Analysis Of Anna Deavere Smith's 'Fires In The Mirror'

This gives the audience many altered ways that they, personally, can interpret the play from. Allowing for many different opinions on a single passage whether they may be relevant or not. Out of many different perspectives, Marxist, has an important part within the play, separating the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ classes, creating a divide between the stereotype white people and the archetypal black culture. This perspective plays a vital role, beginning at the very start of the play right through till the closing stages. It sets the scene, making the divide between the two ‘different’ cultures, in which over the course of the play, slowly gets bridged with the uncovering of the forgotten stories, told by the Aboriginal Ex-servicemen. Bringing men closer together through the hard times that they had endured together. As the text starts, it begins with an easy to spot, element of Marxism, pushed by the white Vs Black component in the early stages of the book, with name calling and bullying. As the text continues, the element of Marxism is still present but less obvious, with the uncovering of lost and untold stories which bring the segregation between the two cultures of white and black, stereotype and archetype to an

The poem, “Hanging Fire,” by Audre Lorde was a very relatable and enjoying poem to read.

life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy Maxson, and his two sons, Lyons and Cory. By analyzing the sources of this conflict, one can better appreciate and understand the way the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.

A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry shows how people’s actions can be perceived as both good and bad. In this play, the Younger family is trying to achieve the American dream, “the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American”(cite dictionary.com). The Youngers are a black family living in a poor part of Chicago. The family inherits ten thousand dollars from a relative. Each family member has their own idea about how to use this money to fulfill their dreams. The play uses the decisions of the family members to make the reader think about what are the right choices. Mama is the matriarch of the family, and she wants to use the money to buy a house in a white neighborhood. She wants to move to this neighborhood because it is a better environment for her family. Lindor is a man who lives in the white neighborhood and he appears to make decisions for the benefit of the family. The decisions that Mama and Lindor make and the actions they take can be viewed as good or bad for both the individual and the community.

The origin of this novel stems from a time with great attitude changes within the African-American way of life. Tensions between gender specifically had begun to emerge, women, who were thought of as subservient, belonging to the house as well as to their husbands. During the timeframe of this story, women had been beginning to emerge with dignity, grace, and authority. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, during the 1950’s when the gap between genders had been shrinking, as women had been introduced further into society as more than just mothers. To most, this diminishing gap, to most would be a seamless concept, however, to the characters of this play would be a deciding factor for many conflicting scenes. The main characters of this play

The short story The New Mirror impressively uses elements of figurative language to express an account of the identity crisis faced by black Americans subjected to prejudice. While analyzing The New Mirror it is evident, the new mirror serves in a deeper context

The language in Fires in the Mirror, by Anna Deveare Smith, is a microcosm for the way in which language creates reality in every community.

the play are ―rich symbol[s]‖ that convey the barriers of a ―racist society‖ (Kenny par. 18). The

The family is faced with conflicts, particularly amongst the siblings as they seek to establish whose dream is superior. It becomes more difficult for Lena to make the right decision in the midst of the conflict because her wish is to please everyone. The play is about the black family that struggles with racial prejudice and economic hardship. The underlying importance of the play is in the way it shows the value of dreams, importance of family, and racial discrimination.

The play Rachel, by Angelina Grimké, reveals the harsh realities of life for an African American family living in the United States during the early part of the 20th century. Focused on the central character Rachel Loving, the play reflects each character’s reaction to racial prejudice against African Americans. The themes of motherhood and the innocence of youth are vital pieces of the issues Grimké wished to portray in her work. The development of Rachel herself revolves around her changing perception of what the role of motherhood might be. This insight stems from her understanding of the importance of child-like innocence towards the terrible truths of the world in which we are surrounded by. Through the use of poignant dialogue and

Though there was a heightened sense of tension over civil rights in the late 1950s when A Raisin in the Sun was written, racial inequality is still a problem today. It affects minorities of every age and dynamic, in more ways than one. Though nowadays it may go unnoticed, race in every aspect alters the way African-Americans think, behave, and react as human beings. This is shown in many ways in the play as we watch the characters interact. We see big ideas, failures, and family values through the eyes of a disadvantaged group during an unfortunate time in history. As Martin Luther King said, Blacks are “...harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what

How do you overcome adolescence? In the poem “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde tells a story about a teenager trying to cope with the difficulties and what ifs about her adolescent life. Lorde shows the speaker struggling with her appearance and the struggles of having no one to turn to and feeling alone during this stage of her life. With the problems the speaker has to face, she shows how a teenager would deal them. By having no patience when it comes to growing up, she wants the results fast and does not understand why she appears the way she does. The poem showcases many references of death, not wanting to wait to grow up and dealing with typical teenager problems. Such as, coming-of-age, family relationships and wanting to grow up fast.

When looking at the origins of African-American Dramas specifically in Mulatto, Native Son, A Raisin in the Sun, Funnyhouse of a Negro, Great Goodness of Life, and Dutchman, the emotions of all these characters created the sense that everyone in this time were still searching for their identity. Each character in the plays had to overcome difficulties relating to their skin color, thus causing either confusion or confidence in their search for what defines them as their self. It created internal conflicts and they often blamed society for specific expectations and stereotypes. How the characters decided to express their feelings in emotions demonstrates a sense of realism and how they viewed themselves. In each play, we are able to see how the characters deal with the searching of their identity through various emotions and internal conflicts through their life choices.

Racism, prejudice and stereotyping, as the main themes of the movie, control all the sub-stories that are somehow linked to each other. Moreover, as the stories go on and events develop, it becomes possible to see how characters start to have changes in their perspective and attitude towards each other, either in a good or a bad way. An incident which can demonstrate our thesis on racism and stereotyping and how it might change in just one moment which brings people closer could be shown as the conflict between the racist police officer and the African American woman who gets harassed by him, and whose life is saved by him on the next day. The first encounter of the woman and the officer resulted with the woman

In Douglas Crimp’s article the Photographic Activity of Postmodernism there are several terms that have been brought up over and over again. Presence is one of them, “presence that is only through the absence that we know to be the condition of representation.” It reminds me of one of my favorite photographers --- Francesca Woodman. She once said that “I allow you to see what you couldn’t see --- the inner force of one’s body.” She recreates a space that is simulating the relationship between the infant (the subject) and the mother’s body. The child was safe and content before the alienation, but a sense of lost and insecurity occurs after leaving the mother’s inner.