When you were eight years old, what were you doing? Maybe building a snowman with your friends in the winter, running through sprinklers in your backyard…
My Grandmother Would Rock Quietly and Hum by Leonard Adame is a remembrance of his grandmother who was an important part of his childhood. Through the memories of his dead grandmother he is able to show the readers his appreciation and love toward the beloved and kind Mexican deceased.…
“How do we know we exist?” An ancient question of epistemology, yet a question we have yet to find a concrete answer to. Some philosophers propose that events only occur if they are sensed by consciousness. However, this definition created a period-transcending question, “What happens if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to sense it?” Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek considers the presence of God in all elements of nature and the intricacy of creation; this context creates an environment for an enlightening faith-based response to this question.…
“If you’d care to hold on, I’ll check our records – it’ll be a few minutes.”…
The autobiography “Coming of Age in Mississippi,” by Anne Moody is the story of her life as a poor black girl growing into adulthood. Moody chose to start at the beginning - when she was four-years-old, the child of poor sharecroppers working for a white farmer. In telling the story of her life, Moody shows why the civil rights movement was such a necessity, she joined the NAACP to be a rebel, an also showed the depth of the injustices they suffered.…
Anne Moody learned about the importance of race early in her life. Having been born and raised in an impoverished black family from the South, she experienced first-hand the disparity in the lives of Whites and Blacks.…
Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi is a narrated autobiography depicting what it was like to grow up in the South as a poor African American female. Her autobiography takes us through her life journey beginning with her at the age of four all the way through to her adult years and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. The book is divided into four periods: Childhood, High School, College and The Movement. Each of these periods represents the process by which she "came of age" with each stage and its experiences having an effect on her enlightenment. She illustrates how important the Civil Rights Movement was by detailing the economic, social, and racial injustices against African Americans she experienced.…
Annie Dillard's memoir, An American Childhood, details the author's growing up years and gives the reader many insights into herself. Dillard describes many of the things that molded her during her childhood years, including family, humor, nature, drawing, and sports. At various times during her childhood, Dillard's entire world revolves around one or another of these interests, and each of them shape her personality. Although Dillard's many passions influence her life incredibly, it is reading, however, that most molds her childhood worldview. Reading opens the doors through which she eagerly steps, her curiosity prompting her to endless discoveries in books.…
In todays world we have a surplus of trees, fresh water, and air, atleast for the most part. Although, this might not be guaranteed at all for the future generations to come, if we do not take our home into consideration. Earth, is a beautiful home formed into existence for us to realm, grow amd prosper. Now could it possibly be that man has truly forsaken this vast prosperous land and overturned it for the use of his own benefits?…
The book Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s by Frederick Lewis Allen recounts all the events leading up to the stock market crash in 1929, beginning with the end of World War I in 1918. The story, told chronologically, contrasts the changing social and political views of the American people throughout the “Roaring Twenties,” as the time period came to be known. Allen makes history enjoyable, vividly describing the creases in Al Capon’s shirt and the painted faces of the young generation.…
In Alice Walker’s essay “Childhood” she tells her daughter about traditions. Traditions are defined as the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth or by practice. Walker uses the harvest to tell the story of traditions, and how she learned the traditions. She was taught traditions by her family trough their work habit. Her family worked on a farm when she was a child, and passed those traditions on to her. Walker uses potatoes as an example of the harvest. She asked her daughter if “she knew what potatoes looked like when they were dug out of the ground”. Walker’s daughter was unsure what the potatoes looked like, so Walker decided she would show her the next morning before heading back to the city. Her daughter thought that watching her mother dig the potatoes out of the ground was extraordinary. Then Walker started thinking of her childhood, and the enthusiasm that went along with what she is teaching her daughter. She says “When I think of childhood at its best, it is of this magic that I think”. She then goes on to talk about how amazing her family was by saying “Of having a family that daily worked with nature to produce the extraordinary”. She puts a lot of emphasis on the word “magic” and how being in the country is magical. I can relate with Walker when she says that the country is magical because I too am from the country. Being in the city I don’t feel as free as I want to. In the country I am able to do more of what I want. In the country, everything is fresher, I can see the stars, and everyone around me is friendly. I think Walker wants to pass on the traditions that she learned from her family on to her daughter, so she can pass them on to her children.…
"Mother to Son", published in 1922 by Langston Hughes, was one of the most famous poems he had written. Hughes was African-American and was born in 1902. While living in the 1900's Hughes and his family experienced the hardships of racism, discrimination, and slavery. Therefore, this poem is not only words of encouragement from a mother to a son, but also words of encouragement to the entire African American community. This poem of inspiration let the community know that the difficulties that they all had to endure at the time were felt by all and that they were not alone in the struggle. Hughes wrote this from the standpoint of a mother encouraging her son to keep going no matter what hardships he may experience. She explained that life is hard and he is not the only one who has had to endure the experience of life's hard lessons.…
An American Childhood, by Annie Dillard, is a happy memoir of Annie's own life, a child of a well-to-do Pittsburgh family. The activities she had as a child, such as piano lessons and dance class, show her family’s wealth. Instead of having to work as a child she shares stories of fun and learning. This is illustrated on page 30, where she is describing the night when her family saw Jo Ann Sheehy skating on the street. As she is talking about how Jo Ann was “turning on ice-skates inside the streetlight’s yellow cone of light” Annie describes her home and family. Annie stood at the window and watched Jo Ann Sheehy and said she expected her to get hit by a car any second. Annie had always thought that if anyone wanted to skate they would just go to a nearby skating rink where they were not in danger of getting hit by a car. The street was the only rink the girl was able to have. Dillard remembers much of her childhood and doesn't hesitate to tell us a bit of it. Author Flannery O'Conner once said, "any novelist who could survive her childhood had enough to write about for a lifetime." This was most certainly the case for Dillard.…
Helen Keller’s, “The Story of My Life” is a look of her early life and how she remembers it. She describes how she became blind and deaf, her early life, her family, and how she communicated despite her disabilities. Although she was timid about writing her life story, she becomes very creative and more open as she grows older and writes more of her story. Even though she can remember very little of things she saw and heard, she describes everything in much detail.…
Most Americans grow and dream of their ‘American Dream’; however, but do most Americans stop to think if they are following a bandwagon or an unnecessary tradition? Joyce Carol Oates refers to her characters as them in her 1969 novel them. The Great Depression was a time when women especially, desired to have a spouse and family to take care of. Throughout the novel, some of Oates’s characters, such as Loretta, become one of them by achieving a certain aspect of their American Dream. Thus, Joyce Carol Oates’s philosophy of writing novels, essays, and short stories as versatile and violent influences the way she depicts Detroit between 1930-1960, and her toils and triumphs of her life.…