In chapter one of the book "The Duel" written by John Ellis, many different topics of how it all went down, and how the story actually went. Alexander Hamilton had expressed his feelings about Aaron Burr. I The duel was avoidable for sure, at least I think that. The Vice President of the United States wanted Hamilton killed. Hamilton thinks Burr is a venturesome man. In the end of the duel itself in the chapter, both Burr and Hamilton had suffered "casualties".…
It has been argued that Colin Kaepernick kneeling while the National Anthem is playing, is absolutely ridiculous, is not showing support for love of this country, and not showing support to the veterans. In “The Perilous Fight,” Jim Brown, a NFL Hall of Famer and a civil rights activist. Told Time, “I would not do anything that has to do with respecting the flag or the national anthem. I don’t think it’s appropriate.” In other words Jim Brown would challenge the normal of standing for the Anthem, no matter the severity of the situation. For this reason opponents argue that Colin Kaepernick kneeling down is not right for him to be testing the flag; but it’s not also right for the police of America to be able to go on a killing spree and have…
I think that most types of conflict is used to show the theme, what it means to become a ‘contender’ (by working hard, never giving up, and self-improvement) in Robert Lipsyte’s The Contender because Alfred learns this message and does the work to become a boxer. Evidence of this is when, "You have to start by wanting to be a contender, the man coming up, the man who knows there's a good chance he'll never get to the top, the man who's willing to sweat and bleed to get up as high as his legs and his brains and his heart will take him" (Lipsyte, 25). This shows a character vs. self conflict because Alfred is training everyday and making sure that he works as hard as he physically can. Alfred is so determined to help Aunt Pearl and the rest…
“I felt as if a king on his way to the gallows, my wife beheaded, children sold for horses, and my servants set free.” In the story The Fight by Adam Bagdasarian. The main character Adam is prideful and overconfident in the beginning, but throughout the story he wants to fly-by-night more and more. In the beginning of the story “The Fight” the protagonist Adam is overconfident and cocky. He talks to his friend, Kevin about fighting Mike even though he’s three inches taller than him.…
Amidst World War II, Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a speech delivered to 175,000 soldiers called, “Order of the Day.” In this speech, Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower encouraged his soldiers to defeat the Nazis, though at this time they were very powerful. In the poem, “Sonnet” by James Weldon Johnson, who had a vital role in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Johnson uses his poem to convey a strong feeling of courage and perseverance through the face of despair. Both Johnson and Eisenhower used juxtaposition to convey courage and to overcome adversity.…
There is no exception here with the short stories "Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison and "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty. These stories were written in the times when racism was a huge problem. Both these authors take the issue head on and really rub our faces in the truth. Along with the theme of racism, the stories tell us that a person who feels love towards someone or something will have a purpose in life and will strive to overcome any obstacle along the way. The themes in both Welty and Ellison 's are racism and the ability to overcome anything if you believe in it enough.…
Without Henry mentioning how Mr. Donatelli gave him a small job there, Alfred may not…
In Ralph Ellison’s, “Battle Royal” the protagonist is the narrator and the main character. He delivers the story to the reader in the form of a first person narrative. The narrator although black perceives himself as better than those of his race. His personality and the attitudes he exudes is exceedingly confident, blatantly arrogant and prideful. The reader is aware of this elevated sense of pride by observing the narrator’s actions/interactions with others and his thoughts.…
Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” (rpt. In Michael Meyer, The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 9th ed. [Boston: Bedford, 2011] 277) is a short story about realization and blindness. It is the first chapter from “Invisible Man” (1952) which was his only published book and won him the National Book Award in 1953. It’s about pleasing others to belong to a group and fighting to get to the top. It’s also about the narrator wanting to please the very people who looked at him as an inferior race through his determination, well educated, and bravery.…
The main purpose that Ellison is trying to show us is that even as we struggle and we finally win, injustice happens to us and takes all that is won away (252). The nameless protagonist is desperately hanging unto his last string of hope, the Bing Game (249). His love is dying because they don’t have the money to go see a doctor, he is famished and even hallucinating (246).…
The short story “Battle Royal,” written by Ralph Ellison, has a lot of symbolic meanings. It’s about a young African American teenager who had just graduated from High School, and his grandfather had also recently died. He was invited to give his graduation speech in front of a group of white men. He arrived and was told to participate in the battle royal that was to take place as entertainment for the audience. Before the fight started a nude dancer was put in the ring as a distraction. She was mistreated and thrown about the room violently. The boys were blindfolded and told to go at it. The young teen and one other boy were the only two left in the ring, but the other boy won. After the fight there was a rug with money on it to pay the boys…
Fighting conformity has been a struggle among Sci-Fi authors since the beginning of Science Fiction literature. This fight against conformity is prevalent in Harlan Ellison’s work “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman and Damon Knight’s work The Country of the Kind as the protagonists fight against the “perfect” society and some sort of authoritative power, as well as their struggle to stand up and be unique. Readers will be able to understand this with selected passages from each of these works.…
The speaker of “If we must die” is Claude McKAy. Claude McKay was a part of the harlem renaissance movement which is a group of African Americans who wrote and developed ideas together. McKay like a lot of the writers in the movement wrote about the prejudices their race had to face. Mckay comes off as a brave, noble, and inspiring man to those who read his poems. McKay most likely wrote this because there was a rise in hate crimes, race riots, and overall violence towards the black community. The poem begins with the speaker making it clear that him and his allies are under attack by using words like we and die. Then the poem shows the reader a more emotional side of the allies and how they want to die honorably by using starving dogs to show…
At the beginning when I started reading the poem “If we must die” I spent a long time thinking what does this poem mean and then I had to read it a couple of times to understand every sense of each word. Various question started running in my mind I became more interested in the poem as well as the writer. I tried to find out more information about the writer and different meanings for the poem. Indirectly, the poem clarify how black people were suffering from the way they were treated and how they were insulted. There is a very good point made throughout the poem and it doesn't matter what color you are. McKay was trying to say if it comes time for death will you not hold your honor until the last minute. Everyone should ask themselves if death comes your way will you fight until the end ? I’m sure the answer for most people is yes. It is better to try to fight for what you believe in and what you feel is honorable to yourself then leave the earth in an unrespectable way. Just like Mckay was trying to portray his feelings about this in his poem. In his poem Mckay said : “ If we must die, let it not be like hogs…
During this disastrous time, McKay wrote his best works, including “If We Must Die”. This extraordinary poem displays and defends black rights. Poetry formed the center of the Harlem Renaissance. McKay’s writing included racial issues and the working class.…