The Water Dancer Sparknotes

Slaves in every situation, had the short end of the stick, and were not allowed to be themselves at all. In the book “Chains” by Laurie Halse Anderson it follows two girls that go through different situations, Isabel and Ruth. And this book has an amazing metaphor and a lot of them throughout the book, the main one is Chains, or the book title. I will share with you what I think this means. Isabel, the character that the book is told in, goes to New York, where the people are really divided.

As a result, the slave is upset or depressed in that he has to live through this. Although he is a good person at heart, he is still not given the chance to prove himself or get the rights he

In 2015, The Atlantic Magazine published a article written by racial activist, Ta-Nehisi Coates who presented, “Letter To Son, to address black men about social injustice in America, and how the opportunities differ based on race. His goal was to make an emotional appeal to black men to get them to understand that they aren’t the privileged ones, and he also wanted to make the privileged individuals feel ashamed of how they mistreat and make the society look down on the minority of black men. In the article, Coates states his experiences and emphasizes the mistreatment of blacks and he refers back to slave to derive a ample amount of anger out of blacks. Within the text, Coates uses a repetition of words to explain that in society, black individuals are usually viewed as lower class which means they aren’t equal with the majority.

These quotes expound on the joy and uplifted burden he had bottle up inside. “I left my chains”. This symbolizes his literal breaking of chains along with, the figurative breaking of chains. When he escaped slavery he broke the physical chains he was kept in, along with him successfully escaping is the figurative

In the history of the United States, America wasn’t always “the land of the free.” A tragic, beastly action was seen as a good thing to do, treating people as unwanted animals. For 245 years, America dehumanized a group of people, put them to work from dusk to dawn, and tortured them, just because of the color of their skin. This is thoroughly demonstrated in Gary Paulsen’s historical fiction novel, NightJohn, where the act of slavery and all the details to it are clearly pictured, from working in fields to getting flesh ripped off by ferocious dogs. In these descriptions, we witness the brutal punishments, the ways around harsh restrictions, and the support people had for each other during tragedy.

In the novel Chains, Laurie Halse Anderson illustrates the theme of slavery and the dehumanization that was faced by Negroes living in the time period of the Revolutionary War. Not only was the American Revolution a time of warfare and riots, but it was also a time when resources were extremely limited. Slaves, however, suffered the most treacherous of these conditions, and they experienced everything from heartbreak through the loss of one's family, to extremely poor living conditions during the war. At the very beginning of the novel, the protagonist, Isabel, is freed by her owner, Miss Mary Finch, who sadly dies before the readers meet her. Disregarding his aunt's wishes, Mr. Robert sells Isabel and her sister Ruth to the first person he can find, ignoring the fact that Isabel is a free woman.

An American Slave Written By Himself. In his book he provides the minutest details of his day to day life as a slave. The reader gets completely engrossed and begins to visualize all those severe and intense incidents that the slaves experienced. The irreversible scars that were inflicted by the slaveowners are represented with strong and bold rhetorical strategies such as imagery and metaphors. Imagery provides the reader a complete scenario, as how the pain and agony was inflicted on the poor souls

For someone to feel as if they are still being controlled after leaving a slave master, proves they don’t feel free. Sophia shares that the reason for this is that if she goes off with Hiram she would have to join him in pursuing his desires rather than pursuing her

Chains linking together slavery and racial discrimination, stimulated the oppression of Africans. Slavery and labor go hand in hand, there would have been “no enslavement without economic need” (Jordan 50). There is two sides to slavery: one group is displaced and exploited so that the other may prosper. Sylviane Diouf’s book Dreams of Africa in Alabama, reiterate how enslaved Africans were forcibly carried across the Atlantic to the United States after the international slave trade was abolished. Dreams of Africa in Alabama recounts the story of the last shipload of captive Africans brought to the United States and their struggles for survival and the preservation of their culture throughout.

Many people forget that African Americans in this country have been enslaved for longer than they have been free. Coates reminds his son to not forget their important history and that they will continuously struggle for freedom over their own bodies. They must learn to live within a black body. These struggles can be seen in the racial profiling and brutality among police officers in cases such as Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and countless of others. He goes on to describe his childhood and how fear was the root of black existence.

Jourdan Anderson had previously received a letter from his old master requesting that he return to living with him. In Anderson’s letter, he tells his older master about his new life in Ohio, how he has a good thing going for him. Anderson also tells his old master that he was proud to have called him that. I believe that is an interesting take on limited freedom. Anderson, being a freed man now and having his own life, still feels that he should respect his old master and be grateful for his previous life.

“Yes, sir, he gives me enough, such as it is.” The colonel, after ascertaining where the slave belonged, rode on; the man also went on about his business, not dreaming that he had been conversing with his master. He thought, said, and heard nothing more of the matter, until two or three weeks afterwards. The poor man was then informed by his overseer that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment’s warning, he was snatched away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than death.”

Thanks to this, he was able to look at slaveholders’ papers and get a better understanding of what was going on and he started to realize that what was going on was wrong. This realization helped him be mentally free for a time and he even attempted to escape, but another slave ratted him out. He went to Covey, and after a while of being with there, they got into a fight that “rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within [him] a sense of [his] own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired [him] again with a determination to be free’ (82-83). After the battle, he knows that he can still have a chance at freedom as long as he is not thoughtless and has the power of reason.

An American Slave,” Douglass discusses the horrors of being enslaved and a fugitive slave. Through Douglass’s use of figurative language, diction and repetition he emphasizes the cruelty he experiences thus allowing readers to under-stand his feelings of happiness, fear and isolation upon escaping slavery. Figurative language allocates emotions such as excitement, dread and seclusion. As a slave you have no rights, identity or home. Escaping slavery is the only hope of establishing a sense of self and humanity.

Coates leaves little space to talk about slavery but instead talks about black reparations. He doesn’t really demonstrate this throughout the essay. He gives us a long list of slavery victims and their stories, but no overall