The poem David Talamantez on the Last Day of Second Grade by Rosemary Catacalos, and the song Gods Whisper by Raury are both similar in the matter in which the speaker is persistent on not conforming and values their self worth. Both speakers are outcasts because they don’t fit societal standards. The authors express how the protagonists cope through oppressive situations by diction and allegories. Raury uses his diction to express his stance on societal ideals throughout the song. In the first verse, Raury verbalizes, "I won't compromise/ I won't live a life/ On my knees"(1-3). The phrase "on my knees" has a customary connotation with surrendering. The meaning behind "I won't compromise" is the speaker vowing to not alter his disposition to fit the standards society has created for him. Raury continues to explain his position as the social pariah: the kid who's looked down upon and ignored out of disdain by adults. Although his situation seems daunting, the speaker is still able to encourage himself that he is worthy. Particular words he chooses throughout the song, like "Indigos" (18), have symbolism attached to them. He metaphorically describes …show more content…
The reader can infer that David doesn't come from the conventional household due to the first stanza. David has a single mother that works, implying he probably doesn't get much attention and hasn't been able to have obedience enforced onto him. Based on Catacalos word choice, David appears to be a troubled child who is insubordinate. At school he is constantly reprimanded for not meet standardized educational requirements. After analyzing the poem, the reader understands that David isn't simply an instigator, but a child that needs assistance. David is illiterate, but tries to do his assignments. If he were an absolute troublemaker, he wouldn’t make an effort in
David's mother got worse and she began to think of new ways to torture David. David was one of a few brothers, but only he was targeted. The other brothers pretended he wasn't even there. There was only one person in the family that still loved David was his father. David’s father would fight for David and would protect him from the mother. But, he would always lose. Whenever David's father went to work, David would get beat. Dave became the scapegoat for his mother's mistakes. David became a slave of the house and did all the chores. If he did not finish his chores with an unreasonable time, he did not receive dinner. David was starved for three days at a time. Once, David got stabbed by his mother for not completing her dishes. Whenever David came back from school his mother forced him to throw up to see if he got any food at school. This happened every
Your first thought is the love between the couple is toxic and lethal yet, he cannot resist his partner. But, really it is a reference to Cocaine. Cocaine is given a female voice. He uses personification by bringing the drug to life, where it can communicate with him and become part of his life. He knows that this “girl” meaning, Cocaine is going to be the death of him. While in use of Cocaine he gets numb. “But at least we’ll both be beautiful and stay forever young/ This I know, (yeah) this I know” (3-4). You say again, that he is singing about how the love is so very satisfying. But he is actually meaning that his desire for this young and beautiful woman makes him feel good. He feels as if he is invincible when he has her. Even though he seems to be aware of the consequences that come with feeling young and beautiful; with the use of Cocaine. “She told me, ‘Don’t worry about it.’/ She told me, ‘Don’t worry no more.’/ We both knew we can’t go without it/ She told me you’ll
David spends the first two chapters eavesdropping into the conversations of his mother and father. This way of finding information in itself is very juvenile but is the only way. Because of the eavesdropping, the information David hears is interfered by his childish ways for example “part of me said to leave, get away, run now before it’s too late before you hear something you can’t unhear.” This quote displays David’s naïve thinking. The naivety of David is also shown though his feeling towards his Uncle Frank, he sees Frank as the charming, town doctor and loving uncle. In David’s eyes, Frank can do no wrong, and when he does, he along with his father does not believe the allegations, “why are you telling me this” “are you telling me this because I’m Frank’s brother? Because I’m your husband? Because I’m Maries employer? He paused “or because I’m the
As an English teacher at Wellesley High School, in the accomplished community of Wellesley, Massachusetts, David McCullough, Jr. confronts the paradox of reality versus the popular assumptions perpetuated by well-meaning parents and delivered a shockingly poignant attack on the Wellesley High School graduates’ self-perception and preparedness. In addition, he outlined the parents’ role in creating and maintaining this deception. Mr. McCullough used his knowledge and insight of the Twenty-first Century youth culture, humor, and steadfast opinion that his target audience of high school graduates is aphoristically, NOT SPECIAL. However, Mr. McCullough limited his audience’s sensitivity to his assertion using ethics, logic and pathos and later provides a positive, passionate and humanistic world view of how to have a well-lived life.
When thinking of New York City, more often than not, the first things one visualizes is the beautiful skyline, the bright lights, and Times Square. But without a second glance, one might miss one of the important things about the city. New York is the most heavily Dominican populated city in the United States. It’s ironic that the first non-native American to migrate to and reside on what is today New York City, was from Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. Throughout history, Dominicans have migrated to the US in search of economic opportunity. This is the factor that influences nearly every immigrant group that migrates to the US in history. In the early 1900s, The United States and the Dominican Republic had a very close diplomatic relationship, to the point where the President considered annexation. At one point, the United States completely controlled the Sugar industry, one of the country’s most profitable markets.
Following these attacks David’s delusions dissipated. It seemed as if the demons had been feed and were in a dormant state. He moved from the Bronx to a two-family home in Yonkers. Here though the delusions would grow stronger and more elaborate. The Cassara family, whom he was renting from, owned a German Sheppard who was noisy and howled frequently. He would become David’s unrelenting torment. Inside this family’s dog lived a demon that was ordering David to go hunting for blood. This would drive him to the edge becoming even suicidal at one point. No longer able to bear he left the Cassara’s and moved to an apartment home in Yonkers. Here a man by the name of Sam Carr owned a black Labrador that would also torment David.
At the age of 5 years old, not only did he began to take showers with his father, but when they went to the beach club, his mother bathed him in the shower in the presence of other naked women. By the age of 6 years old, David noticed the power men had over women, “when a male entered the women’s side of the bathhouse, all the women shrieked”. (Gale Biography). At the age of 7 and 8 years old, he experienced a series of head accidents. First, he was hit by a car and suffered head injuries. A few months later he ran into a wall and again suffered head injuries. Then he was hit in the head with a pipe and received a four inch gash in the forehead. Believing his natural mother died while giving birth to him was the source of intense guilt, and anger inside David. His size and appearance did not help matters. He was larger than most kids his age and not particularly attractive, which he was teased by his classmates. His parents were not social people, and David followed in that path, developing a reputation for being a loner. At the age of 14 years old David became very depressed after his adoptive mother Pearl, died from breast cancer. He viewed his mother’s death as a monster plot designed to destroy him. (Gale Biography). He began to fail in school and began an infatuation with petty larceny and pyromania. He sets fires,
You can see is threw many symbols the author chosses to include. A symbol could be school. To many students school is dredded adn usually something they do not spacificlly look forward too. But for David un the early days of his abuse, school is a sanctuary for him. He kind of relys on it for safty because it is not safe at home , as well as food when he is beign starved. Yet after a while it starts resembaling his home life after his fellow classments beat him up as well and his teachers neglect to do anything after noticeing the abuse. Another symblol that may have shwoed how cirten situations acn effect a changeracter is the drift wood. In the memoir's epilogue, David watches a piece of driftwood being pulled in and out by the ocean waves. Like the drift wood it shows how his childhood was mainly spent figting agenst forces that kept pulling and holding him back, yet it fought or pushed through till it finally got to the
Throughout the story, his parents and grandparents do numerous horrible things to him. His grandmother abused him, his mother lied to him and was constantly mean towards him, and his father gave him cancer. David’s childhood was incredibly rough, and in order to make it feel a bit less overwhelming he painted the city of Detroit as the ‘bad guy’. In this story there are numerous examples of this ‘neglect’ and other tragedies David is faced with. For example in chapter two David discusses this neglect, “Around that time Dad must have gotten a promotion or a raise.
As a conquistador under the command of Hernán Cortes, Bernal Diaz witnessed some of Latin America’s most interesting and least chronicled history. He was fortunate enough to be one of a select few Europeans to experience the Aztec empire at its height and to visit Tenochtitlan prior to its downfall. In an era where personal accounts of the historical occurrences are almost nonexistent, Bernal Diaz’s The True History of the Conquest of New Spain provides virtually the only window into this period. As a result, his text has become the most significant historical document concerning the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Perhaps the most poignant excerpt from The True History of the Conquest of New Spain is Diaz’s detailed description of his first
b. What policies did he try to pursue, and what mistakes did he make as chief executive?
As Davis starts to tell about his life as a young boy in America, he lets us know about his mother dying far too young, and him being raised by his father and aunt. David's dad is stereotype of a man and their emotions. He and his son never have a close relationship. Even when David gets hurt in an accident, his father doesn't want him to cry. He wants him to be a man, a manly man and
Throughout the novel, David, the protagonist is abused and tortured several times by his very own father, Joseph Strorm and his recently discovered Uncle, Gordon. David’s father is a strict believer in his religion and is unyielding on the subject of mutations and blasphemy’s. If anyone neglects to follow his beliefs and rules, he has serious consequences for them, like with David, once Joseph found out that David knows a blasphemy, he immediately subjected to abusing him for answers. David’s father continues to beat him until he receives the information he demands. David has been abused more than once by his father and this is evident when David says, “I knew well enough what that meant, but I knew well too, that with my father in his present mood, it would happened whether I told or not. I set my jaw,
Though David represents a seemingly common boy at the time, he has several qualities that make him stand out. However, these character traits are never simply told to us. Instead, the implied author uses David’s actions, decisions, and beliefs to
This leaves the song open ended, with no set boundaries and allowed oneself to express and reveal individuality through interpretation.