Preview

Book Review: 'Born in the Delta: Reflections on the Making of a Southern White Sensibility'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
598 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Book Review: 'Born in the Delta: Reflections on the Making of a Southern White Sensibility'
“Born in the Delta” The novel Born in the Delta: Reflections on the Making of a Southern White Sensibility, was written by Margaret Jones Bolsterli. Margaret Jones Bolsterli grew up in the Arkansas Delta on land that has been in her family for more than 150 years. Margaret Bolsterli is the author or editor of four University of Arkansas Press Books: Born in the Delta, During Wind and Rain, Vinegar Pie and Chicken Bread, and A Remembrance of Eden. Margaret taught Women’s Studies at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for 25 years, educating not just individuals but families. The novel, Born in the Delta: Reflections on the Making of a Southern White Sensibility, was about Margaret Bolsterli describing growing up in the Arkansas Delta during the 1930s and 1940s. She describes the southern history and its culture. Bolsterli particularly, describes white family life and community life in the Mississippi River Delta and consideration of what being a U.S. southerner means. Born in the Delta is a revelation and social analysis of what the south is like and it comprehends on Bolsterli bi-regional, bi-cultural, and international experience to interpret the south and where she lives now. In this book, Bolsterli also courageously confronts racial conflicts, violence, the Confederacy, and her own family secrets. In Born in the Delta, Margaret Bolsterli was trying say why as well as how Southerners are the way they are. She delivered this through each one of here themes. Bolsterli themes are the southerner’s strong sense of place, the penchants for stories rather than conversation; things rather than ideas; violence; blackness and whiteness as organizers of social relationship; manner the repressive functions of southern religion; respect for books and learning; special food in African and the Native custom; and the presence of the Civil War in the presence. Besides the Southerners' peculiar way of talking, by telling stories and intimating instead of stating ideas,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    During the course of Civil War people faced many different hardships and challenges. As the war began secessionist hopes were high and they had control over the unionist. However, as the war progressed this began to change. The men that fought for the Rebels were beginning to come home and the same was true for the men who fought with the Yankees. Since many of all these men lived in the same towns and fought for different sides during the war hostility broke out. Even though there was an enormous amount of hostility between the two sides they still had one thing in common, family. Through the lives of Louis Hughes, Cornelia McDonald, John Robertson, Samuel Agnew, one can see the importance of family through hard times and good times.…

    • 3240 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Langston Hughes was considered one of the principal and prominent voices of Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s and 1930s. His poetry encompasses heterogeneity of subject matters and motifs concerning working African-Americans who were excluded and deprived of power. His choice of theme was accentuated and manifested through the convergence of African-American vernacular and blues forms. My attempt is to analyze the implications of the most significant poems by first introducing the author, examining the relevance of the poems and then, contrast them with Richard Wright’s antagonistic perspective.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    2. The blacks did not like white people coming to Harlem to watch them in their clubs…

    • 253 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin Missouri. When he was very young his parents divorced and his father moved to Mexico so he was brought up by his grandparents and lived with them up until he was 13. When he was 13 he moved to Lincoln, Illinois to live with his mother and her husband. When Langston moved to Lincoln, that’s when he started to write. Later on the family decided to settle in at Cleveland, Ohio and Hughes graduates from high school there. Once, he graduated from high school Langston went to Mexico to visit his father for a little while and he at the time was working on his book “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and later on in 1923 the book was published.…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin reflects on suffering, and the ways. A tragic story of a troubled relationship between two brothers in Harlem, the tale is told from a perspective of Sonny’s brother, who’s name is kept secret throughout the story. Sonny’s brother is an algebra teacher, who while reading the newspaper, finds out his younger brother has been caught on a drug raid. The narrator is deeply troubled by the recent discovery. Pondering about Sonny’s condition leads the narrator to think about his students, and the hardships they face in an underprivileged neighborhood. At the end of the day the narrator is met at the gate of the school by an old friend of his brother, the man is a fellow addict. As they talk, the narrator feels guilty…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is a clear difference in European’s way of life and the Africans way of life. When the Europeans went into the African tribes, the native people have trouble in having to choose between the two because the European way of life looks down on the African way of life. In Between Tides, the main character, Pierre, is torn between his traditional community, the Catholic Church, the government, and the rebels. Each of these communities has different views and Pierre is having trouble fitting into one certain one because they all involve something he loves and things he doesn’t like. He was born into his traditional community and that is where his family is. He has trouble with the traditional practices that oppress women and doesn’t feel like…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mildred Taylor grew up in a time when segregation was far from gone. Although she lived in the North, she had daily reminders that being an African American meant you were the odd man out. She was born in Jackson Mississippi, but only spent the first three weeks of her life there. Her parents moved the family to Toledo, Ohio in hopes of less racism. Throughout her life she took many road trips back to Mississippi to learn about where her family had originated. There she saw the agonizing truth about racism, which gave her inspiration for writing her novels. She wrote many novels that expanded on Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, a story of Cassie Logan. She won the Newbery Award with this book and was a very successful individual.…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    socu

    • 1613 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The South has always been known for its agricultural economy, confederate tendencies, family pride , and delicate women in ruffled dresses . In the book To Kill a Mockingbird , Harper Lee, South family traditions become ostensible as a theme throughout the plot. This novel takes place in Alabama in the 1930s and tells the story of a lawyer who defends a black man wrongly accused trying to raise her two children, Scout and Jem, as they go through the learning phase of more active life . Ways South increase the plot of the story and give a realistic and historical perspective to the book. This interpretation of Southern culture appears in various forms of racism, hatred, humble women , and the family .…

    • 1613 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I researched the author, Lucille Clifton, and learned that she was an African-American woman who loved to write about African-American experiences. She grew up in Buffalo, New York which, during that time period, would definitely have some poor African-American families. I feel that Lucille was inspired by her childhood…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book is set in the South around the 1930’s. The book is about 14 year old Celie who is an uneducated African American women who experiences hardship, abuse, and rape by both her husband and stepfather who she believes is her real father. The book shows the trials black women had to go through and their suffering for people they love. Ms. Walker also won the Pulitzer Prize and National book award for Fiction in 1983.…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Hughes tells a story of the black man's evolution to America. The poem illustrates racial pride and dignity. Hughes uses symbolism, free verse, and tone to create a clear picture of in the poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers Hughes uses the use of symbolism to convey the story of his people.…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author, Alice Walker focuses on African American culture in this short story and how where you come from and family heritage is who you are, it is your identity. Using symbolism to identify family heritage, the irony of Dee to show how strong Maggie really is, and characterization to compare the two cultures.. J n n n n j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j jj j j j j j j j j jj j j j j j j jj j j j jj j j j jj j v v v v v v v v v v vv vv v v v vv v v v v vv v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The stereotypical role is that of a woman shall be dependent to man. In the play Blues from an Alabama Sky is well characterized by the Angel. Angel is someone that does not want to work. She wants to survive off of a man and that is her goal. Her goal is to marry someone that is well off so that se does not have to work.…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jackie Kennedy Onasis

    • 1810 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Though Janet Lee's family was well off, they were not members of the esteemed highest social caste as were the Bouviers. Janet lived her life with a constant sense of unease because of this difference in lineage.(Birmingham)…

    • 1810 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Hurt Man

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The short story “The Hurt Man” by Wendell Berry takes place on a hot Sunday afternoon precisely, in the late summer of 1888 in the town: Port William. It is a relatively small town, though it has all necessities as a school, church, bank etc. a town could need to function. Wendell Berry has written thirty-five short stories and eight novels and the setting in all of them is situated around or in the fictive town: Port William in Kentucky. They are always surrounding the four families: the Beechum, Feltner, Coulter, and Wheeler. This story is mostly about the Feltners, but the mother Nancy is from the family Beechum and is married into the Feltners – “Nancy Beechum Feltner”.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays