Premium Essay

Oppression: A Personal Narrative Of My Life

Submitted By
Words 747
Pages 3
I first met Mary when she came to my office for a job interview. I guess it’s true what they say: first impression can make it or break it, and for a moment or two I was speechless. In front of me there was this incredibly large woman who barely fit through the door, and who needed simultaneously 2 chairs to sit on. Let me clarify: the position was for a sales representative in a high tech company which exhibits a modern, young, and upbeat style. There was no way Mary was any of these things. Mary, however, did not seem to think so, “I know what you are thinking,” she began, “I am a 350 pound woman, what am I doing here? I am here to apply for a job, because I believe I can do what it takes as good as any high paid professional, if not better, …show more content…
Mary is a fighter; unfortunately, many people just give up and cave into the invisible, yet existing, oppression geared toward overweight and obese people in our society. She grew up in a low to medium income family household, with stay-at-home mom and struggling to provide a decent living working dad. Her mom was overweight and depressed, so she often stayed in her room, sometimes drinking, and rarely leaving the house. She resisted being engaged in any household activity, so essentially, every member of Mary’s household had led a separate, individual life; besides the working father, none of them had any other social relationship outside their nuclear family. For as long as Mary could remember, her grandmother took care of her, physically and emotionally. “If today,” she says, “you see fat people everywhere, back in my childhood, everybody was of normal weight, and I was always the big kid.” Being a big kid, she often found herself isolated and depressed. She could feel she was different, and her grandma was always there for her with her favorite ‘comfort’ foods. Her favorite was fried eggs with bacon and homemade fries. Her grandma, who also was a number of pounds overweight, while cooking, would sit Mary on the kitchen counter and Mary would eat crackers after crackers, until the food was ready. At the table, they would talk and laugh for hours, later moving to the couch to watch grandma’s favorite show while having ice cream to help the food go down. This had always made Mary forget about her life outside the house: the kids in her neighborhood who were ‘too busy’ to play with her, or if they did, she would always be the one to trail behind them, while in school, Mary was scapegoated by her classmates, began to fall behind in her classes, and hated sports as she tried to avoid locker room at all cost possible. There were

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Shards of Memories, Fragments of Sorrows: Mothertongue Transforming Spaces Occupied by Women in South Africa Through Theatre

...Africa through Theatre This paper sets out to explore how processes of theatre making employed by The Mothertongue project, provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Mothertongue works from the premise that the development and subsequent performance of stories in theatrical processes affords women the opportunity to re-write and remap their personal narratives and in so doing insert their voices into the landscape of South African Theatre. In an attempt to redress the gender imbalances and androcentricism prevalent in post-apartheid theatre, this paper speaks to the relationship between theatre, liminality and communitas. I am interested in unpacking how collaborative processes of theatre-making provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Remapping in this instance refers to processes of transforming lived experience through story. I address how, through engaging in ritual activities that are central to the stories performed, actors, audiences and the owners of the source stories are invited to physically participate in remapping and transforming lived experience. Linked to this is the choice of form(s) and how this affects or impacts on the performed stories as well as on the construction of performed rituals and ultimately on the processes of remapping personal narratives. I focus specifically on Mothertongue’s 2004 production, Uhambo: pieces of a dream. The production was an integration of theatre and visual art in the form of performances...

Words: 7672 - Pages: 31

Premium Essay

Transgressions of Transgender

...Transgressions of Transgender, A reading of I Am vidya: A Transgenders Journey by Living Smile Vidya Sajna Hameed Assistant Professor, Dept. of English St. Aloysius College, Elthuruth Introduction “There exists no prohibition that cannot be transgressed.” - Georges Bataille “Concern over a rule is sometimes at its most acute when that rule is being broken, for it is harder to limit a disturbance already begun.” - Georges Bataille Blurring the boundaries of race, gender, nationality, and sexuality has become a common denominator in defining personal identity in the twenty-first century. Exploding previous notions of these categories as fixed and static, artists today are taking an active role in exposing them as mere constructions. Nevertheless, transgressing these boundaries is still a delicate dance, and individuals who succeed in walking the line between identity categories occupy a precarious position.  The purpose of this study is to explore the resistance strategies that trans-genders utilize when met with adversity and the ways that trans-genders see their trans identity as providing them with a form of strength and resiliency. Trans-genders are often analyzed from a pathologizing lens within the sociological and psychological literature. I wish to investigate the ways that trans-genders are currently pushing back against the oppressive forces that they encounter every day in hopes of increasing awareness of trans-genders resiliency and strength...

Words: 2861 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

The Exodus

...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...

Words: 2839 - Pages: 12

Free Essay

Nettie Essay

...create Nettie’s voice and perspective in several ways. The extract is a dual narrative, where Celie is reading Nettie’s letters. This is Nettie’s third letter written chronologically, although it is the fourth ready by Celie; this reminds us of Celie’s presence as she is choosing the order to read the letters in. This letter was written just after Nettie left Celie, within the first fifteen letters of the novel. At this point in Celie’s life, “Shug Avery is coming to town!” and it is the first time Celie properly portrays her excitement within her letters; although contrastingly Nettie is at her lowest, this delineates the differences between the two sisters lives. It is written early in Celie’s narrative but it is not told by Celie until later, by this point Celie has developed, she has begun to find her voice and she has built up a network of women; hence she is able to provide Nettie with the strength she requires, whereas earlier in the novel she would have required the strength from Nettie. In this letter, Nettie explains that Samuel will not let her visit Celie, since he believes it is wrong to “come between a man and his wife”. We know that Nettie has grown anxious at this point because she formally states with the use of a modifier, “By now I am almost crazy”, it is evident that writing to Celie is holding Nettie together. Nettie’s letter is reported through Celie’s first person narrative within a single letter. The voice of Nettie is reported as direct speech, though...

Words: 2083 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Blah

...Lower East Side Memories
: A Jewish Place in America 
 By HASIA R. DINER The Lower East Side and American Jewish Memory I'm Jewish because love my family matzoh ball soup. I'm Jewish because my fathers mothers uncles grandmothers said    "Jewish," all the way back to Vitebsk & Kaminetz-Podolska via Lvov. Jewish because reading Dostoyevsky at 13 I write poems at restaurant    tables Lower East Side, perfect delicatessen intellectual. —Allen Ginsberg, "Yiddishe Kopf" The poet Allen Ginsberg, born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, returned in his later years to a narrative style of expression, shifting gears from the anger and fire of his early career. In this poem from 1991 he also touched down again, after a long hiatus spent exploring Buddhism and Eastern philosophy, upon some Jewish themes, as a way of remembering the world of his youth. He described that world in one poem, "Yiddishe Kopf," literally, a Jewish head, but more broadly, a highly distinctive Jewish way of thinking, based on insight, cleverness, and finesse.     That world for him stood upon two zones of remembrance. The world of eastern Europe, of Vitebsk, Lvov, and Kamenets-Podolski gave him one anchor for his Jewishness. Thai space of memory gave him a focus for continuity and inherited identity, tied down by the weight of the past, by family in particular. The other, the Lower East Side, nurtured and...

Words: 6616 - Pages: 27

Premium Essay

What Is Literature

... * lit·er·a·ture n. 1. The body of written works of a language, period, or culture. 2. Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value:"Literature must be an analysis of experience and a synthesis of the findings into a unity" 3. The art or occupation of a literary writer. 4. The body of written work produced by scholars or researchers in a given field: medical literature. 5. Printed material: All the available collected literature on the subject. 6. Music: All the compositions of a certain kind or for a specific instrument or ensemble: the symphonic literature. Good literature has something important to say about life. If we take the time to read and understand the literature, it should help us to learn more about life. It may be that we do not agree with what the writer says. Nevertheless, the act of studying it will have made us think more carefully about the topic on which the writer focuses. The word genre in literature means a type or style of writing: * Fantasy * Romance * Science Fiction * Mystery * Horror * Historical Fiction...

Words: 1319 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Totalitarianism

...control and oppression, which eventually translates to the control of the body, we are presented with the party members and the black women protagonists being the proletariat of society, and never truly being free because ‘As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free’ however, we are presented objects and behaviour that can be described as liberating,...

Words: 2038 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Corey Powerpoint Theories

...Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy by Gerald Corey Brooks/Cole, a division of Cengage Learning Theory Students: The following is an outline form of powerpoints produced by Gerald Corey, the textbook author, designed to accompany the textbook. Please note that the author is Gerald Corey and this work is produced by Cengage Learning, a division of Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. This work is copyrighted and can be reproduced and used only with the permission of the textbook company. The Therapeutic Relationship • The therapeutic relationship is an important component of effective counseling • The therapist as a person is a key part of the effectiveness of therapeutic treatments • Research shows that both the therapy relationship and the therapy used contribute to treatment outcome Theories of Counseling • Gerald Corey’s Perspective of Theories of Counseling: • No single model can explain all the facets of human experience o Eleven approaches to counseling and psychotherapy are discussed • Your textbook book assumes: o Students can begin to acquire a counseling style tailored to their own personality ▪ The process will take years ▪ Different theories are not “right” or “wrong” ▪ The Effective Counselor from the perspective of Gerald Corey • The most important instrument you have is YOU ▪ Your...

Words: 8395 - Pages: 34

Premium Essay

A Psychoanalytic Approach to "The Yellow Wallpaper"

...The Great American Short Stories in 1920. As part of the collection it gained some popularity for a time and then just died out again. Unfortunately this was the extent of the life of her work while she was still alive. However in 1973 the story was reissued by the Feminist Press with an exceptional commentary by Elaine Hedges and finally became popularly rediscovered. Elaine Hedges explained the work as a “pioneering masterpiece of feminist literature” (Pompele 61). Since the publication, theorists using a Feminist approach most overwhelmingly study the story.Gilman’s emphasis on the importance of language and text, and the fact that “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a tale of mental breakdown, make Lacanian psychoanalytic a natural way to consider the work in order to help readers understand the author’s use of language as a manifestation not of herself but the “other” as a means to safely express herself. As an autobiographical story there exist very undeniable connections between Gilman’s personal life and that of the narrator. A study of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is quite remiss if not offering some of the parallels between the author and the narrator as note of interest. In his dissertation, Pompele approaches the work as an “asylum trauma narrative in which the author gives witness to the personal horror of her own captivity in psychiatric spaces and the forced treatment she had to endure there” (60). At 24, Gilman became terribly weak and depressed. She quickly turned...

Words: 2171 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Catch a Fire

...The novel “Catch a Fire” is a complete biography portraying the time, the life, and many events which happened in the life of Bob Marley. The novel depicts major incidents that influenced the thoughts and behavior of Bob Marley. The starting of the novel summarizes the past of Ethiopian tribe, especially with Haile Selassie, who afterwards, becomes the king of the Ethiopian region. The novel mainly states the reasons of starting of the Rastafarianism (Farley, 2006, pg. 216). It is known that Rastafarianism played a very huge role in the life of Bob Marley. Knowing and understanding the religion is important because it became the centerpiece for much of his life, including his music. The focus is to analyze the life of Bob Marley and what he went through so that he could touch the people the way he did with through his life and probably most importantly, his music. From that very point the child hood and youth of Bob Marley is investigated. Bob Marley is child of Cedella Malcom typically known as Ciddy and a white captain who was European. Bob Marley’s father married Ciddy when he came to known that she was pregnant only to give his name to his child. After the birth of Bob Marley, his father left his wife and disappeared. Ciddy with the help of her father raised Marley. Bob than flew away to Jamaica and started to record music. He also established a group with the name of BOB MARLEY and the WAILERS. Making his alignment with Coxsone Dodd and some of the other producers, Bob became...

Words: 1366 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Asian American Silence

...I am assigning this after We, the Dangerous because Camp Notes will supplement how the general policies toward Japanese Americans at the time affected personal and familial ties. We, the Dangerous focused more on the overarching racial discrimination theme, while Camp Notes focuses more on the silence between interpersonal relationships. In Camp Notes, Yamada narrated poems about the experiences of her grandmother, parents, her own internment experience, and even her conversation with her...

Words: 1121 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

The Legacy of Frederick Douglass’ Hardships and Courageousness

...Frederick Douglass was a slave in America until the age of 20. He wrote three of the most highly regarded autobiographies of the 19th century, while he only began learning to read and write when he turned 12 years old. After an early life of hardship and pain, Douglass escaped to the North to write three autobiographies, which spaced along decades. He wrote about his life as a slave and a freeman. The institution of slavery scarred him so intensely that he decided to devote his powers of speech and prose to fighting it. Douglass wrote three biographies about his life as a politician, slave, and abolitionist. However, the historical value of these works does not remain as important as the quality of the works themselves. Frederick Douglass’ writing deserves recognition in the canon of great American authors, because his work meets the chosen criteria for inclusion in a collection of important literature. Douglass influenced many famous abolitionists with his literary works, and this impact, coupled with his desire to write an expose about oppression in America, makes him a winning candidate. Although his published works, mostly autobiographies, received much acclaim from abolitionists, this paper explores the quality of Douglass’s work from a literary standpoint. To fully appreciate the impact of Douglass’s autobiographies, we must examine violent period in which he lived. Douglass, born in 1818, grew up as a slave on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation in eastern Maryland. At the time...

Words: 2240 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Malcom Turnbull Analysis

...On the 16th of September Malcom Turnbull was successful in taking the leadership of the Liberal party due to his majority vote during the spill motion. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian public and the media to his recent elevation to Prime Minister. As this issue creates passionate polarised opinions within Australia, this article trivialises these views. Fairfax journalists usually write articles of a conservative nature although, in this piece, written by Georgina Connery, Malcom Turnbull is constructed as the instigator of homophobia and responsible for a blockade of civil rights within parliamentary processes. This article fabricates a personal conflict between Turnbull and equity campaigners although there is no such battle of ideologies. The demographic of this article have been exposed to a specific landscape of sophistry to create news for the mainstream readership out of a unsubstantiated conflict....

Words: 1390 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Canada

...as the product of who and where we have been. We need such a map desperately; we need to know about here, because here is where we live. For the members of a country or culture, shared knowledge of their place, their here, is not a luxury but a necessity. Without that knowledge we will not survive.” Margaret Atwood, Survival As Atwood’s statement demonstrates, Canadian literature is concerned with place and displacement, and with the development of an effective identifying relationship between self and environs. Canada’s literature whether written in English or French reflects three main parts of Canadian experience. First, Canadian writers often emphasize the effects of climate and geography on the life and work of their people. Second, frontier’s life is part of Canada’s experience that appears frequently in its literature; Third, Canada’s position in the world profoundly affects many Canadian writers. French Canadians often feel surrounded by their English speaking neighbors. They have made a determined effort to preserve their own institutions and culture. But English Canadians frequently have a similar feeling of being surrounded by...

Words: 3528 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Oppression In A Thousand Splendid Suns

...challenges and oppression in the lives of two Afghan women; Laila and Mariam are shown Throughout the novel, which provided or facilities on the relationship between both these women. This novel is a good representation of the cruelty experienced by the Afghan women in their everyday life. “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is a significant piece of text that bring the predicament of the women who have lived under the debilitating shadow of patriarchal oppression on women. Using the vales, the authors comprehension kills and the contributing factors to emphasize key aspects of of this essay. In countries...

Words: 1235 - Pages: 5