Set in 1931 Harlem, New, York, the inspirational tale tells the story of eight-year old Cassie Louise Lightfoot, who dreams of being able to fly and be free to set off to wherever she pleases. One night while up on the roof of her Harlem home with her family, she gets her wish when she suddenly starts soaring among the stars above the city. While on her ‘journey’ she laid claim to all the buildings in the city, including the union building where her father got denied entry because of his race. Originally a story quilt, this tale merges various storytelling and art forms such as autobiography, fictional narrative, painting, and quilt making. This is evident seeing that certain elements of the story act as alterations of the author’s own childhood…
The book Night is a book about a young boy by the name of Elie. This book is based off of accounts from Elie's life. The story Night takes place during WWII, at this time Hitler and the Nazis were taking Jews and sending them to death or to work until they die, this is called the Holocaust. During the Holocaust Elie was exiled from the outside world and it changed his life entire life, this experience was alienating and enriching.…
I enjoyed reading your post. Another classmate chose this story as well. I had not heard of it before I read her post. You had mentioned that these types of crimes “rarely only hurt one person, but that multiple people get caught in this web”, this organizational deviance/crime also hurt numerous students and teachers. Barbara Byrd-Bennett accepted money in exchange for contracts. These contracts could have been done for less money leaving the excess money to be used for things that would benefit the students as well as help teachers. One teacher commented that according to Abc7chicago.com (2015), “I’m outraged and appalled by the fact that I spent several years trying to get text books and resources for my 12th grade students to get…
Looking at the influential power of rock ‘n’ roll, Glenn C. Altschuler, in his book, concentrates on the abrupt social change and developments in America during the 1940s to 1960s through the lens of popular music. Altschuler argues rock ‘n’ roll was a pivotal moment, it changed the youth culture of America and encouraged everyone to be more accepting of people of all races, ages and sexualities. The power of music was certainly influential and aided as a catalyst to change, but he grants rock ‘n’ roll too much authority over social change in that era. Altschuler failed to look outside of his perspective and elaborate on other variables that contributed to change like the mass media and technological advances.…
To escape, one must break free from that of which they are being confined in. They must take flight. Morrison opens the novel with Robert Smith, an insurance agent, who attempts to jump off the rooftop of Mercy Hospital with his “blue silk wings” (9). Robert Smith was never treated fairly by his own customers because he was a black man. “They kidded him,…
The Night Circus displays textual features that reinforce realities socially constructed hierarchy in regards to the masculine and feminine. The male/female binaries and societal denotations for the terms ‘male,’ ‘female’ and terms particular to the magical world such as ‘magician,’ strengthen the authoritative and dominant position of men. Within the first pages of the novel the reader is immediately made aware of the severe power imbalance between the male and female gender, evident through the first meeting between Celia and her father Hector.…
She is best known for her series of autobiographies, the first being I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) that tells her life up to the age of 17. This book is a coming of age story, which tells how literature can help overcome racism and trauma.…
In Speak by Laurie Hales Anderson the protagonist, Melinda is a prisoner of her own…
The novel’s main character is a man named McMurphy. McMurphy is a symbol for a bird himself. He is a free spirited person that was forced into a bird cage. The cage was the mental institution where he battled to be himself.…
President John F. Kennedy once said that, “conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” This concept has been seen through centuries of civil rights movements and literature by renowned authors such as Franz Kafka and Henrik Ibsen. Franz Kafka’s short story, “The Metamorphosis,” illustrates the life of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, the breadwinner of his family who seems to face a transformation that affects his role in his house and society. This change into an unknown insect, both physical and mental, ultimately leads to his loss of humanistic characteristics and eventually death. In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, a young woman named Nora surpasses the bounds of a housewife when attempting to save her husband’s life.…
One of the things we talked about in our group was about Baileys significance in the story. We could not find any real reason that he was there except to add another view point of the circus in the story. Bailey's had his own side story in the book which made the story more real. The second thing that we also discussed was what happened in the story so far. We talked about how the book, “The Night Circus”, is a fairytale most likely set in the Victorian Era . The description of the way the characters talked, the scenery, clothing described as long dresses that went down to the ankle worn with gloves, and the girls hair was styled up in a bun all gave a old time feeling.…
I attended West fork for 3 year old preschool, then from 4 year old preschool to now I have been attending HD schools.…
From the time she was a little girl it all starts with her father, a man she should be able to trust, who is sexually abusive towards her. At a very young age she is primed to think that this is how it is. This is why she prays, "Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far, far far away from here". At this point, I believe that these birds flying away in the cornfield represent her will to be free. Even though she is able to escape her fathers abusive hand, she is not able to escape the memories of what he does to her. It's these memories that drive her to do things that she shouldn't. Not knowing how to out run these thoughts in her head, she turns to drugs and promiscuity.…
For my theatre venture, I visited the Gratz College Theater’s rendition of Beauty and the Beast on May 26th. When attending a musical based on a Disney film, the attendees will make critics based on the original movie. This particular production far exceeded any expectations I had going into the theater. Spanning from the directors, to the stage director, to the music played, it was a superb production. The movement and enthusiasm of the actors made the viewer feel like they were transported to that very small French town.…
In the short story The Story of an Hour its author Kate Chopin tells us that was impossible for a woman to have or fight for the real meaning freedom in a conservative country with traditional social environment. “Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.”(Chopin 201) Mrs. Mallard was shocked by her husband’s death and felt physical exhaustions not only because they were still couple even Mr. Mallard was the one who bound her with a boring and totally not free life, but she was also hit by a strong feeling of ecstasy and that showed the importance of freedom in Mrs. Mallard’s mind. “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin 201) In this quote Mrs. Mallard shouted“ free” twice to emphasis how hard for a women who live the conservative society where woman should cope their husbands to get real freedom and she even could not hide her emotion of ecstasy when she knew that she could get freedom because her husband’s death. “There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled above the other in the west facing her window.” In this quotation the author used natural views to reflect Mrs. Mallard’s mental activity as the freedom was so close to her and she already saw a piece of it but the outsider world was still untouchable. She could only see things through a window showed that she was not satisfied about what she could get. Just like a bird lived in a cage, the freedom was so closed to Mrs. Mallard but that was hard-won even the bird was seriously harmed because the environment it exist could not accept to give the bird freedom and most of the society thought put the bird in the cage would be the best idea.…