...Sometime about 1935 or 1936 I had an interview with Mike Jacobs, the prize- fight promoter. I was a fledgling reporter at that time; my beat was education but during the vacation season I found myself on varied assignments, all the way from ship news to sports reporting. In this way I found myself sitting opposite the most powerful figure in the boxing world. There was nothing spectacular in Mr. Jacobs’ manner or appearance; but when he spoke about prize fights, he was no longer a bland little man but a colossus who sounded the way Napoleon must have sounded when he reviewed a battle. You knew you were listening to Number One. His saying something made it true. We discussed what to him was the only important element in successful promoting- how to...
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...accepted participant. While the outsider identity may be thrust upon the individual, the individual himself/herself may hinder his/her assimilation and therefore be the cause of his/her own isolation. In both Margaret Atwood’s poem collection Journals of Susanna Moodie and Maria Campbell’s narrative poem, “Jacob,” protagonists Susanna Moodie and Jacob struggle as outsiders in their respective Canadian environments. Both protagonists are outsiders as Moodie is an outsider to the wildlife environment of the Bush and Jacob is an outsider to his Indigenous community; however, Moodie’s outsider status is a result of her personal fear of the unfamiliar, while external societal forces create Jacob’s outsider identity. Both outsider identities, while differing in causation, illustrate the negative impact Western ideology has on the new settler and Indigenous populations as the former’s preconditioned Western beliefs turn Canada’s natural environment into an adversary and the latter is pressed to abandon its unique cultural traditions. Through strategic word choice, both Susanna Moodie and Jacob are established as outsiders in their respective natural and social environments; however Moodie’s personal barriers cause her outsider identity, while Jacob’s outsider status is forced upon him by societal factors, providing a commentary on the destructive impact of Western ideologies. Atwood manipulates words to situate Moodie as an outsider to nature as she writes, “The moving water will not...
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...Essay 1 Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs are two authors with very similar backgrounds. Both Douglass and Jacobs illustrate the tension involving being African American in a time where slaves did not have any rights, and when they were treated like property instead of a humans. Each of the slaves had different experiences with slavery, but one thing in common: share their accounts through autobiography on how slavery greatly changed their lives. The experiences, memories and treatment in any 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...
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...Although Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Narrative of the Life of a Slave were written for the same purpose they differ in a few ways. For example, Incidents is a very family oriented narrative while The Narrative is based on personal perseverance. At the beginning of The Narrative, Douglass gives the reader a sense of the role family played in his life when he writes about his mother’s death as, “I received the tidings of her death with the same emotions I felt at the death of a stranger” (4). On the other hand, family plays a huge part in Incidents and this can be seen throughout the entire narrative. Towards the end of Incidents Jacobs writes what Linda’s grandmother thinks of her escaping as, “whenever you do go, it will break...
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...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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...because these factors contribute and influence an author’s point of view as well as each author’s unique voice and message depending on the time period. Harriet A. Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is a slave narrative. The literary conventions of the slave narrative define the work. Slave narratives echo biblical stories that often reflect persecuted groups attempting to escape to freedom. Jacobs’s piece details her struggle to escape her master from sexual abuse. Vivanco (2003), “The process from sin to rebirth in spiritual autobiographies is paralleled by the process from slavery to freedom in slave narratives. Slaves experience a change from chattel, enduring suffering, to man or woman living in the Promised Land, the North,” (para. 5). Further distinction of the slave narrative is how authors shape the story, often chronologically. Slave narratives illustrate an author’s personal experience though many share common themes of extreme violence/abuse and racial prejudice. Slave narratives are essentially autobiography, which offer an author’s own experience for readers to find meaning. Jacobs’s female voice sheds light on issues affecting slave women; sexual abuse and losing children to death or slave trade particularly. Jacobs’s narrative is a prime example of how different slave women were treated as opposed to men. Both...
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...recognized for its worth. Because it took many years for the author, now revealed as Harriet Jacobs, to be properly identified, the work had been dismissed as fictional. Jacobs’ decision to remain anonymous came from guilt and disgrace over the way she was treated while enslaved and the actions she was forced to take to become free, particularly those pertaining to sexual acts. Wanting to be viewed as a “proper Christian” she decided to create the pseudonym name Linda Brent. It was under this name the text was published. In later years, her text has been viewed as an important text, speaking truth to the ears of sentimental novel readers in the north, and calling for action against the cruel institution of slavery. Employed as a teacher by Pace University in 1968, Jean Fagan Yellin wrote and published her dissertation. While re-reading Incidents in the 1970s as part of the project and to educate herself in the use of gender as a category of analysis, Yellin became interested in the question of the text's true authorship. Over the next six-years, Yellin found and used historical documents including the Amy Post papers at the University of Rochester (Post was a close friend of Jacobs), state and local historical societies, and the Horniblow and Norcum papers at the North Carolina state archives, to establish both that Harriet Jacobs was the true author of Incidents, and that the narrative was her autobiography. Her edition...
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...Introduction How exciting it is to open the bible to the book of Exodus and read the narrative of the fulfillment of God’s promise in the rescue of the Israelites from captivity in Egypt—the call of Moses, the plagues, and the dramatic manifestation of God on Mt. Sinai. Though the book of Exodus is most famous for the revelation of the Ten Commandments contained in Chapter 20, it remains vague in terms of where the biblical account actually occurred, and yet we cannot begin to fully understand the Old Testament if we look at it as merely a piece of great literature, or as some have suggested nothing more than interesting legend, or the elaboration of superior ideals. … The Book of Exodus is a narrative of the sacred history of Israel from the sojourn in Egypt to the completion of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. The term Exodus comes from the Greek terminology and literally means “going out,” an appropriate title for the book that narrates how under the leadership of Moses, the Israelites escaped from Egyptian persecution and began their journey back to the Promised Land. To be certain, all human history is the scope of God’s sovereignty. God became especially involved in the lives of a relatively unknown people, culminating a historical event that changed biblical history and altered the course of their lives and culture. When we seek to understand the meaning of our individual life events, we don’t actually begin with birth or infancy, even though a biographical account...
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...the life of a salve girl” (Jacobs, 1861), the writer Harriet Jacobs presents how a slave girl, Linda Brent, who mirrors Jacobs’s real experience, being suffered under the control and threaten of his master and how she escapes from the captors and finally gets free. The main character, Linda Brent, who is a slave girl working for Dr Flint’s daughter, is an epitome of the resistant black women. Having a master like Dr Flint, who threatens Linda constantly with violence and humiliating words, Linda shows intelligence and endurance to escape being further offended by Dr Flint. After Linda has children with Mr Sands who appears to be truly cares for Linda, Linda is threatened by Dr Flint again by being offered to buy her children’s freedom if Linda agree to live with him as his mistress. Linda refuses him and begins to plan her escape from that time. Linda has spent seven years hiding in her grandmother's attic and this exhibit her extraordinary psychological and spiritual strength. During the seven years, to elude her captors, she has moved several times to different cities within the help by some kind white people. Linda manages not only to survive but also to transcend seemingly insurmountable barriers, showing the difficulty for slave to live, especially women slave. Although some male authors of slave narratives had mentioned that African American women had been enslaved by white men, none of them had shown this subject as directly as Jacobs does. Jacobs not only described the sexual...
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...written and that they are the least distinctively Israelite * These early stories have common parallels in other ancient near eastern cultures * They reflect a shared background with other river cultures * In these early sections, we have Israelite versions of common mythical themes (how were human beings created, the flood myth, how is that we speak different cultures) * Genesis 9/12-50 = Ancestors in Canaan * After chapter 11 you start getting stories that are more historical in nature and have to do with the actual ancestors of Israel itself * Here we have cycles of stories that cluster around each of the great patriarchs * Ancestors = Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah are their wives * This section ends with the Joseph cycle of stories * It is through Joseph that the stories and the traditions of the people of Israel are transmitted when they end up in Egypt * Exodus 1-14=Ancestors in Egypt * The people go to Egypt because there is a famine and the Pharaoh rises up who doesn’t know the Israelites and starts to oppress them (Israelites get enslaved) * Then Moses rises up and leads the people out of Egypt and into the desert * Exodus 15-24, Numbers 10-24 = Ancestors in Desert * There is more material about Moses in the Torah then all of the other ancestors combined * However that material is not found...
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...African American Women Under Slavery This paper discusses the experiences of African American Women under slavery during the Slave Trade, their exploitation, the secrecy, the variety of tasks and positions of slave women, slave and ex-slave narratives, and significant contributions to history. Also, this paper presents the hardships African American women faced and the challenges they overcame to become equal with men in today’s society. Slavery was a destructive experience for African Americans especially women. Black women suffered doubly during the slave era. Slave Trade For most women who endured it, the experience of the Slave Trade was one of being outnumbered by men. Roughly one African woman was carried across the Atlantic for every two men. The captains of slave ships were usually instructed to buy as high a proportion of men as they could, because men could be sold for more in the Americas. Women thus arrived in the American colonies as a minority. For some reason, women did not stay a minority. Slave records found that most plantations, even during the period of the slave trade, there were relatively equal numbers of men and women. Slaveholders showed little interest in women as mothers. Their willingness to pay more for men than women, despite the fact than children born to enslaved women would also be the slaveowners’ property and would thus increase their wealth. Women who did have children, therefore, always struggled with the impossible conflict...
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...San Francisco 49ers LEGENDS—The Golden Age of Pro Football, is a new 6" X 9," 305-page book, with 36 pages of photos. The book is essentially the definitive story of the 49ers' football team from their swirling tales of the old All-American Football Conference rivalries, and throughout the 1950s' decade in the National Football League. It's told personally by perhaps the team's most faithful follower - Martin Jacobs. It could be the book about the team's beginnings that most 49ers' fans will ultimately have on their shelves. Other books written about the 49ers dwell on facts, while not tapping into the personal devotion that Jacobs passionately express. Keep in mind there is, nor ever will be a book about the team's history which showcases a personal historic overview of the team's emerging years as this one. The book tells a story about the 49ers’ players we read about in...
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...We are not told if the main character is male or female, so my interpretation is they could be gender neutral or a woman just like the author, it might be written from personal experience. She dates a lot of people, so she’s desperate for other people’s affection, but she can’t deal with the pain that comes with it, so every time she breaks up with someone she rents a new heart. She’s bisexual because she has partners that are both male and female. We don’t get any information about the setting, but it’s in the future because you can open your chest and switch out your heart for a new one. It’s a first-person narrative so we only see it from the main character's point of view. The rental hearts are a symbol of broken machinery that needs to be replaced, so the broken heart is equivalent to being heartbroken in real life. And opening your chest can be a symbol of opening your heart to other people. The whole story is a symbol of having your heart broken, wishing to replace your heart and to forget bad memories. Her first love was Jacob, and she was very in love with him. ‘Jacob was as solid and golden as a tilled field, and our love was going to last forever, which at our age meant six months.’’ The story uses flashbacks; to each person she fell in love with, as you can see in the quote above. ‘’ When Jacob left, I felt my heart shatter like a shotgun pellet, shards lodging in my guts. I had to drink every night to wash the shards out’’ This means to...
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...The short story “The Guilt” is written by Rayda Jacobs and it describes a confrontation between two people from different races. The story takes place in South Africa in a time which includes danger and ignorance. It is a story from the post-apartheid South Africa; the period has infected the story which was based on discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion and color. Apartheid was also a formal system of the racial segregation which divided its people; in this instance is it the white contra the black people who make its focus. The themes in the story concern danger and guilt in a society which includes violence and crime of the inhabitants, especially the white people are in serious trouble if they are going outside or at the streets in Centrum. It is told in third-person narration which provides the greatest flexibility to the author and that is the reason why it is the most commonly used narrative mode in literature. The main character in the short story is Lillian Thurgwood who is a widow and through the hole story gives us the impression of an old and lonely woman against the world around her through different incidents of her life. The writer, Rayda Jacobs, has sketched jock (her late husband) as having a big influence on her life in a way that the strength of her courage and the way she overcomes the challenges of her life to the readers very clear. Lillian lives in security with her two dogs, Tembi, and Tor, who guard and give her the sense of being secured...
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...Her novels are concerned primarily with exploring the sub-consciousness and characters’ correspondence to different occasions. The prioritization of psychological over physical realism has led to her usage of several narrative techniques that, though partially, succeed in deciphering the inner reality of human beings. Unlike Joyce, the psychological reality Woolf depicts is not merely mental; her writing goes beyond representing characters’ egoistic self to “a merging of the self with someone or something outside” (Naremore, World 152). So, it is not only characters’ mentality, but also their experience with the surrounding are what distinguish Woolf’s stream of consciousness. The function of interior monologue and free indirect discourse is obscuring the boundaries between abstract thoughts and concrete...
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