Sapphire's Novel Push

Push, by Sapphire/Ramona Lofton, is a very powerful novel about an abused illiterate girl who goes by the name Precious. When reading the book you will be reading it through the eyes of this 16 year old girl, who doesn’t know how it feels to be loved. She lives in a small apartment in Harlem, New York with her abusive mother for 16 years. Precious wrote things that happens in her life[SR1] to cope with her feelings. She was sexually abused by both her mother and father until she was 16.

Mamie specifically wrote this book to tell her son’s story, representing hope and forgiveness, which revealed the sinister and illegal punishments of the south. She wanted to prevent this horrendous tragedy from happening to others. The purpose of the book was to describe the torment African Americans faced in the era of Jim Crow. It gives imagery through the perspective of a mother who faced hurt, but brought unity to the public, to stand up for the rights of equal treatment. This book tells how one event was part of the elimination of racial segregation.

Kindred Argumentative Essay Love is more addictive than drugs. It exploits a person’s weakness. Love consumes a person and opens the gate to a number of overwhelming feelings that wouldn’t open for anything else. It is uncontrollable no matter how hard a person will resist from it.

Nella Larsen’s Passing is a novella about the past experiences of African American women ‘passing’ as whites for equal opportunities. Larsen presents the day to day issues African American women face during their ‘passing’ journey through her characters of Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry. During the reading process, we progressively realize ‘passing’ in Harlem, New York during the 1920’s becomes difficult for both of these women physically and mentally as different kinds of challenges approach ahead. Although Larsen decides the novella to be told in a third person narrative, different thoughts and messages of Irene and Clare communicate broken ideas for the reader, causing the interpretation of the novella to vary from different perspectives.

She grabbed him whimpering; held him under till the struggle ceased and the bubbles rose silver from his fur. (Hood 414) In Mary Hoods “How Far She Went” A grandmother struggles with the burden of experience, loss and a life of hard decisions; where a girl strives to live in a naïve and free spirited illusion. The paths of a grandmother and her granddaughter soon collide when experience and naivety meet on a dirt road in the south. “How Far She Went” illustrates how generational struggles and tragedies can mold people influencing their lives and the way they live.

She has been caught between two fires: racial dehumanization in the form of “slavery” and “lynching” on the one hand, and the call for “being good” and exerting effort for the betterment of oneself on the other. Self-development and betterment of oneself date back to Booker T. Washington who called for peaceful co-existence with white people instead of protesting against racism. He called colored people to work hard and realize achievements in order to prove to white people that they deserve equal treatment. Finney does not agree on some values and beliefs of the past as she criticizes Washington’s viewpoint by portraying a hard-done-by protagonist who has “heard / 7,844 Sunday sermons on how God made every / woman in his image (Finney, Head off & Split 9: 60-62). Parks has also “hemmed 8,230 skirts “for white women and hemmed out “18,809 pants legs” for white boys.

As a very young girl, her mother’s ex-boyfriend molested and raped her. Her rape took up a big part of her life, as it never really completely left her. Early on in her life, she branded herself as a bad person, but as she grew and matured, she realized she no longer identified as a bad person, but rather a strong, independent, intelligent woman who takes pride in her black

Jody Miller’s, Getting Played, illustrates to the common eye, what young people have to do to survive on a daily basis in poor urban communities. These poor urban communities often have a negative connotation which usually scares off common folk. The residents of these communities are usually African Americans. They face challenges daily that common people wouldn’t even dream of worrying about. Jody Miller describes what makes girls go through these victimizations.

Hook learns to talk back and discover her whole self through a bold stand to examine the way in which she was raise. For example Hook explain how language “carry a scent of the oppressor” can be used as a place of struggle but also as a place of a new start. To conclude, the writing of Bell Hook in “Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black” is an audacious act by underlining the problem of woman and reveal Hooks path of rediscovery. Hook took a stand in revealing the ugly truth as woman struggle to move from object to being subject. Hook not only took a stand for woman but she help to acknowledge that woman of color are simply invisible in some cases in society because they are not representing accurately by

“Let’s stop believing that our differences make us superior or inferior to one another”- Don Miguel Ruiz. The novel “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett is a controversial and heart wrenching story. It depicts the cruel brutality and inequality that many faced during the 1960’s. Stockett teaches the readers about how discrimination between races was inevitable and planted in everyday life through Aibileen’s life story, Hilly’s sense of superiority, and Celia’s innocent presence. Aibileen, the main protagonist of The Help, drives this book to such great lengths.

Cassie Logan, the central protagonist of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor, has, all her life, been shown confidence, love, and pride in herself, her history, and, most importantly , her family. During this year, though she is only nine years old, Cassie is shown the real world of cruel racism and supposed white superiority. Many people treat blacks as if they are inferior to whites, such as Miss Crocker, the Night Men, and Lillian Jean Simms. These people have specifically impacted dark-skinned Cassie; they have tried to degrade her, and destroy her pride and confidence. Throughout my essay I will be discussing how the characters listed above have tried to reduce Cassie’s worth--only because of her skin color-- and if they have succeeded or not.

The story takes place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in America, when desegregation is finally achieved. Flannery O’Connor’s use of setting augments the mood and deepens the context of the story. However, O’Connor’s method is subtle, often relying on connotation and implication to drive her point across. The story achieves its depressing mood mostly through the use of light and darkness in the setting.

The Help (2011) directed by Tate Taylor, is an inspirational, courageous and empowering story about Southern women in the 1960s. It's the story of the help: the black maids of Jackson, Mississippi, and the relationship with their white employers. The central theme of the film is courage, and how the characters embrace courage to overcome obstacles and fight for social justice. Whether it is their ability to deviate from in-group norms, or overcome fear, courage is essential throughout the characters' journeys. In this essay, I will analyse the situations endured by the characters, and how they respond to these situations with courage.

In addition to that, the black community isolated Sethe because she did something that the community considered wrong. Black feminism will be the approach utilized here to see the oppression of woman of color because it includes sexism, classism and racism. Since the female characters are very dominant in the novel, a black feminist approach should be very effective and it enables one to see how the female characters deal with the past and live with it in the present, what motherhood mean to the female characters, and how much the past influences the female characters who lives in the present. The end of the novel reveals the forgiveness and the acceptance not only of the black community toward Sethe’s choice (killing her daughter) but also of the white people (the Bodwins) who accepted Denver to work for them. This reconciliation shows that the courage and the will to get rid off from the past to live side by side peacefully and to move toward the future together.

The chapter of Denial highlights and show us the experience of black women trying hard to change themselves to fit in with the society. The use of the techniques of mise-en-scene in the visual film provide the audience with with the reality in which black women are safe and comfortable. Black women should be fearless and learn to make decisions for themselves without the influence of the society and what the media says about them. And buy us standing together as women we can help each other in the challenges we have by supporting one