In the poem “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall, the author describes how a daughter wants to go to a march happening in the streets, but her mother’s refuses because of the extreme acts of violence from the police officers when countering the protesters. Her daughter tells her mother that she is going to be with other infants who also want to attend the protest. However, her mother still insists on not allowing her to go, but instead tells her to go to church, where her safety is assured. The theme of violence plays a crucial part in the "Ballad of Birmingham." In the poem, the young girl wants to join in the marches happening in downtown, but her mother can’t let her go due to the threat of police retribution against protesters.
When the daughter asks her mother to let her go to the march, her mother’s reply is the description of the devices that police officers uses to counter the protesters. The mother is very reluctant towards her daughter’s decision of joining the march happening on the streets of Birmingham. According to Randall, the mother describes the outcomes of the march as the following, “For the dogs are fierce and wild, / and clubs and hoses, guns and jails / Aren’t good for a little child” (6-8). These lines are reflecting the fear that African-American women are facing during such events. They are opposed towards the idea of going to the march because they understand what the outcomes will be, facing the violence from the police officers. Moreover, the
In the book March Book One the people of Nashville chose to stage the sit-ins to protest the segregation between blacks and whites. They chose to sit and wait to be serve and they wouldn’t leave until they were served. They had to learn how to protest without violence and spend many hours practicing by humiliating each other and learning how to protect themselves when attacked.
Ensign “Peewee” Cobb in “Alas, Babylon” comes across as the hotheaded American pilot who sparked a nuclear war between the United States and Russia. When pursuing an unidentified aircraft, Cobb fired a missile and missed, blowing up the Syrian harbor Latakia. Because he was convinced he had to prove himself, Cobb impulsively continued tailing the aircraft instead of retreating back to headquarters. While I have never reached the level of foolishness Cobb exhibited, I do sometimes feel a need to prove myself. Pat Frank seems to use Cobb’s recklessness to illustrate the fact that impetuous actions yield negative effects.
In 'Ballad of Birmingham,' Dudley Randall illustrates a conflict between a child who wishes to march for civil rights and a mother who wishes only to protect her child. Much of this poem is read as dialogue between a mother and a child, a style which gives it an intimate tone and provides insight to the feelings of the characters. Throughout the poem the child is eager to go into Birmingham and march for freedom with the people there. The mother, on the other hand, is very adamant that the child should not go because it is dangerous. It is obvious that the child is concerned about the events surrounding the march and wants to be part of the movement. The child expresses these feelings in a way
The threat of nuclear warfare has been a fear tactic used multiple times to settle issues between countries. In Pat Frank’s Alas Babylon, Frank focuses on Fort Repose, a small community in rural Florida. Frank centers the time frame on the height of the Cold War between Soviet Russia and the United States. Opening on how connections can save lives and change lives. Randy Bragg and the town of Fort Repose is dealt a lucky hand when Randy’s brother, Mark, a military man tips Randy off to the threat of a nuclear strike. Mark disguises the warning through a telegram telling Randy that Mark’s wife, Helen, and two children, Peyton and Ben Franklin, will be coming down to visit also asking Randy to meet him at the Base Ops McCoy in Orlando at
In today’s day and age, social and racial injustice has become incredibly relevant. But, protest does not spur out of thin air. It has been deeply rooted into our society for years, and this is evident through The Street by Ann Petry. The novel encompasses multiple scenes where injustice, both social and racial, take place. Petry emphasizes these injustices with scenes where a black man is willing to find any way out of the draft and also when a child is framed for a crime out of spite. Displays like these, along with the tone, affirm the necessity for protest novels such as The Street.
Throughout the course of the book, A Long Way Home, Saroo Brierley, the author, encounters a series of traumatic experiences that lead to bittersweet moments. Unlike a normal child’s infancy, Saroo was physically and mentally consuming. Through his experience, we are able to get a glimpse of the many struggles and hardships young children live in India daily. His petrifying experiences of living on the streets, Liluah, and Nava Jeevan finally lead to his safe haven of being taken by the Brierley’s.
Ballad of Birmingham, written by the poet Dudley Randall relives a tragic moment in time in which four little girls died when a church was purposefully exploded. This poem is based on the incident that occurred in Birmingham, Alabama. This poem vividly shows the perspective of a mother losing her child. Most of the poem includes a mother daughter discussion regarding the participation of the freedom march. The mother explains to her daughter that it is far too dangerous for her to be participate, therefore she sends her daughter to church, where she believes that she would be safe. The mother later hears of the explosion and runs over to find out that her daughter had been killed by noticing her daughter’s shoe on the ground. In Ballad of Birmingham, Dudley Randall uses voice, imagery, and sound to show how the tragic event revolves around a theme of racism/mother’s love, which most readers can empathize to.
Since 1963, there are many movies, shows, books, and poems that are dedicated to this horrific event to commemorate the loss of the four girls and their families. During that time period, it is imperative that we know and understand where we came from and remember the people that dedicated their life to help us get our freedom. In the poem, a mom has to tell her daughter that she can’t participate in the march, but she has to go to church and same goes with the film. Families took their faith very seriously and not going to church was never an
The Boys of Summer, a non-fiction book of baseball, written by Roger Kahn. Who tells a wonderful heart aching tale of a simple stick and ball game that helped start the development to push Americans (generally the white population at the time) to change what the country claims to be, a free and fair non-prejudice country that gives “everyone” their own rights/opportunities. Jackie Robinson, America’s first African American to play on a Major Baseball league. He was the first colored-skinned to ever make history not only in the game of baseball. Robinson ignited a spark that sent Americans (mostly the white population) dumbfounded, that a “nigga” a dark colored-skinned individual was more than just a janitor. This book transcends the generation gap as Kahn recaps his boyhood in Brooklyn, his young career as a writer following the Brooklyn Dodgers, and a follow-up of the certain members of the Brooklyn Dodgers during post-playing days. As Kahn nostalgically narrates his story of the transformation of the Brooklyn Dodgers, a dead team who came back to life to make a major impact on the country, to a becoming dead of the last time. Reveals the theme that race play a huge role on American’s reaction to the Brooklyn Dodger, Jackie Robinson, and the aftermath to letting a “Negro” into a white man sport.
During Mr. Rosenberg’s leave we learned different dramatic elements such as script analysis, stasis and intrusion, dramatic conflict, etc. This helps us to understand the different elements so one day when we have to apply the elements we will already be mindful of them. Additionally, we also learned about the beginning of theater dating back to ancient Greece and their different ways of displaying theater.
The Ballad of Birmingham resembles a traditional ballad in that it tells a story in a song-like manner. The didactic tone seeks to teach us something; in this case it’s the theme of needless destruction. There are many devices the author uses to create such a tone and to tell such a story.
Since the beginning, humans have enslaved or mistreated their fellow humans. Whether it is a matter of race, gender, religion, or otherwise, humans commit horrible crimes against each other simply because they are different from one another. However, throughout history, humans have also protested this abuse. Over time, the mistreatment stops if enough people protest it. This cycle of injustice and protest becomes a recurring theme in Mildred D. Taylor’s historical fiction novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. [Needs summary] In the novel, the nine-year-old African-American narrator Cassie endures injustices such as racial epithets in her textbook, a racist bus driver, and a sadistic twelve-year-old white girl. But there will be protest against all of these, and Cassie will learn valuable lessons from each of them.
Dudley Randall’s “Ballad of Birmingham” is a look into the effects of racism on a personal level. The poem is set in Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The tone of the title alludes to the city of Birmingham as a whole. The poem gives the reader, instead, a personal look into a tragic incident in the lives of a mother and her daughter. The denotation of the poem seems to simply tell of the sadness of a mother losing her child. The poem’s theme is one of guilt, irony, and the grief of losing a child. The mother feels responsible for the death of her child. The dramatic irony of the mother’s view of church as being a “safe haven” for her child is presented to the reader through the mother’s insistence that the young girl
The tragic poem, “The Ballad of Birmingham,” begins with a young child asking an imploring question to her mother, “May I go downtown instead of out to play” (Randall, 669)?
Memories can last a life time, so we tend to only remember the extraordinary ones. Extraordinary like the essay “The Yellow Ribbon” by Pete Hamill, in which he talks about how a person named Vingo, was riding on a, bus recently released from jail, to this oak tree explaining to some passengers that he had told his wife to leave him if she wanted, since he went to jail or to go to this oak tree and tie a yellow ribbon around it to see if she wants him to stick around and he will go and check it out. In the end, he saw hundreds of ribbons tied on to the tree. Not only is this an amazing story, but also very unforgettable one as well, because he finds out that after four years in jail his wife has enough love for him to go to this tree and tie hundreds of ribbons just to show the type of love the women had for Vingo. I have to say that, I believe this story is truly unforgettable, but I also got a story that is very extraordinary, like the time that I got my very first car. Furthermore, I didn’t just get a car, I got the love of two truly loving parents.