... tales-the ugly duckling does not become the beautiful swan. Seasons do not presage growth; indeed summer is winter," (Harris, 11). Morrison shows that the emigration of black people to the North was not a story of easy success and comfort; these emigrants had to contend with their differences with white people as well as the black people of the North. "Through a process of reversal, Morrison undercuts the belief in the ... North as a freer place for black people, thereby debunking the myth that informed folktales ... and blues lyrics about successful journeys North. She also refutes the...

• Word Count: 619
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... Boston there are two trails you can follow. scattered oaks and immense pine trees cover the swampy land on one side of the morass. in that direction is where kidd the pirate, as the story goes, buried his treasure. as most tales go, the devil minded the hidden riches after kidd had gone. the trees growing as high as 90 feet tall, making it dark at high noon, was ... one of the things that made this path one left mostly untraveled. pits of quagmire engulfed trunks ... visitors to leave. tadpoles, water snakes and bullfrogs mingled with the neighborhood owls, creating a unwelcoming atmos...

• Word Count: 337
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... and consequently they are always considered ugly. Hence blacks learn to hate themselves; and Pecola Breedlove, prays every night for blue eyes. As a result the ideal of beauty becomes a unsafe and racist ensnare into which African Americans are born, and from which they can never completely escape. In other ... , their conviction They had looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement; saw, in fact support for it leaning at them from every billboard, every movie, every glance"(pg 39). Some instances that deal with beauty in the book are as follows: Claudia is constan...

• Word Count: 577
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• Grade Level: High School

... , and drum beats. Along those lines, an early type of slave music was the spiritual, which has its roots in Protestant hymns taught to the slaves. Spirituals were "long thought to be the spontaneous creation of African-American slaves and the only original folk music of the U.S." Spirituals told tales of suffering and struggle, but these true meanings were often hidden. An example is ... in the song "Gospel Train" with the lyrics, "Get on board, little children/There's room for ... many a-more/The gospel train's a-leavin'..." The "gospel train" of the song likely represented an ... ...

• Word Count: 1049
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In the short story "The Pocketbook Game" was about this black woman named Mildred ,who was carrying a conversation with her friend Marge about a situation involving Mrs.E ., a lady she works for. Mildred tells Marge ... at Mrs.E One day Mrs E. told Mildred to do something so Mildred purposely left her purse behind and waited outside for a couple of minutes and then knocked on the door rapidly and yelled "I forgot my purse." She held it close to her just like Mrs.E would always do. So mrs.E felt ashamed and tried to apologize, ... but Mildred interrupted her saying if she paid as less attent...

• Word Count: 258
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... of Water: A Black man's tribute to his white mother by James McBride is the story of a young black man trying to reveal his mothers past and his own identity. Set in the 1960's in New York City, James tries to figure out his mothers past while struggling with his own racial identity. James's childhood was spent in a chaotic home with 12 children ... of racial segregation. Another strength in the book is the motifs of James's story and his mothers. Through James's narrative technique of weaving his own life story in and out of his mother's story allows us to learn about the lives of mot...

• Word Count: 512
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... Water, an autobiography by James McBride, tells the story of Ruth McBride, the two men she married, and the 12 children she raised. Ruth is a Polish Jew who immigrated to America 2 years after birth. As an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and Jewish faith behind in Virginia to escape the life she was living. I think this was a good idea considering ... she was abused by her father and treated very poorly her entire childhood. One of Ruth's sons, James, tells the story, went through many of the similar hardships that his mother did, as a result of never being sure of ...

• Word Count: 704
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... completely different; in the house you had more access to food, cleanliness and even a little education. Whereas, the field workers performed the more manual jobs and were usually less educated than the house Negroes. Most significantly, I find the author's story toward the end of the chapter to be very interesting. Toni made it a point to reiterate the Dick and Jane story clips before this story purposely. In the Dick and Jane stories ... , from the outside life was perfect, just as the lives of Geraldine, Louis and ... ...

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... that shouldn't be overlooked in this story is the electric rug in which the fake coins were placed after the battle. The big shots of the community were telling the ten black "competitors" to fetch the coins, while keeping the fact that the rug was electrified to themselves. The blacks screamed and writhed, attempting to retrieve the coins, and the whites all found entertainment in their pain ... meaning is much more meaningful. The fact that the ring was portable plays a very important role when relating to the rest of the story. The ring was introduced by the white men at the gathering...

• Word Count: 874
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... racism affects life in a black community in Lorain, Ohio, in the 1940's. Morrison uses two narrative voices. The first and the predominant voice is of an omniscient narrator in the third person, responsible for the characterization of all the characters. The second is the voice of Claudia, whose memories frame the events of the novel. Claudia narrates her story from two distinct perspectives: a child's and an adult's voice. ... Claudia is retelling her own story about the way she acquired her adult understanding of racial prejudices. She narrates the story from two different points of vie...

• Word Count: 2371
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... a piece of fiction must have one or more characters with whom the reader can relate to. The reason being the person on the page is likable or has some qualities that makes the person sympathetic or at least a recognizably authentic human. The same goes for "Everything That Rises Must Converge " by Flannery O "Conner. In this story, the way the characters are portrayed, to some extent, tends to relate to ... seen in reality. There are various types of people that live in today's society and each person has a unique aspect of their character to share with the society. The same goes for th...

• Word Count: 1330
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Ernest Hemingway, is a story about an event's influence on the story's characters. The story is set in a restaurant in a small town in New Jersey. Two killers come into the restaurant and gradually reveal their intention of killing Ole, an ex-heavyweight prizefighter, to the three protagonists: Sam, the black cook; George, the restaurant owner; and Nick, a young customer that dines in the restaurant. The killers wait in the restaurant for Ole, who ... [killed]. It's too damned awful-(76). In addition to the personality differences between Nick and the other two protagonists, the fact th...

• Word Count: 1066
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• Grade Level: High School

... how it operated when she was growing up. It is similar to the way it operates in this story. In the short story "The Sky is Gray" written by Ernest Gaines, the author tells a story about a boy being raised in a racist society and how he coped with it. In "The Sky is Gray", racial prejudice operates in the typically unfair and organized manner. Decades ago, blacks always had to ... sit in the back of the bus while the whites sat in the front. Skin color was ... harsh way Octavia treats James, but for a mother struggling to prepare a child for a cruel world, tough love is the only answer...

• Word Count: 886
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... , she has to assume care herself and she does so without a grumble. She has a miraculous ability to accept the harsh circumstances and go on, recovering from each blow like a Phoenix from the ashes. Her journey is a heroic one. The journey of Dee in Alice Walker's short story is that of a "prodigal daughter" coming back to once repudiated roots. Dee left her poor, uneducated African ... -American family, of which she was ashamed of, to live a more "glamorous" life in the city. Soon, however, she recognized the value and richness of her heritage and returned home for some souvenirs - old, ...

• Word Count: 1070
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

At the start of the story, Mrs. McIntyre seems sympathetic to the Guizac family and especially to Mr. Guizac who could efficiently operate all of the machinery with a great deal of expertise. Mrs. McIntyre believed that "getting him was the best day's work she had ever done in her life". She was so pleased with his work that she was satisfied to let others go because ... look that froze them in collusion forever", which would indicate that their hesitation would bring about the accidental death of Guizac. O'Connor is using violence for its shock value and it becomes the most vivid expression...

• Word Count: 418
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... for economic security and self-sufficiency. When the story opens, Dave walks from the fields to the general store, traditionally the site of exploitation for tenant farmers and sharecroppers, both black and white. He asks Joe, the white store manager, if he can borrow the Sears catalogue, the symbol of Hawkins's control over the commodities available to his tenants. Joe hands over the catalogue and confirms that Dave's "manhood" ... of race, class, and gender. When Dave does get a gun, he uses it irresponsibly. He carelessly shoots Mr. Hawkins's mule, Jenny, and then makes up a preposte...

• Word Count: 973
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... . In the opening of The Bluest Eye, the passage from the Dick and Jane story, becomes a representation of an ideal white person's life. The race of the Dick and Jane family is never stated in the story, but the reader automatically thinks of a happy, carefree, and white family. The perfect white world of the Dick and Jane story becomes Pecola's reverse reality. The second and third version of the Dick and Jane story take away the punctuation ... and then the spacing. This turns the story into a mess of nonsense becoming a parallel of Pecola's life in the story. The decline into nonsense ...

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... into town for her ill grandson's medicine is well represented by the story's title. The significance of the title of "A Worn Path," however, lies in its complexity and in its many interpretations. The most obvious interpretation of the title's meaning is a reference to the path itself. Within the context of this particular interpretation, the keyword "worn" in "A Worn Path" implies that this path has been traveled ... for her grandson's well being, and driven by her love for him, she will most likely make the travel the "worn path" again. The title can also be interpreted as a reflectio...

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... will not take the extra salt meat offered by the shopkeeper. The film is enlightening. It shows how people of different backgrounds view race. The difference in the text from the film is when James and his mother board the bus and the signs directing the "white" and "colored" people where to sit are not shown. The remainder of the story is congruent in both the text and the film. The scene of the two men ... arguing in the dentist's office is major. It shows how one man ... is complacent to live his life the way he always has and not deal with the issues that surround him. The other sh...

• Word Count: 404
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... is autumn and autumn can symbolise depression and a gloomy mood. But the sun is shining, and that can be a symbol of hope (maybe Karlie's victory in the end of the story). The story takes place at the Grand Parade in Johannesburg, South Africa. The story also takes place at a railway station. The reason, that the story takes place at a railway station, can be because there is allot ... the norms of society. Karlie is the headperson in the story and he is a round person because we get the most information about him, and because there are not that many characters in the story. Karlie's func...

• Word Count: 1223
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... one of violence. This scene comes to symbolize both negative and positive things in the story. The symbolization of this scene completes the story as a whole. This is a story about a black man named Stephen Kumalo and his desperate attempt to keep his family together despite the cruel and harsh ways of the city of Johannesburg in South Africa. In Johannesburg live Kumalo's sister, Gertrude, and Kumalo's son, Absolam ... of resentment and hatred between Kumalo and Jarvis, Arthur Jarvis's father. They have both lost their sons and though one was lost at the hand of the other, they treat e...

• Word Count: 411
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The Bluest Eye 1. The Bluest Eye is the title of the book. The author of the book is Toni Morrison. Some important facts that influence the story is that, the town where the story takes place is where Morrison grew up as a little girl. Also, the time that the story takes place (1941) is the same time Morrison would be nine years old. The same age as the narrator of the story (Claudia MacTeer). The title of the story is developed out of ... is Beautiful movement worked to reclaim African-American beauty. 2. The setting of the story is takes place in Lorain, Ohio. The time is 1940 to 1941. The ...

• Word Count: 879
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... and directed by Gary Goetzman. The story involves a young man by the name of Ezekiel Rawlins and several other characters in search of one thing and doing all it takes to find it. Every one of them tells a different story and deceives one another from the truth. Throughout the story there is a color line between the "blacks" and the "whites," which is one of the main conflicts that surrounds Todd ... Carter and Daphne Monet. The exchange of money for service was a dangerous and risky arrangement that everyone seemed to have their ... had some racial issues that I was not too comfortabl...

• Word Count: 1261
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... who "likes" little girls because they are pure and clean?", then Pecola comes into the story and asks him for blue eyes because he "grants" peoples wishes. So, when I was reading the story it took me until the end of the chapter to realize why the person is even involved in the book. The language itself was easy to understand, it just some interpreting and reading very carefully to ... identify with the story as a whole. All of the critics have said how beautiful and poetic the language is through out the book, which would have to be ... who has read it to help you interpret it. You ca...

• Word Count: 877
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... a significant part in this story of "To Kill a Mockingbird". In the first chapter, Scout mentions the Ewells to us that the "Ewells started it all". Scout means that the Ewells had an affect on the residents of Maycomb. The story will involve an allegation of rape and the way black and white issues (the prejudice that runs through the whole of the story) are covered. Burris Ewell, the son of Bob Ewell, shows how ... read, write or spell his name. He has no mother and Mayella Ewell brings him up. From the very beginning of the story, the Ewells are portrayed badly. Scout learns from her ...

• Word Count: 1378
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School