Tiffany James- English 145

J amaica Kincaid rose from humble beginnings to become a successful contemporary writer, well known for her books and magazine articles about the immigrant experience. Kincaid learned the practice of voodoo from her mother and grandmother, which she later incorporated into her fiction. Her family, because Kincaid was a girl, no value was placed on her gifts. We see this played out in the story of “ Girl ”. The story starts off with what appears to be a mother instruction to a daughter coming into womanhood indicating that she has started her period (white clothes). It is also a warning because it appears that the mother is concerned about the daughter’s behavior, “on Sunday’s try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming” (1146). She is questioning her daughter’s choice of music, accusing her rather. The daughter reply lets readers know that she is not who the mother perceives her to be. She has enough respect for herself to not sing benna (music full of...

Leslie Marmon Silko was a native American novelist, poet, memoirist, and writer.   She is known for her short stories, which, “Yellow Woman,” is one of Silko’s shortest and earliest pieces, but it occupies a still growing place in the canon of short fiction. The story of Yellow women moves from reality to myth. The story opens with the narrator, speaking in first person, waking up by the river next to a strange man that it seems apparent she has been sexually intimate with. Yet, she is smitten by him. She is trying to make sense of why she had spent the night with him.   Silva recalls that during the night when they were love making she suggested that he must be an ancestral spirit and she must be Yellow Woman. The author only hoped that the ancient story her grandfather told her was true because she could make sense of why she, as a married woman with children  had an affair with a stranger she met along her walk. Or it could be she secretly desires to live out the m...

I am excited about analyzing the character of Hedda Gabler. In my planning, I am re-reading important elements of the Hedda’s background to get a better insight to her character. I want to see if she was always manipulative or if it’s because of her upbringing. I will be looking into the author’s attitude towards her and how the other characters see her in contrast or comparison to my view of her.  Upfront, we know that Hedda Gabler is a daughter of a general.   She comes from an upper-middle-class family. Therefore, I will be using the literary device of characterization, using the author’s description of Hedda to reveal why I’ve concluded my view of her.   I will also be utilizing the dialogue between other characters and Hedda to show how they viewed her.   For example, Miss Tesman perceives Hedda as shallow and vain individual. She purchases an elegant hat so that Hedda won’t be embarrassed when she walks in public with her.   – “Yes, so Hedda won’t ...

From a piece of fiction (short story, section of novel, or a play) choose a female character on whom to focus, and create a project that discusses some of the following questions:   What is the author’s attitude towards her? (how can you tell?) What is your attitude towards her? How do (at least 2) other characters view her? How does she view herself?  I would like to revisit Hedda Gabler. She is a complex character to analysis. I originally analyzed her husband because his attitude towards her allowed me to see what type of man he was. So, it will be fun to analyze her character and maybe I can even shed a little light on why she was so manipulative. Choose a reading selection. Then choose one of the following questions, and write an argument in response to it:  How does the work reflect the period in which it was written?  What does the work reveal about the cultural behavior contemporary to it?  How are class differences presented in the w...

Africa is a beautiful country, but there has been a dark perception hovering over the continent of Africa and it’s cultural. It is said that Africa is a dark country full of naked savages. It was once considered uncivilized and need of European so-called sophisticated life style. Equally important, they were considered a people with no history and no culture. Leopold Sedar Senghor wanted to rehabilitate the true history of Africa by embracing the beauty of its people and culture, which he so eloquently does in the poem Black Woman. In the first stanza the author addresses Africa as a “naked/black woman dressed in your color that is life, in your form that is beauty” (680). The author speaks of Africa being bare and unashamed of its race of people and culture. He speaks of the glory of a single day in his country. He sees and experiences beauty all around him in the land and juxtaposes the same feeling with the beauty of the African Woman. Perhaps he is speaking of the women ancest...

Clarice Lispector was a Brazilian modernist, she entered law school and became the first women reporter at the major newspaper A Noite. She is known for her fictional short stories. In the story of "The Daydreams of a Drunken Woman" the character, Maria, seems to be in and out of a conscience state or a drunken state. The story opens with her staring/self-consumed with herself, despite the trolley shaking the room and something heavy and hollow fell to the ground: "Her eyes did not take themselves off her image….” (809). She is struggling with her identity, …. And her open dressing gown revealed in the mirror the intersected breasts of several women” (809). She is also irritated, angry, and full of self-pity. She is also depressed, sleeping throughout the day and “she did not want to eat any dinner nor to abandon her dreams, and “she went back to sleep: let him content himself with the leftover for lunch” (810). Instead of seeing herself as a mother and a wife w...

J ames Baldwin was an African American novelist who felt considerably alienated both from black culture and from white liberal society (735). Baldwin describes his foundation by sharing the woes of a cruel, miserable, and ill stepfather. Yet, after moving away from home he was made aware of what caused his stepfather’s embittered disposition. “… I had had time to become aware of the meaning of all my father’s bitter warnings, had discovered the secret of his proudly pursed lips and rig carriage: I had discovered the weight of white people in the world.” Baldwin seems to be struggling with his identity. He wanted to be a writer, yet his dad wanted him to be a preacher: “My father asked ne abruptly, you’d rather write than preach, wouldn’t you?” His answer was yes. It seems that he only preached because of his father’s influence. His father also did not want him to have any association with whites, yet he did not agree with his father and continued to easily befriend whites. After mo...