...Where The Wind Leads, by Vinh Chung, is a miraculous memoir about his family's ultimate sacrifice to escape the political prejudice in their native country of Vietnam. This inspiring memoir about one family's journey to freedom, teaches readers that success is born of great sacrifice, never the result of selfishness. Vinh Chung’s family demonstrates this by, “ Everything we once owned, everything we once were- it was all dropped in the ocean, and it rests with a derelict fishing boat at the bottom of the South China Sea. But we were rescued from that ocean, and though we lost a fortune, we found a greater treasure”(Chung 346). This quote represents the insight into the future of Vinh Chung’s parents. They were willing to risk the safety of...
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...In order to get through any of life’s journeys, it is essential that you remember what you are fighting for. You cannot lose sight of your underlying goal or it may never get accomplished. During the school year of 1957, Central High School was integrated for the first time. Nine African-American students were chosen to help follow through with this plan. In Melba Pattillo Beals’ memoir, Warriors Don’t Cry, she shows her experiences at Central High and how they helped shape and characterize herself into the person she is today. She reveals to us that strength is not the only thing that helped her succeed in her fight for equality. Beals shows that she is brave, hopeful, and prideful; giving her that extra push she needed to get through her...
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...symbolisms to deliver a unique yet playful approach to her understanding of some of life’s greatest mysteries. Her “Chicken Chronicles” are a remarkable way the author choses to relive and retell her life story. Walker’s love for chickens extends beyond mere husbandry and develops into a lifelong relationship in which she often refers to them as her children. “I called out to them, as I do: Hi Girls, it’s Mommy” (Walker, 2011) she freely writes without care of what anyone thinks of her somewhat strange infatuation with her chickens. Her memoirs are filled with subtle explanations of life’s most misunderstood concepts. She deconstructs, love, loss, family,...
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...January 7, 2013 by Mosaic Magazine LORNA GOODISON: INTERVIEW by Clarence V. Reynolds Poet and author Lorna Goodison has a contagious laugh. Whether she is sharing a moment that enlightened her early in her literary career or retelling an incident that involved a family member or a neighbor while growing up in Jamaica, the richness and fullness of her joviality embraces whoever happens to be in her company. Goodison confessed that in Jamaica having a sense of humor helps many people cope with life’s difficulties. This past September, Goodison visited the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn, NY, where she read from her latest book, By Love Possessed: Stories (Amistad/HarperCollins). The heartrending and oftentimes risible tales Goodison presents in By Love Possessed, including the Pushcart Prize-winning short story for which the book gets its title, explore the wide range of complex feelings that are kindled by love—its heartaches, its obsessions, and its passions. Many of the fables in the collection were inspired by people and instances in Jamaica, she said. Goodison is a detailed and thoughtful writer in every sense; and in these short stories she wields a cast of memorable characters, animated descriptions, and Caribbean patois to convey a truthfulness and a universality through her storytelling. Before she decided that writing was indeed her calling, Goodison’s creative spirit had been drawn to painting, and she studied at the Jamaica School of Art...
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...stated in the novel because Golden takes a good interest on the way how the society itself treats poor families and women, differently from the higher ones. A sample event that shows the depiction on women’s right: ‘“…Since moving to New York I’ve learned what the word “geisha” really to most Westerners…”’ (Golden 375) In the novel, the gender exploitation is heavily applied. Women are individuals who are exploited by people, namely the male individuals. They are taken advantage in a sexual aspect. Women also lack freedom and independence in their lives. In addition, women’s needs are not catered and they are not given of any kind of support they needed or deserved. Sayuri once have been treated with great harshness at the geisha house. Memoirs of a Geisha by Golden, Arthur, Golden’s purpose in depicting women’s right is to help women, who are at the same state of Sayuri, in attaining justice. The portrayal of Sayuri’s life leads the researchers to know more about the true life of a Geisha. In the quote above, it is clearly stated how other country treats women differently. The Westerners is one of the best examples that implies the unequal treatment that the geisha’s from Japan gets. This was the author’s purpose for he wants others to understand the importance of respect, one’s life and dignity and the right of every woman to this world since the difference between the classes of living in Japanese culture way back 1930’s has been a source of discrimination and inequality. In...
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...Su writes (The strong smell of fresh corn tortillas and roasted Serrano peppers flows from the floors housing Mexicans, Puerto Rican, and El Salvadorans. A thick and savory aroma of heavy butter, fried chicken, and corn bread comes from black families’ homes, and, of course, the intensely familiar scents of fried fish, garlic, and, jasmine rice waft from the units housing the Vietnamese, Laotian, and Thai families on our floor. (Su 22-23) He describes and follows it with, “hunger does not discriminate” as being poor and eating the same can sardines everyday becomes tiring. The way Su embraces his new environment is with the attitude of adventure and curiosity. He wants the reader to feel what he's feeling, “I long to join my neighbors to share in their meals and taste their delicacies (Su 23)” he describes as his sense of smell adapts towards his new environment and leaves him admiring the scents that fill him with hunger. Su describes such details because he wants the reader to know the amazement in his discovery of new flavors and scents which can be an exciting and learning aspect of the immigrant...
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...Indeed, the experiences of the majority are rarely of increasing opportunities and success, and much more frequently, of repeated retreats and even defeats of their aspirations. Indeed, their sources of information are quite consciously arranged to have this effect, whether it be in education, news, or even in their entertainment. And apart from such personal experiences, it has also mattered greatly how many and how deep were the political defeats endured by working people throughout their lives. Sadly, events like the General Strike defeat of 1929 undermined the political confidence in a whole generation. Old age was directed into disillusionment, privileged service or even quiescence. By the time of my own first consciousness of the world (in the 1940s) my working class parents were (as I only discovered later) stuffed full of incorrect...
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...Oppression on Women in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, is memoir of a little girl growing in Iran. She refers to a secular pre revolutionary time through contrast, the oppressive characteristics of the fundamentalist government upon women in particular. Her work is a lot similar to Margaret Atwood's, A Handmaid’s Tale, in which the protagonist Offred reflects upon her former life’s freedom, cherishing her former name and in doing so emphasizes the cloistered and enslaved life that she must now endure. Although both Margaret Atwood and Satrapi show how a totalitarian state oppresses women in different ways by taking away the freedom to think and decide for oneself, both accentuating on the ways a woman should dress, which stratified society in Handmaid’s tale and enforced religious modesty in Persepolis. Growing up in the western society, we often think clothing as a means of expressing our individuality, our style, defining who we are. Offred grew up in a similar environment but it was taken away once she became a Handmaid. That was the precise reason why she felt “ fascinated but also repelled” (28) at the same time when she saw the Japanese tourist. She says she “used to dress like that. That was freedom. Westernized they used to call it”(28). She says this because she no longer gets to dress like the tourists any more. In a very little amount of time, the society has forced every individual to change...
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...Kevin Kincaid English 101-08, Stroud A Memoir, FD July 16, 2012 Mark and the Gang As long as I have been alive my brother Mark has been ruining my life. Being the youngest of three boys even life’s lessons are hand-me-downs. It is almost as if Mark made it his personal goal to make every mistake a kid can make growing up, and it was my solemn honor to learn from him and not make them myself or so our parents would have me believe. There were many places just outside the boundaries of what was considered “the neighborhood” I was not allowed to go to with my friends. The reason for this was because in the past often a few years before I could even attempt such a thing as riding my bike to the nature preserve, Mark had done so and either stayed gone way to long or found some other trouble. Just a couple mile from out home there is a nature preserve. Mark and his friend one morning without approval from either our parents went for a jog there. I thought my parents were going to call the Governor and have him active the National Guard to assist in the search for him. Well a couple hours later they came jogging back and then the yelling began. From that moment on since Mark didn’t get permission for his jog I could not go enjoy the nature preserve with you adult supervision or until I myself was an adult. Growing up was full of such “Mark rules” but none so insidious as not being able to have my own car until after I graduated high school. You see Mark was granted...
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...was cost efficient. Then during the war years, the mines needed the children to work to produce coal to help both the war efforts and for heat at home. The article also delves deep into the mind of the child laborer to try and establish how the child perceived his role. Did the child see the work as only a means to survive or was it a type of escape into a new adventure, or possibly as a stepping stone to life’s career (Humphries, 263)? The author found that many of the children employed continued with the same work when they grew older. The autobiography excerpts included are both heart-wrenching and matter of fact. Reading the memoirs in the article, it seems that each boy had different ideas regarding the work. The one feeling that all convey is that they worked hard and were too young to take on such responsibilities. The author shows this when she cites a journal from a small boy who is made to leave home and work in the mines. In recalling his first night there, he states "I had no shoes, food or light and spent the night crying because I missed my Mum" (Humphries, 397). One factor setting the scene for the boom in child labor was the fact that families depended on the male head. Once peasant agriculture declined, wage labor dominated. The family became dependent on fathers...
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...Tony Harris October 14, 2014 Literary Device/Element|Line and Page Number|How does this device/elementenhance the writing/memoir?| SIMLIE|p. 13 ".that memory blinked like a distant fog light in a story sea and it drowned in my panic."|It shows the panicked feeling he had when his mother wasn't there to pick him up at the bus stop. | SIMILE|p. 262 "Being mixed is like that tingling you have in your nose just before you sneeze: you're waiting for it to happen but it never does.|He is describing how James feels which is how he doesn't really know he is comparing his race, being half african, half white to waiting for sneeze. He is saying how he doesn't know what/where he is yet.| SIMILE|p. 178 "It was as if she pulled out a grenade, yanked the pin, dropped it on the floor, and exited. My brothers and i looked at one another in shock.|James expresses the astonishment that his family when they realize that his mother will not move the family from New York. The family carries a lot of weight living in New York, so when they heard the news it was like they were going to experience an explosion. But, James did not agree with his mother's choice of staying and wants to move.| SIMILE|29 , "Mommy's contradictions crashed and slammed against one another like bumper cars at Coney Island." |James says this because everything that Ruth was for, she contradicted. She hated the way blacks were treated by whites, yet she sent her own children to an all white school so they could get the...
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...Death is a natural part of life, thus it is inevitable that every living creature’s time will eventually come to an end. Comparable to most obstacles we encounter in life, there is not a uniform way to deal with death; therefore, everyone copes with it in differently. Death is not a positive topic; nevertheless, it is a topic that has influenced the work of many authors, artists, and musicians from every era. In my opinion, here is the most memorable author, artist, and musician that’s work has been greatly influenced by the topic of death. Shirley Jackson is an American author that is responsible for writing one of the most well known fictional short stories concerning death, entitled “The Lottery”. The title may be deceiving and seem innocent; however, it is an oxymoron. Instead of the lottery winner joyfully prospering in some way; it actually refers to the selection of a victim for a ritual sacrifice. The story is very dark, as it introduces horror into a peaceful community. It became a very controversial among readers and was even banned by South Africa. Shirley replied to the banning of “The Lottery” by saying that is a sign that they, at least, understood the story. During another interview Jackson jokingly described herself as a practicing witch. Regardless of what motivated her to write, writing was always her passion. At the age of twelve she won her first poetry prize, and throughout high she kept diary where she frequently wrote. She attended Rochester University...
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...the television in their living room whose ribs protrude from her skin and whose lips are cracked from lack of water, they turn away. From the frail, homeless veteran less than a mile from their front door, holding out his trembling hands and pleading with eyes full of pain, they turn away. People turn away and ignore the most excruciating truths of the world to avoid the discomfort and responsibility that comes with acknowledging reality. Whether it is used by individuals and villages as coping mechanisms or by countries that remain negligent to their neighbors’ problems, ignorance can be a deadly vice. Although Ishmael Beah’s survival in the war was dependent on withdrawing from reality and losing himself, both his and Mariatu Kamara’s memoirs prove that willful ignorance is a temporary solution to a...
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...countless times, he had paid $15,000 in interest on that $800 loan. these businesses are in many cases shortterm-oriented, purely transactional business models that add little value, and even deteriorate the customer base they purport to serve. these businesses are ultimately led by one thing: fear. People are afraid to lift themselves up, to lead themselves out of their situation, to think for themselves. Bad capitalism preys mercilessly on these fears. throughout my journey from the inner city to my work as a social entrepreneur, I’ve had a front-row seat for witnessing how fear destroys a community. But I’ve also learned that there is another way to live and to do business. It took almost 30 years for me to understand that the antidote to fear is love. For example, during the recent subprime lending boom, people making $25,000 a year were lured by unscrupulous brokers and lenders into taking out $500,000 loans with low initial teaser rates that reset much higher—to levels they could never afford. at one point, my own family lost its home to a predatory lender. In these communities, people spend roughly $10 billion each year on what I call ghettoized financial services—high-interest and high-fee check cashing, payday loans, refund anticipation loans, title lending, rent-toown, and the like. I know of one individual who got a...
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...Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodríguez Hunger of Memory is an autobiography of the writer Richard Rodríguez and his transition from youth to manhood told through a series of recollected stories. The premise of his writing was centered mainly on his struggle to maintain both his Mexican heritage and closeness to his Spanish-speaking family, while at the same time being assimilated into American culture and obtaining an advanced education. Within the book Richard Rodríguez illustrates his contempt for affirmative action and bilingual education, two practices that had directly burdened his life while growing up. One of his main conflicts was grounded in his own family unintentionally being pulled away from him by losing the most important medium of relation, their language. Through his narrative, Richard Rodríguez makes a convincing argument against the implementation of affirmative action, even as one who stood to benefit from the program. When he was very young, Richard Rodríguez immigrated to the United States with his family to live in a predominantly white-Anglo, middle class neighborhood in Sacramento, California. Rodríguez’s parents were poor, but what money they could scrape together they used to send their children to the local Roman Catholic elementary school, Sacred Heart. Rodríguez knew less than 50 words of English at the start of his attendance in school, leading him to be introverted and shy in class. He rarely spoke, and finally...
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