...Jimmy Tang Margrave English 100 Discussion Questions for Notes of a Native Son 1) How do you interpret the title? It suggests that it’s probably letters from a son to his dad. 2) Why does Baldwin divide the essay into three sections? What is the purpose of each? It outlines Baldwin’s journey in becoming a writer. The first part focuses on the black person as an artist and on his or her image within the cultural view. The second group of the of essays is on the social political aspects of society at the time. The last section has four essays about the feelings and attitudes of Americans in Paris in the 1940’s and 1950’s. 3) How does Baldwin make the parallel stories about his father’s life and death and about racism in the United States intersect? Find specific passages and analyze them carefully. Baldwin says, “I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once the hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain.” This is about his hate towards his father and also how people hate others with racism. 4) What parallels exist between Baldwin's bitterness and his father's bitterness? Baldwin's hatred for his father and for white people? Baldwin was affected by his father’s hate which eventually grew on him too. He held it in and it worsened as time went on. This gave him a hateful personality, and was projected on white people. 5) How did the death of...
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...History in Native Son Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son, is a more than one man’s story--it is a piece of American history we can see in this tale of an African American young man in the ghetto of Chicago. Wright makes several statements about the African-American experience through characters and situations. By using realistic details, Wright successfully shows us what life might have been like for blacks in America, specifically in the city of Chicago, during the 1930s. Maybe one of the most prominent factors affecting the American life in Native Son is the Depression. The Depression, or the aftermath of it, is simply seen as a way of life in the ghetto that Bigger and his family and friends live. It is obvious in how Bigger and his family lived. An example of this can be seen in the apartment that Bigger and his mother, sister, and brother share with the huge black rat. According to James Davidson, editor of Nation of Nations, Millions stayed alive by foraging like animals. “In Chicago, people stood at local dumps, waiting for the next garbage truck. When one pulled away from the pile, read a 1932 report, crowd of 35 started digging with sticks, some with their hands, grabbing bit of food and vegetables.” (Davidson, et al. 949) The image of struggling to survive is evident throughout the entire novel. As a result of the Depression, the government offered public assistance commonly referred to as “relief” to those in need. Native Son also shows the existence of...
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...Name Professor Course Date NOTES OF A NATIVE SON Introduction According to Baldwin J, the life of the native was divided into different sections in terms of interaction, communication and livelihood in general. The relationship between the family members was also an issue that created an unthinkable segregation. Baldwin J gives a believe history of how the community he lives in was interacting and how life was as a native and especially a Negro. The writing revolves about the interaction between the natives and especially regarding their family lives. Baldwin misjudged his father but as he grew up and faced the reality he came to understand why his father’s attitude was valid and genuine even though, the attitude was bad. Baldwin change of altitude is much visible in the context of his writing. Change of Baldwin’s attitude Baldwin developed hatred toward his father at a very tender age. According to James, he being young exposed him to very difficult things that made him develop hatred for his own father. It is evidently seen when Baldwin states that “In my mind’s eyes I could see him, sitting at the window, locked up in his terror; hating every living soul including his children”(590). The attitude of his father not connecting or communicating well with other individuals made his see that his father was proud and self-centered. As a young boy, Baldwin could see how his father distanced himself from other people and especially the white people. Baldwin could not understand...
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...authors, in which Wright composed his first novel, Uncle Tom’s Children. During this time, Wright joined the Communist party, which was often carried out into his writings. By 1939, Wright had moved to New York City and kept ties with the party for only a few more years. He married in 1941, and had left the communist party by 1944. During World War II, Wright lectured around New York. With the end of the War, Wright moved to France in 1947 where he continued to write his novels, which often contained themes of racism, poverty, and political matters. His books were often partly based on his life and what he had observed in his lifetime. Wright was the first African American author to be featured in the “Book of the Month Club” for his novel Native Son. In 1995, all of Wright’s books were reissued in 1995 in their original context after being censored by publishers for the explicit nature of his novels (which contained themes of sexual, Communist, and racial content). However, Wright was unable to see the reissued books, for Wright was laid to rest in 1960. 2....
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...A. Richard Wright has been criticized for his narrow and even disrespectful portrayals of women characters in Native Son. Comment. In Native Son Richard Wright only created one character who had any depth, his protagonist Bigger Thomas. There are only four adult women in the novel and Bigger’s sister Vera is the fifth female character with any role in the book at all. Mrs. Dalton, Mary Dalton, Bessie Mears, and Bigger’s mother round out the cast of females and each of these women is different in her own way. The novel follows Bigger and his issues. Other than Bigger, each character is a stock character with no depth. They only exist to help round him out. It would be possible to say that men are narrowly and disrespectfully portrayed as well but there are so many more men than women. Bigger’s mother is not even given a name, that could be disrespectful but the important thing about her is that she gave birth to Bigger, raised him, and held certain expectations of him and that lead to forming who he is. Bessie Mears was Bigger’s girlfriend until he killed her and she was poorly developed as well. She was a black woman with a need. She worked hard everyday for her white employers and she sought some escape. She used alcohol to get away and relied upon Bigger to get it for her. She helped him rob houses, had sex with him, and got drunk when he bought her booze. Peggy, the irish house-keeper of the Dalton’s was just a house-keeper. There was very little depth to her but she...
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...The Marxist Criticism literary lens describes a scenario in literature where one group of people in society is more powerful than another. The wealthy community is usually in control of the lower class citizens and this results in the lower class people living under oppression. Native Son by Richard Wright is a fictional novel set in the 1930s in Chicago that depicts the harsh realities for African American due to oppression from the wealthy upper class white community. Bigger Thomas, a typical African American male, is the protagonist, yet the oppression that confronts him leads to his death by the end of the novel. Marxist Criticism conveys a warning against racial segregation in Native Son because the impoverished African American community...
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...Racism has been a trait common in the human race for thousands of years to this day. Many have suffered because of it and many still do. From African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, and Homosexuals, racism has not just been directed upon on a certain group of individuals but to many shades of humanity. Some more infamous cases of racism have been committed against the Jewish people. In 1941 the nation of Germany lead by Adolf Hitler committed one of the most horrid acts of racism known to man. Adolf Hitler’s hatred towards the Jews was so great that as he took over more and more European countries he developed a plan known as the “Final Solution” in order to eliminate the Jewish race. His plan ultimately created what historians today call the Holocaust. During Hitler’s reign he first started the racism against the Jews by requiring them to wear the Star of David in order to identify who was a Jew and who was not. This act of labeling was bad enough but it would only grow worse. After humiliating and branding the Jews, Hitler then funneled the Jews living on his land into cramped ghetto quarters barred from the rest of the public. There they perished from disease and poverty with no hope in sight and as time progressed so did the vile ideas of Adolf Hitler. Not only did he put the Jews into ghettos, he also forced millions of them into death camps where they were forced to work until they could no more. In these camps the ones who were too weak to participate...
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...In the story of Native Son, Wright features the two worlds of poor America and white wealthy America. This takes place in 1930s Chicago and starts with the life of a young black man in a white world. White oppression cornered Bigger into a life of constant distress and restraint that eventually would overtake him and his personality. Bigger struggled with a split personality, especially within his own race. In his home life he is poor and part of a gang that robs people but he finds a job working for Mr. Dalton, a prominent white businessman. He hates his blackness and that is obvious when Bigger takes Mary and her boyfriend around “black Chicago” and Bigger doesn’t want to be seen with them. Eventually after a night of drinking with Mr. Dalton’s daughter, Mary...
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...true friends and there are also who are not true. This is one of my barriers because there are some who brings you down therefore there is a possibility that you will fail in your goals because of them, so better to choose friends properly. ENEMIES -because of this people I sometimes lose my self-concept wherein I’m having a hard time to think and focus with important things, in other words they serve as my distraction or barrier BIOGRAPHIES OF SOME PEOPLE IN THE BIBLE Abraham-he was called by God to leave his father Terah's house and native land of Mesopotamia in return for a new land, family, and inheritance in Canaan, the promised land. After the death and burial of his wife, Sarah, in the grave that he purchased in Hebron, Abraham arranged for the marriage of Isaac to a woman from his own people. Abraham later married a woman called Keturah and had six more sons, before he died at the recorded age of 175 and was buried by his sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Moses-he was, according to the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, a former Egyptian prince later turned prophet, religious leader and lawgiver, to whom theauthorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew he is the most important prophet in Judaism. He is also an important prophet in Christianity and Islam, as well as a number ofother faiths. Joseph-he is an important person in the Hebrew Bible: his story connects the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Canaan to the subsequent story of...
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...Something struck me some time back when I was reading an article forwarded by a friend on Whatsapp in which the author has drawn the attention towards a a new kind of problem. The author spoke about a boy from Trichy, a city in India, who had settled in USA after his studies and didn't have any feelings for either his country or even his native city for that matter where he grew up and studied. In fact, he had no childhood memories and he wouldn't even come to see his ailing parents. When the author was contacted by the father of the boy to reach out to his son, the author tried to connect with the son, and at the request of the author, the son did come to see his parents but he didn’t stay for more than 5 days with his parents and went back to USA, the place where he liked to stay now. Now, this is not what struck me as this story of ignorance towards parents by their children is something that we hear quite often these days. Instead, what struck me was the son's reason for doing so. When asked by the author, son stated that he does respect his parents and wanted to do things for them but the connect between him and his parents was missing somewhere. He said that his childhood was all about studies and nothing else. There were no childhood memories from vacations, holidays or even festivals, he could only think of studies from his childhood. In fact, all that he could remember about his parents from his childhood was that he was always forced by them to keep studying...
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...Bachelor2 Literary Analysis of Riders to the Sea The chosen work for this literary analysis is Riders to the Sea, by J.M. Synge (1903). This piece is written as a classical drama. This form of writing is written with direction for setting creation and stage direction for characters included as its form is to be set into action. What is so delightful about this type of writing is that when reading, your imagination is taken to the scene enfolding before you. The characters need not speak every word to portray their emotion to you. Their subtle movements and changes in set symbolically convey visual meaning. After reading the play, it is just as interesting to see it performed. You will want to see if the director of the play has picked up on the subtleties that the playwright has included that have already captured your own mind or emphasized symbolism that you did not absorb. There are several portions of this play that stood out to me as saying more than what most would glean important. The first is a soliloquy made by the two daughters concerning the death of Michael. They are clearly worried how the impact of the news of Michael’s death will impact their mother. They are worried most about her and not of their own loss of their brother. This leads to dramatic irony, as now the audience knows more than the protagonist about what is the sisters believe has happened. The dramatic irony is further proven when the daughters inspect the stitching and fabric of...
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...Personal Application of Criminology Paper CJA/314 Version 2 Criminology 02-27-2011 Personal Application of Criminology Paper When a person is in a situation like this, they may have a million things going through their heads, sometimes not and they’ll just proceed with calling the Police. With this situation one can handle it in a few ways, first call the police, then proceed with calling the boy’s parents, and tell my son what happened. If one can find out why this situation came about, meaning why your son’s friend came into your house by using a break in tool such as a lock pick, finding out that information would be helpful to have. The first thing a person should do is follow out with the most professional steps for the well-being of the boy, but keep your best interest at heart as well by keeping yourself safe. It’s important the parents know that their child has been involved in a crime instead of them finding out in the worst way with him calling after they have booked him in his cell. However, another reason one should call the parent because of course they may have never known that they’re child was doing things like this, and they may be able to talk some great deal of sense to him that may make him see the light of what he was doing, and if he does, the parents can talk to the police possibly and prevent him from going to jail and let them handle it. If not and the boy has to stand in front of a judge for what he did and he gets convicted of it then, the boy...
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...Besvar opgaverne i A-D A) 1. He had travelled a lot as young man, but that was a long time ago. He had travelled a lot as a young man, but that was a long time ago. Regel: Der skal være et ”a” foran young man, for at understrege at det er et navneord. 2. Last year he spend three months on a ranch in Texas working as a cattle herder. Last year he spent three months on a ranch in Texas working as a cattle herder. Regel: Spend med “d” er når det er infinitiv. Spent med ”t” er når det er datid, hvilket denne sætning er. 3. The audience is reminded of that smoking is not allowed during the show. The audience is reminded that smoking is not allowed during the show. 4. If I continued reading at this speed, there were every possibility of my finishing the book in time for the test. If I continued reading at this speed, there was every possibility of my finishing the book in time for the test. Regel: Kongruensfejl: Der skal være overensstemmelse mellem verbet og subjektets tal og person. Ental i subjektet skal følges af ental i verbet. Flertal skal følges af flertal. 5. I was wondering if you could suggest a restaurant there is close to Times Square? I was wondering if you could suggest a restaurant which is close to Times Square? 6. On the bus a completely stranger sat down next to me and started talking about his daughter. In the bus a completely stranger sat down next to me and started talking about his daughter. 7. However much you do, will there...
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...Brandon Standard 5/5/14 period A Mrs. Mazz Tension in the father son relationship is represented throughout the play. The tension that is so prominent in the play is between Willy and Biff. The tension is because Willy wants Biff to become and salesman like himself but Biff wants to take a different path and work with his hands and enjoy life. Another reason that there is tension between Willy and Biff is because Biff walked in on Willy cheating on his mother. There is one scene towards the end of the play where Willy and Biff have an argument after Biff leaves him in a restaurant. This scene shows how much tension they have in their relationship. In this scene Biff tells his father that he is nothing and always will be nothing. Biff also tells Willy that he will never turn out to be a salesman like him. * Tension in the father son relationship can be faced in modern society through sports. Fathers always imagine there son becoming a star athlete and try to mold them into being this. Most of the time the son is not going to be a star athlete and this is something that is difficult for a father to deal with. All off their hopes and dreams are in their son so if they don’t turn out to be exactly how you want them to than it is disheartening. Tension in the father son relationship can really hurt a family and break them apart. A father has a special bond with his son because they are both men of the house, it is different than having a daughter or the relationship...
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...Some Rules for Writing on Literary Topics... referring to the author - first reference use the author's full name. Subsequent references use the author's last name only, or call them the writer, the author, et cetera. Mark Twain would become Twain. referring to the title - in your thesis use a complete reference to the title of the work. Subsequent references, use the title if it is short. If it is long, make it shorter by picking out the key words. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn would become Huckleberry Finn. • • On the citations, for a short essay on one literary work you don't have to use the author's last name inside the citations. One last thing. When you write a thesis on a literary work, it is a good idea to add the following to the thesis: 1. 1. the author's name 2. 2. the title of the work 3. 3. the genre (story, poem, play novel) This will have the effect of making the thesis a little longer than you may be accustomed to. For right now, don't worry. Just try to get it all in there. We may talk about splitting the thesis into two sentences later on. The samples on "A&P" followed this pattern. 9 Steps to Writing on a Literacy Topic (LINK) Assignment One page with thesis and evidence on any story from week 2 or week 3 of the syllabus - If you are up for the challenge I am adding a musical performance to the list of options....
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