Sample Response | | |Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake is about belonging and not belonging simultaneously. Lahiri points out clearly what ‘the | |characters must struggle and come to terms with what it means to live here’ (America). Gogol/Nikhil the protagonist as | |well as other characters (Sonia, Moushumi) highlights this idea. | | | |Gogol clearly has very deep problems with his sense of belonging. Not only is he torn between his Bengali heritage and | |his parent’s expectations and those of the American culture, he also has the problem with his name, combined with | |relationship issues.
Because this novel was written during a period in history that dealt with the injustices of slavery, this paper will take on the aspect of a sociological criticism. Truly, the actions of the characters contained within the novel can be tied to the culture of the period and thus create the complexes witnessed therein. There are many critics who would disagree about the theme of this novel. There are those who believe it speaks only about the ills of slavery and would certainly not be agreement that this novel deals with the issues of treachery and virtue. Yet there is much that can be said about each of these themes throughout the story.
Martin Luther King led a series of campaigns in the North starting in 1966, after succeeding in challenging the voting and segregation issues of the. Southern states. His overall aims for these campaigns was to challenge the poor living and economic conditions of the American Americans living there. However, these campaigns proved to be most challenging for King because the same tactics that he had used to bring change in the South were no longer effective. This is partly due to a combination of factors of which are poor planning and tactics, African American violence and a lack of federal government support.
The novel is a story about self-realization through action. The old men gathered at the Marshall plantation spent their entire lives running from trouble. After years of social, political, and economic suppression in a racist world that many black people long to stand up for. Gaines uses the setting of the novel and symbolism of both the tractor and sugar cane as tools that rally the old men to stand up, and specifically through the characterization of Charlie Gaines, he successfully develops the theme of redefining black masculinity through courage. The setting of the segregated south plays a key role in the illustration of the racial tension between blacks and whites.
Unfortunately they didn't take advantage of that power at first. This story displays their struggles through comparing it to a strategic fight. Symbols, character, and setting each contribute to the theme of the “Battle Royal”. Symbolism played a major role in Ellison's theme of “Battle Royal”. Throughout the entire short story, symbols are used to help complete the allegory of the African American's struggle.
What was very visible, however, were the causes of Richard’s identity formation. Race, class, and gender were the three factors that epitomize Richard’s revealed identity as a nonconformist, black boy rebel at the end of the fist part of the novel. Each individual creates his or her identity through past experiences, family, race, among other factors. Race, which is still the cause of many problems in today’s world, is what places individuals into certain categories. Based on their race, people are designated to be part of a larger, or group identity instead of being viewed as a person with a unique identity.
“But it is a part of the buisness of the writer-as I see it- to examine attitudes, to go beneath the surface, to tap the source. From this point of view the Negro problem is nearly inaccessible. It is not only written about so widely; it is written about so badly” (447) With this qoute James Baldwin is saying that there must be solid backround information on everything you write; They must examine every point and emotion and capture it for the writing. He feels that not only are the struggles African Americans went thru widely written about but also is poorly written. 3.
Richard Wright gives the audience insight into the mindset and circumstances of blacks in America, through the experiences (good and bad, rising and falling) of Bigger Thomas. Through his carefully crafted novel, Native Son, Richard Wright shows that the world around Bigger Thomas contributes to his mental instability and animal like behavior. The novel contributes Bigger’s mental instability to the factors, of having to play two different roles depending on the world he is in. Bigger in the world of African America’s or the “Black Belt” then he is assertive and aggressive. In the world of whites Bigger is submissive and fearful.
Uncle Tom’s cabin was a book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This book was about the life and hardships of a slave in the south. It contributed to political and economical arguments on slavery. Many believed that Stowe was wrong in writing the book which also led to more arguments. Also, another important cause of the civil war was issue of slavery in the territories that was dividing the North and South.
Dr. King initially begins the speech by describing the state of the negro citizen to be in an "exile in his own land" and to be "languished in the corner's of American society." This powerful use of emotional language heavily exemplifies the suffering of the negro in America, "the land of the free." With King's description, we witness the negro as a harshly persecuted victim, and we not only sympathize but also we feel there's an enormous urgency to repair this terrible situation. In addition, King also applies repetition later on in the speech to exemplify the NEED for immediate action against segregation: "We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies,