themselves. Several videos of the collapse of both towers show waves of horizontal mass ejections that race down the faces of the buildings, nearly keeping pace with material falling outside the building, well below the zone of destruction itself. (YouTube:...
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...his mother passed away when he was only three. Separated from his siblings, Poe went to live with John and Frances Allan, a successful tobacco merchant and his wife, in Richmond, Virginia. He and Frances seemed to form a bond, but he never quite meshed with John. Preferring poetry over profits, Poe reportedly wrote poems on the back of some of Allan's business papers. Money was also an issue between Poe and John Allan. When Poe went to the University of Virginia in 1826, he didn't receive enough funds from Allan to cover all his costs. Poe turned to gambling to cover the difference, but ended up in debt. He returned home only to face another personal setback—his neighbor and fiancée Elmira Royster had become engaged to someone else. Heartbroken and frustrated, Poe left the Allans. Career Beginnings At first, Poe seemed to be harboring twin aspirations. Poe published his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems in 1827, and he had joined the army around this time. Poe wanted to go to West...
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...This article was downloaded by: [University of Texas El Paso] On: 09 August 2011, At: 13:50 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Bilingual Research Journal Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ubrj20 Language Learning in the American Southwestern Borderlands: Navajo Speakers and Their Transition to Academic English Literacy Gloria Dyc a a University of New Mexico-Gallup Available online: 22 Nov 2010 To cite this article: Gloria Dyc (2002): Language Learning in the American Southwestern Borderlands: Navajo Speakers and Their Transition to Academic English Literacy, Bilingual Research Journal, 26:3, 611-630 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2002.10162581 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/termsand-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently...
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...consciousness writing in Ulysses, have come to epitomize modernist fiction. Ulysses not only challenges the censors’ attitude to sex, but also what were considered the sexual norms for men and women in pre-war Catholic society. Similarly, Vladimir Nabokov uses sexual deviancy to protest the theoretical ideas implicit in modernist literature through characteristics derived from post-World War II civilisation. The absence of structure or control left by the war undermined contemporary opinion of western stability, presented in Lolita through American culture. This subversion is mirrored in the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy through use of explicit language rather than sexual perversion, confronting the inequality in modern culture. Despite the distinct narrative styles of each writer, be it the stream of consciousness monologues of...
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...stuwritten for the dents per group. Philadelphia “Conbersaychunal,” he says, allowing the fat vow- 2 Inquirer for more than els of his accented English to collide with the sawedtwenty years. off consonants. I tell him that will be fi ne, that I’m familiar with 3 Barrientos was born in Guatethe conversational setup, and yes, I’ve studied a bit mala and raised of Spanish in the past. He asks for my name and I in El Paso, Texas. Her first novel, Frontera Street, was supply it, rolling the double r in Barrientos like a pro. published in 2002, and her second, That’s when I hear the silent snag, the momentary Family Resemblance, was pubhesitation I’ve come to expect at this part of the exlished in 2003. Her column “Unchange. Should I go into it again? Should I explain, conventional Wisdom” runs every the way I have to half a dozen others, that I am Guaweek in the Inquirer. This essay originally appeared in the collectemalan by birth but pura gringa by circumstance? tion Border-Line Personalities: A Do I add the humble little laugh I usually attach New Generation of Latinas Dish to the end of my sentence to let him know that of on Sex, Sass & Cultural Shifting. course I see the irony in the situation? We selected this reading because This will be the sixth...
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...history, for today’s student to master. “Someone should write a film version of Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon,” a writer from The Independent suggested, and “the person who should write it,” he said, looking at me, “is you.” I looked to Walter, who replied, “If you write it, I’ll publish it.” And the die was cast. Faber offered a contract, and I set to work. Following the Bloom model I decided it should be an elitist canon, not populist, raising the bar so high that only a handful of films would pass over. I proceeded to compile a list of essential films, attempting, as best I could, to separate personal favorites from those movies that artistically defined film history. Compiling was the easy part—then came the first dilemma: why was I selecting these films? What were my criteria? What is a canon? It is, by definition, based on criteria that transcend taste, personal and popular. The more I pondered this, the more I realized how ignorant I was. How could I formulate a film...
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