Book Analysis : ' I Lost My Tooth '

While reading Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Katherine Dettwyler, all you can think is “what if I had had to live in a culture like this?” Katherine Dettwyler is an ethnography that primarily study how children feeding and weaning customs, and continuing malnutrition directs to a higher likely hood of children being more likely to perish from life threatening childhood illnesses, for example: malaria, tetanus, diarrhea, diphtheria, kwashiorkor, marasmus and measles in Mali. She also talked about a wider array of topics ranging from culture shock, breastfeeding, population control, child care, female circumcision, women’s role in the house and communities, and the dangers of fieldwork. This novel really makes you think about what it would be like to live in a world without common knowledge of disease and how to prevent them. It also really gets your attention about the different culture customs, for example female circumcision, I feel like that would be a culture shock to any American.

Andrea Roman tells her story, “We’re Not…,” to demonstrate how Bolivian culture has influenced her life. In her essay she informs the reader about the many things her mom, a native Bolivian, would scold her for. These atrocious acts included: borrowing sweaters, doing homework on Sundays and wanting to attend sleepovers. None of these things would be judged as wrong in America, they are American customs or traditions that Roman tried to follow. Roman followed these, unknowingly disrespecting her family’s Bolivian values. David Sedaris wrote “Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa” to share his dissatisfaction of growing up in America after he heard about Hugh’s adventures of growing up on the continent of Africa. In his essay he shared the many adventures Hugh, his boyfriend, experienced while living his exciting life in Africa. In America many of Hugh’s adventures would have been harshly judged and considered as wrong. Hugh does many things that Sedaris can only dream of doing. David Sedaris’ “Remembering my Childhood on the Continent of Africa” and Andrea Roman’s “We’re Not…” are told with a similar style but the audience receives different messages from each of them.

The first example of discrimination which causes a huge problem is the discussion of race. Even though the book is written based in the nineties, it was still

There are many more examples of un-equality as you near the end of the book. The three main characters spend the whole book trying to get to a “Refugee Camp” for survivors and those who are scared and need the safety it promises. Once there it becomes apparent that it is no safer or nicer in the Camp as it is anywhere else. In my opinion, reading this back from cover to cover will definitely change you, the main idea and several other smaller themes of this story are… surprising. You will never know the unfairity of living like that until you have either been put through it (something I would not want to do) or read about it, it shows how horrible the world can be if you are different and how terrible it can be, even to those whose innocence is greater than most others.

In the book, a lot of racial stereotypes are found because of the fact that, in that time period, equality was not a thing. So for that reason, the author decided to discuss racism along with other things based on this time period. One example from the novel is the

Prejudice is one of the world’s greatest struggles. It does not only hold society back, but is harmful to the people who do good .In Harper Lee’s book To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout and Jem live through and witness prejudice and racism in the small town of Maycomb. They see someone wrongly accused of a crime because of his race. Scout and Jem also witness and take part in prejudice against a man no one knows anything about. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee uses characterization to show the negative effects of prejudice and racism.

Novelist Chimamanda Adichie brings into consideration to Keim discussion, by emphasizing the connection between a “single story” and “stereotypes” regarding the subject of Africa. One of the dangers Adichie includes in her discussion are individuals being denied the opportunity to tell their story. Adichie draws similarities to Keim when discussing her own personal journey to find her authentic cultural voice, and she emphasizes the many misunderstanding that society, including herself, have made. Adichie admits to not only facing stereotypes, but addresses her own opinion regarding the topic. Adichie admits that as a child, she had initial biases regarding a servant that was employed by her family. According her explanation, she believed that the capability of someone “the servants family” coming from a certain background, made them incapable of such artistry. The same misconceptions can be seen in present day society, we often are prejudiced on who or what can be cultured.

Introduction Prejudice refers to the judgements towards a person because of their race, social class, age, disability or sexual orientation. (Cherry, “What is Prejudice?”) Prejudice was, and still is, to a large extent experienced by people all over the world. It is a theme that is presented in so many works of literature in a plethora of different ways. One of the most prominent ways in which prejudice is explored is through the use of characters that perhaps are a different nationality or have a different orientation to the majority of the other characters in the works. Two texts, in which the theme is presented in an admirable way , are ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, and ‘Jasper Jones’ by Craig Silvey. Through the use of the

-There is a lot of racism in the book because of the time period it takes place in

My room-mate had a single story of Africa; a single story of catastrophe”. Adichie also tells how growing up in Nigeria reading only American and English children’s books made her deaf to her authentic voice. As a child, she wrote about such things as blue-eyed white children easting apples, thinking brown skin and mangos had no place in Literature. That changed as she discovered African writers.

Prejudice should not exist in this world. But unfortunately, it does and it always will somehow. The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is an inspiring book and brings out hard truths about how the world used to be, about the great depression, and in some aspects how it still is today. It follows a girl named Scout and her family through three years of her childhood. Her father, Atticus Finch, took on a very big challenge to defend a negro for raping a girl. The book sort of revolves around this event. Prejudice is in many different forms of discrimination. Throughout the book it is demonstrated by race, class, and gender.

Prejudice is seen throughout the world in many forms even after the Civil Rights Movement. To Kill a Mockingbird shows the extreme prejudice that African Americans were faced with at that time period. This book shows prejudice through character interactions.

Prejudice is something which has affected everyone at one time or another. It is like looking out a frosted window and not seeing a clear picture. When people look through a frosted window they sometimes see a blurred vision of the world outside. Sometimes we see people as very different from ourselves when really they are just a very little bit different from us. We can even see someone as an enemy instead of for who they really are. These narrow minded views in our society are prevalent, even though most of the time they are

Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” share a common theme of the expectations of ones heritage. For instance “Everyday Use” explores cultural norms of cultural practices. Dee and Mama argue over whether the family heirlooms should be preserved or used. While “Girl” focuses on the strict culture norms of what it means to be a respected women in her environment. The girls’ mother has a set of rules that her daughter must obey so she can be viewed positively. “Everyday Use” and “Girl” challenge the norm of their time. “Everyday Use” which was published in 1973 goes against thoughts held during the black power movement regarding cultural preservation. “Girl” which was published in 1978 argues that girls should not have to follow the social norm to be respected. Both stories challenge the commonly held beliefs of their time.

Mr. Mdeouze influenced Jose to write that incredible story. He told him enough stories to open up his imagination and produce a beautiful paper. Mr. M taught Jose the power of language. For extra credit for this class, I listened to an interesting lecture about African Storytelling. This is what Mr. M reminded me of. Traditional storytelling is usually told by adults and spoken to children about life, rewards, and consequences. The fables are usually metaphorical stories that have to do with lessons children will learn in their daily lives. While Jose listened to Mr. M’s