Shirley Temple in the Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison represents the American ideal girl and a representation of the stigma related to not being white in a society. In one way or another all of the characters in the Bluest Eyes are obsessed with beauty and defining what beauty is to them. The blue eyes closely tie to Shirley temple and baby dolls and their representation of a hierarchy of race. “Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another—physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought.
The unique history of African-Americans subconsciously affects what black men and women consider attractive. If this wasn’t true, black women wouldn’t go to such extremes as to put chemical relaxers in their hair to make it straight. Assata Shakur describes the process of straightening her hair as, “burnt ears, a smokey straightening, and the stink of your own hair burning” (174). She hadn’t understood why she and generations before her had gone through the trouble. The women, who wear natural looks such as afros, dreadlocks, and braids, are a rare find.
She saw it as “broken”, “fractured” or “limited” English. “I was ashamed of her English.” she said. However, what she considered as “broken” English began revealing its own charm for the other thing. In other words, the author started to look at her mother’s English with different perspective. She had this feeling that behind her mother’s imperfect English resides a wonderful expression of beauty, a beauty she wondered at.
Does the color of your skin describe who you really are? In the poem, "White Lies," Natasha Tretheway describes what it was like to hide one's color just to find acceptance. Trough her character, imagery, and symbolism, Tretheway paints a picture of shame and courage through the eyes of a young African American girl growing up in Mississippi. "White Lies" is a personal poem about Tretheway's childhood. By looking at the author's background, the following is discovered about her character.
Even today in 2011 there are people from different origins that wish to be white; this issue was raised in 1980 in this book, and still is prevalent today. Wong goes on in this poem and describes the ways in which she wished she were white. Furthermore, she explained the reasons to why it would be better to be white such as this line refers: “when I was growing up, my sisters with fair skin got praised for their beauty, and in the dark I fell further, crushed
That's exactly what Madonna attempts to do when she appropriates and commodifies aspects of black culture. Needless to say this kind of fascination is a threat. It endangers. Perhaps that is why so many of the grown black women I spoke with about Madonna had no interest in her as a cultural icon and said things like, "The bitch can't even sing." It was only among young black females that I could find die-hard Madonna fans.
Another example of how the women in this story persuades her thoughts is when she persuades her readers that exams for vaginas need to be more comfortable. The women complained that the paper dress scratches her tits, the dull colored rubber gloves are boring, the insanely close flashlight to her vagina, and the freezing cold duck lips on her vagina make her feel incredibly uncomfortable. Furthermore, the women also gives examples of how these problems could be fixed; for example, purple velvet dresses, pink and blue gloves, feathery cotton spread for her back, and warm duck lips would make the exam more pleasant, instead of torcher. Basically the woman in this story wants her vagina to be treated special and comfortable during her exams. In conclusion, I think that this monologue covers all of the requirements for it to be considered a persuasive, informative, entertaining, and self-expressed
The Sin Bin or Lucy’s Heart is a novella written by Hannah Griffiths. Lucy is a confused teenage girl,with all the problems that comes with that. Lucy is caught between two worlds: the old traditionsand the popular social life with her school friends. Lucy is the perfect characterization of a geek;she behaves well, makes homework and does whatever her mom told her to do. She is a straighta-student with perfect grades.
The color white symbolizes the innocence and purity of her unborn child. ‘A curtain, made of strings of a bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies’ can symbolize Jig’s femininity. The open door could be her abdomen and the beads to keep out flies could be contraception or maybe just to keep bad things away. The American speaks
It's no accident that Browning uses the word "fall": that word has some pretty negative connotations. For one, the word implies sin (Victorian moralists referred to women who had sex outside of marriage as "fallen women"). So maybe Porphyria's free, "fallen" hair symbolizes the irrevocable step she's taken in coming, alone, to see her lover? * Line 18: This is the first time the speaker describes the color of Porphyria's hair: "yellow." Blondness is often associated with angelic purity and with children.