...Growing up in Kenya and moving to America at the age of 10, gave me a unique perspective I now as an adult, view as a privilege. As an immigrant to this country, I have experienced two completely different cultures that have shaped my values, dreams and desires. Coming from a country where educati on was not something everyone could afford, shaped my high value for higher education, not only as an immigrant, but as a woman. As a woman, the pursuit of a college degree is not a simple task, especially in a third world country such as Kenya. Special education programs were something I had never seen or even heard of growing up in Kenya. Many special needs children in Kenya were often kicked out of school, or as I remember shunned by teachers...
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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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...structure adopted in the text that takes more of a thematic form rather than a chronological form. In addition, Angelou managed to emphasize on the universal ideas in her literary work irrespective of its periodic quality. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou used the major characters of the book to facilitate its thematic development identity, racism and literacy throughout the text. Basing on this assertion, this essay uses evidence from the book to affirm the role that the major characters played in the development of the major themes in the book. The first major theme in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is identity. In the course of the text, Maya is depicted as symbolic character representing every African American girl growing in America. Maya is depicted as...
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...Vietnam was a questionable War. People either agreed with it or did not agree at all. As people fought over it back in America soldiers got an experience they will never forget. An experienced filled with terror and suffering but also filled with friendship and love. American literature has shown the struggles of the soldiers in the Vietnam War. Often times the literature tries to pull the readers in with stories to help them understand what life was like. Tim O’Brien is one of the most popular when it comes to this. In his novel, The Things They Carried, questioning morality, O’Brien gives first hand narrations of stories which show the impact of the Vietnam War on society. Tim O’Brien’s life is filled with many wonders and success. O’Brien...
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...University of Tennessee, Knoxville Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2010 Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context Leah Rang University of Tennessee - Knoxville, lrang@utk.edu Recommended Citation Rang, Leah, "Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2010. http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/655 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact trace@utk.edu. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Leah Rang entitled "Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in English. Urmila Seshagiri, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Lisi Schoenbach, Bill Hardwig Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) To the Graduate Council:...
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...I had had. How I had seen the whole frontier, the woods, and the Indian country of the great plains …” (Laura Ingalls Wilder) Laura Ingalls Wilder is best known for her “Little House on the Prairie” series and for her contribution to children’s literature. There were several things that factored into shaping Wilder as a writer a major one being her personal experience of growing up on the frontier with her family. It was not until later in her life that she wrote the series and the series had gotten published. Over the following years of its publication her books have made it on library and school reading lists as well as been awarded. In American literature Laura Ingalls Wilder is one of the most...
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...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...
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...that he experiences as he flees from his war torn country of southern Sudan. The book paints a vivid picture of the epic journey that the main character in the story, Valentino faces from the time that he flees the country to the time that he finally reaches what he thought would be the “Promised Land” in Atlanta, United States of America. He was soon to realize that even in America, life would not be a bed of roses but it would be marred by unexpected acts of violence and racial discrimination (Dave 28). One striking thing in the narrative is that the author brings out the culture of the Dinka people. For instance, polygamous nature of the Dinka people is clearly illustrated. The myth regarding the origin of the Dinka people is as well demonstrated (Bess). In regards to this origin, the Dinka people are given a choice by God to choose between the cattle and the “What is the What”. They choose the cattle which they understood better rather than “What is the What” which they did not as demonstrated in the line, "—you didn't tell us the answer: What is the What? My father shrugged. —We don't know. No one knows” (Dave 64). Through the narrative, a reader is informed on the historical background of the south Sudanese people. The relative geographical locations of the three African countries of Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya are well described, painting an unforgettable picture in the mind of the reader. The diversity in different cultures comes out clearly in the book as the main...
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...Roen−Glau−Maid: The McGraw−Hill Guide: Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/e II. Using What You’ve Learned to Share Information The McGraw-Hill Guide: Writing for College, Writing for Life, Second Edition 4. Writing to Share Experience © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2011 13 Reading, Inquiry, and Research ■ PART 2 | Using What You Have Learned to Share Information 57 TANYA BARRIENTOS Se Habla Español MEMOIR he man on the other end of the phone line is 1 Tanya Maria telling me the classes I’ve called about are firstBarrientos has rate: native speakers in charge, no more than six stuwritten for the dents per group. Philadelphia “Conbersaychunal,” he says, allowing the fat vow- 2 Inquirer for more than els of his accented English to collide with the sawedtwenty years. off consonants. I tell him that will be fi ne, that I’m familiar with 3 Barrientos was born in Guatethe conversational setup, and yes, I’ve studied a bit mala and raised of Spanish in the past. He asks for my name and I in El Paso, Texas. Her first novel, Frontera Street, was supply it, rolling the double r in Barrientos like a pro. published in 2002, and her second, That’s when I hear the silent snag, the momentary Family Resemblance, was pubhesitation I’ve come to expect at this part of the exlished in 2003. Her column “Unchange. Should I go into it again? Should I explain, conventional Wisdom” runs every the way I have to half a dozen others, that I am Guaweek in the Inquirer...
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...Adichie’s anthology The “Thing Around Your Neck” is one of Adichie’s most powerful stories in her anthology, by Dr Jennifer Minter (English Works) The “thing around your neck” becomes a powerful symbol of the narrator’s feelings of anxiety in the new country. As Adichie points out, the story of migration is often one of exploitation (take advantage of someone) and impotence (powerlessness) for many Nigerian women. (They suffer also under the burden of stereotypes, both from the African and American perspectives.) In America, Akunna is lonely and desperate. She is exploited by her uncle and suffers from a sense of powerlessness. The new life in America: (leads to loneliness and desperation) : In “ The thing..” the narrator (Akunna) tries to build a new life in America but she endures a great deal of adversity and anxiety., She feels lonely, isolated, displaced and alienated . As Adichie suggests, this is a rather typical experience of Nigerians in America. She also feels anxious because she cannot adequately support her relatives in Nigeria as they would expect. Symbol: The ‘think around your neck” becomes a symbol of anxiety. Akunna is gripped by fear. She feels utterly powerless. She feels that she lacks control. p. 119 “At night, something would wrap itself around your neck, something that very nearly choked you before you fell asleep.” p. 125 “the thing that wrapped itself around your neck, that nearly choked you before you fell asleep, started to loosen to...
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...his identity, he needs someone to call his name. In this poem, identity is not seen as something that is solid and concrete but as something that is situated and constructed by others, a glimpse of poststructuralist view on identity. Recently, language learning has been seen as participation and negotiation of self (see Higgins, forthcoming; Kinginger, 2004; Lam, 2000; Morita, 2004; Ohara, 2001; Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000; and Solé, 2007 among others). The trend is resonated in the growing interest in language learner identity and the studies in narratives. In this paper, a case of heritage language learner will be investigated upon the theoretical frame of poststructuralism. Narrative inquiry will be used to analyze how she negotiates her learner identity. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: First, by looking at the struggle a language learner makes to acquire her heritage language, I reclaim the centrality of identity in defining heritage language learners. Second, to widen the horizons of narrative studies to the cyber space as it provides an ample source of easily accessible data and it has become one of the commonplace media of daily communication. Heritage Language Learners and Identity To refer to the Heritage Language Learners (HLLs), various terms have been implemented such as ‘native speakers,’ ‘quasi native speakers,’ ‘bilingual speakers,’ or, from the dissatisfaction with the prior terms, ‘home background speakers,’ and ‘heritage language speakers’ (Valés, 2005:...
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...from South Korea to the United States as a seven year-old child. Having been born at the end of the Korean War and growing up in the Cold War Era, she felt a strong connection to her cultural ties and grew up with some discomfort in having to adjust to life as a an immigrant. She derives inspiration for her artwork through her own personal experiences as both Asian and American while embodying the motto “Personal is political” (Oxford University Press 317). A great deal of her work is done in a mixed media format or as a performance piece and often calls for audience participation (Oxford University Press 317). DMZ-XING Yong Soon Min, DMZ-XING, 1994, (Mixed-Media Installation) One such piece by Min is called DMZ-XING (1994), a mixed-media piece taking its name from the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Yong Soon Min created an installation in 19pictures, and a series of narrative texts strewn about (Min 134). Here, she was capturing and retelling her own story as well as the stories of several families from Asia—Cambodia, Korea, Viet Nam, and others—that escaped from their homelands due to the onslaught of wars, and the experiences that they encountered while acclimating to the new experiences they would find for themselves in America (Min 134). Particularly in focus within the art piece is the story of a Laotian man, Mr. Saengaly, who fled with his wife to America after he had been a prisoner of war at a Viet Cong re-education camp during the Viet Nam War (Min 136). Pictures and...
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...Jail Management System Known as having the largest correctional system in the world the United States of America has a hierarchy of correctional centers. The United States justice system consist of administrative works for adjudicating and processing those who are accused and convicted of various crimes ranging from blue collar crimes up to murder. In 1770 the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia was recognized as the first penitentiary in America, according to Steve Schooner from the University of San Diego. Around the 17th to date, the American prison system has completely changed keeping some of the same principles. The prison system of the United States has clearly changed from its first debut in the late 1700's. The mission of the prison system in the United States then was to keep society safe from those who were found guilty of crimes in a court of law by confining them in full control of the government. Whether state or federal agencies have control of the accused the principles remain the same. State and federal agencies are charged with keeping the accused in confinement until the judicial system deems necessary according for the seriousness of the crime. The impact of the great penitentiary rivalry on our current prison system includes two systems, he Pennsylvania System and the Auburn System. The Pennsylvania System was supported by the notion of keeping all who were committed to prison behind bars and separated from all other prisoners. Silence and continuous...
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...authorized. Any anti-plagiarism software will flag this document or its sections as unoriginal. Coping and Resiliency Skills in African American Urban Youths Introduction Growing up with a limited understanding of how to regulate emotions and cope in the face of ubiquitous urban blight, severe socio-economic hardship, and systemic racism is difficult for many urban youths. Resiliency is a term that is frequently associated with urban youths, especially if we consider the fact that according to the U.S. Census data in today’s America approximately one third of this population group lives in urban areas (Census, 2000). Given a steady increase in the numbers of low-income children living in urban areas, efforts to understand this particular phenomenon are critical. In this context, it is important not only to examine the negative (e.g.: drug abuse, violence, etc.) but also the positive self-regulatory skills (e.g.: athletics, education, creativity, dance, poetry, etc.), which urban youths employ as coping mechanisms. Another concomitant question that needs to be explored is how urban youth exercise positive self-regulatory skills under different circumstances and in specific contexts. This study specifically examined the phenomenon of coping and resiliency skills in African American urban youths growing up in the developmental contexts of various environmental stressors (e.g.: pollution, gang violence, drug abuse, urban blight, racial and ethnic discrimination, etc.). The...
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...launching her iconic career. This image is one of the sixty-nine photographs making up the Untitled Film Stills series created between the years 1977 and 1980 when Sherman first moved to New York. Although the artist is in her photographs, they are not self-portraits. As the creator and model to fictional b-list celebrities reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock films, and “the look of European opposed to Hollywood types, Sherman is reacting...
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