“A Rose for Emily,” written by William Faulkner, tells a dark and mysterious tale that revolves Emily’s life in the Antebellum South after the Reconstruction period. Using the voice of an ambiguous narrator, Faulkner leads the reader deep into the mystery of Emily’s sanity. Miss Emily is the protagonist, who is considered an outsider but praised as a significant figure by the townspeople based on her social status in the past. However, Miss Emily retains an obscure secret, related to her sanity that makes her an outcast to the townspeople. The readers can deduce the reasons why Miss Emily is viewed as an outsider as they obtain pieces of evidence throughout the story.
Belonging Non Written: Refugee Blues The poem Refugee Blues by W H Auden explores the concept of belonging by illustrating the sense of alienation German Jews felt during World War II. This text explores the inherent human condition of the need to belong, as well as the role of cultural differences in belonging, through a variety of literary techniques. The poem communicates the involuntary expulsion of German Jews during the Holocaust and the destruction of their identity, home, and belonging. The protagonist in this poem felt that he had a sense of belonging with Germany much like Romulus and Lydia felt for Romania. This loss of belonging is metaphorically illustrated via the symbolism of the passports in the stanza “ The consul banged the table and said: ‘If you’ve got no passport, you’re officially dead” Here it can be implied that the loss of their passport symbolizes their loss of identity and the loss of their sense of belonging.
Compare the way two poets explore the idea of identity The two poems “Half Caste” by John Agard and “Search for my Tongues” by Sujata Bhatt are both conveying the problems they have faced in their lives due to their identity. Agard was born in Guyana in 1949 and came to Britain in 1977.He is famous for using humour in his work to challenge people’s opinions. Sujata Bhatt was born in India in 1956 and moved to the United States in 1968 but is now currently living in Germany. She is famous for exploring issues such as racism in her work. Agard’s poem is about the ridiculing of those who are “half caste” or in today’s society the people referred to as mixed race.
The novel is set in Yorkshire which is a rural place and Wuthering Heights is referred to as ‘completely removed from the stir of society.’ Heathcliff lives in a desolate village with a small number of people; he rarely has to engage in conversation with anybody outside of Wuthering Heights, which may be a reason why he chose to live away from society. Being isolated from society us a characteristic of a Byronic hero, so setting Wuthering Heights in an isolated place is one factor Brontë uses to present Heathcliff as a Byronic hero. When Lockwood meets Heathcliff he describes him to possess dark qualities that a dark character would have. The first piece of information the reader gains about Heathcliff is that he has ‘dark black eyes.’ Due to his eyes being described as dark and black the reader gets the impression that Heathcliff is also a dark character due to the fact that dark eyes are often used to represent characters with dark souls. Mr Earnshaw also helps the reader to recollect a rather dark image of Heathcliff as he describes him as ‘as dark almost as if it came from the devil.’ The use of the word devil creates strong imagery of a deeply rooted darkness within Heathcliff, which helps the reader to develop a strong image of a dark character, which is yet another quality of a Byronic hero.
The major cause of the war also is virtually forgotten, perhaps, because of middle-class, post-Reconstructionist sentiments; the only sign of it appears with the "negro" teamster who "sits 'mournfully down' to lament his loss of an audience" (Kaplan 277). In Crane's novel, even the warring parties have lost their political specificity, being reduced in cultural memory to visual metaphors, the "blue" and "gray" armies, as if mere figures in a game. One can regard such forgetfulness as a duplication of Crane's general vision of epistemological solipsism. In the novel Fleming never knows what his fellow soldiers are thinking ("His failure to discover any mite of resemblance in their view points made him more miserable than before" [2:428]) or, from one moment to the next, how to regard his desertion. Critics continually debate the issue of his growth, arguing either that he achieves it or, relying on manuscript evidence, that Crane frames his protagonist's own sense of growth ("He felt a quiet manhood, nonassertive but of sturdy and strong blood" [24:538]) in an ironic light.
Debra Shaw Professor Magarine English II 21 February 2012 My Brother’s Keeper James Baldwin was an artist who transcended above the voice and ideas of critics who did not think he would be successful in his endeavors. He lived during an era of time when segregation was rampant and blacks did not have a vote. Although, Baldwin was black, poor and gay he made a great impact on society with his creative writing style. “Sonny Blues,” depicts a true historical event of the racial tension and difficulties that African American Families faced in the 1950’s. Living in the ghetto is a time of darkness and despair for most black families and for a majority of the people it is a way of life and death.
Commentary on Strange fruit Strange fruit written by Abel Meeropol is a protest poem against racism. It was written at time of civil wars, the poem is about lynching of African Americans in southern America at the time of slavery. The tone of this text above all is criticizing, angry, ironic, and somber, also it is descriptive and informing. The author has negative attitude towards the situation. And her popuse of writing this poem is to stop the racism.
The personas skin is described as a ‘Nazi Lampshade’ with the contrast between these terms insinuating more of a sinister glow, and in turn, a sinister opinion on her own suffering. The constant references to Nazism that are apparent in this poem create a direct relationship between her own suffering and that of the Jewish people. This exaggeration of her own misery only adds to the melodrama that runs throughout ‘Lady Lazarus’, and is a technique she uses in many of her other works in ‘Ariel’. Also in this poem, the persona dramatises her triumphant return from death, describing herself as a performer. With references to her ‘theatrical Comeback in broad day’, Plath creates a more artistic and pretentious tone in the poem, with phonological allusions to Broadway and physical rebirth.
Oppression and Prejudice in Ivanhoe In the 1819 novel Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott maintains a theme of parallelism of oppressive prejudice suffered by the Jewish people at the hands of the Christians and the Saxons by the Normans. This parallelism assists in helping the reader keep the prejudicial behavior of both the Christians and Normans towards the Jews and Saxons, respectively, relative to each other. Ivanhoe explores a critical transitional moment in history: the last great medieval invasion of another country, the Normans invading the Saxon homeland, and its cultural effects on both parties of peoples involved. It analyzes the mixture of the Norman and Saxon culture and people as the two groups assimilated more and more as time went on (Duncan 3). The setting of the novel is soon after the Third Crusades, after the protagonist whom the title takes its name from returns back home to his native England from the battles of the Holy Land (“Ivanhoe” 11).
However John Agard comes across in a sarcastic method and Tatamkhulu clearly shows his anger and opinion in an angry mood. Both Tatamkhulu Afrika and John Agard portray racist attitudes as an unlawful punishment because of only their ethnic group. Both Poems are autobiographical so both authors have had their own experience meaning that the anger shown is very descriptive. John Agard uses irony and satire “excuse me, standing on one leg” to show emphasis and ridicules the social stigmata towards half-caste. Afrika uses his poem to illustrate the diverse conditions of two social cultures within his society (“but we know where we belong”).