Lucille Clifton, known for writing poems about her body, also used her poems to exemplify black heritage and self-appreciation. Clifton’s parents established her fondness of African American literature, even though they were not formally educated. A probable backbone for Clifton’s poet career would be her…
The Harlem Renaissance was the development of a neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, this period is considered a…
Langston Hughes’s poem ‘Mother to Son’ is a poem everyone should read at least a few times throughout their life. Although it’s short it sends a powerful message. The poem was written by Langston Hughes. Langston was born on February 1, 1902 and started writing…
In “Good Bones” written by Maggie Smith and “In an Artist’s Studio” written by Christina Rossetti uses imagery and personal anecdotes to create different underlying meanings for readers to interpret in their own thoughts. Thereby, in Christina Rossetti’s poem, “In an Artist’s Studio” creates a…
In soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the eponymous character uses language that displays him in a power driven mood, aiming to extract information from his mother. The presence of dynamic, dark words like “witching,” “bitter,” and “daggers,” is a constant reflection of his intense internal psyche,…
Everyone has their own ways of doing things. We are all curious on how people do things differently than us on a daily basis. In “Us and Them”, David Sedaris, author and playwriter, tells a story of a boy’s perspective of a growing interest towards…
In the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, a mother is relating her own past life experiences to climbing a crystal staircase. She talks about the obstacles that she has had to overcome and then relates these obstacles to climbing a crystal staircase. She…
How does television become part of our life? The televisions had changed from the symbol of high class to the most common device in our life because of the rapid growth of technology. In the article “Us and Them”, the author Sedaris highlights his attitude…
Introduction Alienation is the emotional detachment or isolation from society. Characters that are alienated feel ostracized and do not take part in their society. It can also be described as the loss of hope, a loss of faith, or unbelief. Alienation is not just a…
Margaret Atwood’s Lusus Naturae is a story about a girl who is outcasted by society and her family because of her genetic disorder. The first sentence caught my attention, “what could be done with me, what should be done with me?” (Atwood 240). The opening…
Michel De Montaigne’s book The Essays: A Selection is captivating and bold, especially considering the time that is was written in when hardly anyone would write about oneself due to sounding conceived with oneself, boring, biased, or uneducated. However, Montaigne’s book is neither of those…
Tim O’Brien’s chapter “Speaking of Courage” from his book “The Things They Carried” is very similar to Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Soldier’s Home” when it comes to the way they tell the story of men coming home from war. Although both authors use a different…
Montaigne describes the barbarous people in his essay, `Des cannibales` as noble savages, who live in harmony with nature, share everything, lead a simple but honourable life and practice an uncorrupted religion without being tainted by Western societies. They hold two characteristic in high esteem,…
What does it mean to be an outsider? Perhaps it is someone who simply does not or can not fit in with societal norms. This someone could be labeled as a social oddball or an alien coexisting in a world that they don’t call home….
It was a serious problem that traditional culture was destroyed by the invasion of Western civilization while Nigeria was invaded by Britain in the 19th century. The story “Dead Men’s Path” begins when Michael Obi is promoted to the headmaster of Ndume Central School. He…
