I believe that Gloria Naylor’s article‚ “The Meanings of a Word” opens up the topic of personal experiences and how families will create their own meanings of words. The article stresses that as an adult‚ responsibility is to show children how to be kind and respectful through words and actions. If this responsibility is not fulfilled however‚ a child can become ill-mannered and begin to hurt others. For example‚ whatever way an adult says a word is how the child will interpret and use it and in
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author Gloria Naylor‚ wrote “Meanings of a Word” using illustration and in a descriptive manner while telling her story with a gifted influential tone. In my early years‚ late 60’s and 70’s this deplorable term defined throughout this reading‚ was a racial slur used by a family member in my home. Having a profound opinion about this word‚ I vowed never to utter this cruel and disgraceful word. Until this reading‚ I lacked an understand of why people‚ Black American’s‚ referenced by Gloria Naylor’s
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Michael Thompson SXS 667 – Reading Response Paper #3 ID# 909067827 July 3‚ 2013 In her essay La Frontera‚ Gloria Anzaldua provides a detailed history of the persecution of the Chicano settlers of the U.S. Southwest at the hands of their Anglo oppressors. Anzaldua refers to the Aztlan‚ the borderlands between the United States and Mexico encompassing parts of Texas‚ New Mexico‚ Arizona‚ and California‚ as a “vague and undetermined place created by the
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In Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera‚ she discusses the people who are in between – how people can’t be put into boxes. Anzaldua (1987) talks about embracing the in between and getting past cultural tyranny‚ which is where the culture forms what we believe about these certain identities. These identities‚ or boxes‚ that culture gives us consist of a number of different labels: male‚ female‚ white‚ black‚ Mexican‚ gay/lesbian‚ and straight. The list goes on and on. People are given these labels
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hustling to provide for her family inside and outside this economically poor household. These images and symbols that the Latina woman has had to deal with have been transferred into the social and educational sphere‚ limiting her opportunities. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza she discusses the various elements of her life up to adulthood and the adversities she had to overcome because of being an educated‚ gay Latina. Her journey is highlighted through the historical
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In the beginning of the work Mama Day by Gloria Naylor the reader is introduced to the three prefatory documents. The reader is completely unaware that the bill‚ a map of the island of Willow Springs and the family tree completely connect and contribute to the main theme and the entirety of the text in itself. It isn’t uncommon in novels for a map of the setting of the text to be present in the beginning of the work‚ it is generally present to allow the reader to visualize and understand the character’s
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Gloria Naylor writes of a community that is endowed with southern traditions and values that makes it hard to believe that she was born in New York and attended colleges in the North‚ Brooklyn College and Yale University‚ without mention of any southern connection when she wrote the novel Mama Day in 1993. The fluency of her pen gives a voice in southern literature through her love of land for Willow Springs‚ violence and turmoil in history of descendants‚ and race relationships throughout the community
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Of Mice and Men: Loneliness In what ways could this novel be seen as tragic? In Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men‚ Steinbeck illustrates the loneliness of the characters and the isolation of the characters in the Ranch and how they are driven to try and find friendship and escape loneliness. Steinbeck makes it clear that most the workers on the ranch are lonely‚ as working in a ranch is hard work and no one really wants to work really hard every day just to eat and survive‚ so you can say that
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It is no mystery that discrimination and stereotyping are two of the most prominent social issues in society today. Along with discrimination there come many words used negatively in which others are targeted. In Gloria Naylor’s essay‚ The Meanings of a Word‚ she discusses the idea in which words are essentially meaningless and that it is the person who uses them that brings meaning to the words they use. As everyone knows‚ there are many people that use words with bad intentions and they use their
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Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa is a notable Chicana feminist‚ cultural theorist‚ and activist because of her many contributions to social movements regarding minority women. Not only did she impact this “renaissance” for Chicana literature through her own writings‚ but she also encouraged other aspiring minority artists and writers to help expose the diversity that was rapidly growing in the United States. Personally‚ Anzaldúa interested me because of her efforts in promoting feminism‚ so I wanted to
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