Family, By Lee Herrick

Individuals should learn to accept themselves for who they are, not what society wants them to accept. As we continue to evolve, we build up our own characters, and they are typically a mix of the ethnicity and culture we inherit from our family, various encounters in our life, distinctive identity and personality we have. Our character and identity is not something that we get easily, it's an intricate process. The story “The Other Family” by Himani Bannerji is based on a mother and a daughter who immigrates to Canada. They belong to a black family, but after the immigration they are living in the dominance of the white society.The school is considered as the hegemony of Canada and teacher is considered as the mainstream, it is a sort of social institution that a hegemony shape but they does not know the awareness of marginalized groups. The mother feels anxious when she sees a drawing of a white family by her daughter. It was the misperceptions of the kid that lead to forget her identity or she was too small to identify it. So to examine about the identity of the marginalized individual the beginning is to focus on the quality of the education. It is necessary for every school system to teach equality and inclusions of every group status so that the marginalized group are not left isolated from the society. Secondly, the fear of the marginalized parents from losing their kids in the mainstream society shows their lack of confidence in their own cultural pride. Since

Discuss how your investigation of the generic conventions of poetry has influenced your understanding of at least one poem that you have studied in this unit.

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” Jim Rohns quote highlights the basis of Debra Oswald’s play Gary’s house, and also Miroshav Holubs poem The Door. This essay will explore the notion that change causes people to shift their thinking and actions after significant catalysts. Gary’s House illustrates many of the issues and predicaments confronted by the characters and how their alteration in behaviour can have a beneficial outcome for them or others around them. The concept of "The Door" is based on the idea of taking risks and embracing change. The poet uses persuasive techniques to encourage and provoke the audience to take action.

The Short Story “My Father’s Life,” by Raymond Carver illustrates the difficult task of a son trying to find his own sense of identity and individualism while watching his father’s life unravel. Carver explores the relationships of his parents and his own struggle with sharing the same name with his father and the similarities and differences between them.

The poem “Mothers and Daughters” is written by Pat Mora. Pat Mora is a contemporary award winning writer, who writes for children, youngsters and adults. She was born in El Paso, TX in the year 1942. She attains a title of a Hispanic writer; however, the most of her poems are in English. In her literary work, one can observe the different aspects of the immigrants’ lives such as language issues, family relationships, immigrants’ experiences and cultural differences (1187).

Words and actions have a large impact on the way you work with the world around you, they have the ability to make you feel indescribable emotions in every way. The poem “Little Boy,” written by B.H. Fairchild begins as a young boy questions his father’s hurtful past, as the speaker demonstrates that he asked the questions as he would’ve asked if he ever saw “Dimaggio or Mantle,” and develops into an examination of a lifeless relationship between father and son. In the poem the little boy’s persistent focus on the father’s brutal past reveals a case of PTSD from his involvement in WWII, and how it affects the advancement of an already bad and unsteady and unchanging relationship of a father and son.

My mother, Lisa Dawn Hicks Kern, was born at Wadley Regional Medical Center, Texarkana, TX, on Sunday, June 15, 1969. Her father, James Kenneth Hicks, was 28 at the time of my mother’s birth; he was employed at Red River Army Depot as an electrical engineer. Her mother, Sharon Lee Clark Hicks, was 25 when my mother was born, at the time she was the home maker. My mother had an older sister who was a four year old toddler at the time of my mother’s birth. Kimberly Ann Hicks was born at Wadley Regional Medical Center, Texarkana, TX, on Monday, August 30, 1965.

A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash definitely fits the category of “grit lit.” It is a novel about the Hall’s, a family who is wracked with grief, anxiety, and guilt after the ‘mysterious’ death of one of their sons, Christopher or Stump. The story encompasses more than just the story of the family though as it is told from the perspective of Adelaide Lyle, an old wise woman from the town, Jess Hall the youngest son of the family, and Clem Barefield, the sheriff of Marshall who also had heartache of his own that is intertwined with this families story in more ways than one. The novel incorporates most if not all of the features that is “grit lit” including: an element of crime, a focus on the bleakness of life, lyrical language, and a central character who wishes to escape their environment or get peace inside it.

Through my understanding of the book, Homeward Bound by Elaine Tyler May explores two traditional depictions of the 1950s, namely suburban domesticity and anticommunism. She intertwines both historical events into a captivating argument. Throughout the book, May aims to discover why “Post-war Americans accepted parenting as well as marriage with so much zeal” unlike their own parents and children. Her findings are that the “cold war ideology and domestic revival” were somewhat linked together. She saw “domestic containment” as an outgrowth of frights and desires that bloomed after the war. However, psychotherapeutic services were as much a boom then as now, and helped offer “private and personal solutions to social problems.” May reflects her views on the origin of domestic containment, and how it affected the lives of people who tried to live by it.

Set against the backdrop of the Californian Gold Rush of the 1850s, The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt follows the lives of two brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters. The Sisters Brothers tells the story of these infamous assassins who are on a journey to San Francisco to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm. Warm appears to be a subtle man, who is accused of stealing from their boss, a formidable figured named the Commodore. As the brothers continue on with their journey, they come across many people from all walks of life: a weeping man, gold-digging prospectors, a young-naïve boy, and a dentist. Although the brothers don’t realize it, these individuals help the brothers perceive the world in a completely different way. Not to mention, they change the way the novel is bestowed. The brothers eventually end up at their final destination in San Francisco from Oregon City, where they realize that their adventure has actually just begun. After several eye-opening incidents, the brothers begin to question their jobs, and the true meaning of their lives.

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, the author of Random Family, depicts a diverse perspective of unpleasant life experiences people suffer from within ghetto communities. Although Random Family was not my choice to read, I am privileged to have read this remarkable book as it conveys distinctive similarities that accurately represent the male populace who live in underprivileged urban communities. To expand on the earlier mentioned, young men who cohabitate in ghetto communities often have relatives who actively influence their participation in gangs, drug sells, and incarceration. As I read the book, I became conscious of the chapter headings as it correlates with the endeavors that young males face of a lower socioeconomic status. For example, chapter titles such as The Street I, Lock Down II, Upstate III, House-to-House IV and Breaking Out V represent the struggles young men face at a micro-level (Strong & Cohen, 2014, p. 51). Random Family conveys the message that men in ghetto communities is unable to overcome the adversities associated with the street life; however, this message is untrue as there are men who have prevailed over the life they inherited becoming successful individuals and not allowing themselves to become victims of their environment.

In the book Half Brother, by Kenneth Oppel, Ben Tomlin is a very thoughtful person because he is considerate, caring, friendly, and kindhearted. Ben Tomlin, the main character in the book, lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada with his mom, dad, and a chimpanzee, Zan. Some things about Ben is that he has curly hair, he likes to play Risk and pinball, and he does cross-country and photography. First of all, Ben is a thoughtful person because he is considerate of others, especially his friends and family. An example that proves this is can be found in Half Brother, by Kenneth Oppel on page 371, said by Ben. “I paused, because this part was hard to admit. ‘I didn’t love you at first, Zan. I thought you were weird, and I guess I was jealous, and sometimes I didn’t want you at all. But that didn’t last long. You were my little brother. I really felt that. That was never fake.’” This quote explains that even though Zan is a chimpanzee, Ben still loves him because he cares for him and wants what’s best for Zan, which is a family. Another time where Ben shows his thoughtfulness by being considerate of others is when he understands why Zan is being crazy. Even though Zan is fooling around and he can’t stop him, he is not mad at Zan because he knows that Zan is an animal after all, even though his family is raising him like a human. He knows that Zan is only having his temper tantrum and he knows that he can’t stop him because he is an animal, not a human. In Half Brother, by

There is a big connection between our family and our identity. Family shapes us into the person we become and takes a big part in developing our identity. No matter if their influence is life changeable or not, their presence in our lives is enough to create changes. In the book, Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez described his life as a Mexican-American trying to adapt to the new ways of life and how this has cause him to become distant with his family. On the other hand, in the essay, “The Love of My Life”, the author Cheryl Strayed discussed the affects her mother’s death had on her and her outlook in life. Both authors can relate in terms of the importance of how family helps in shaping one into the person they become. Although identities can be self-built, our families are important in the process because they provide the support needed to build and find identity.

In Meredith Small’s article Our Babies, Ourselves she focuses on people’s social and psychological development through examining the different cultural aspects of raising a child. During this process she compares the American perspective of treating babies, to those of the Gusii and the Dutch. Throughout her examination many points are made that I believe can give the reader’s a valuable understanding of the impact of different means of parenthood on a child’s future development.

In the book Life is so Good, George Dawson and Richard Glaubman give a very rare representation of life in the early 1900s. George Dawson, a poor and illiterate black man tells life as it is through his experiences. These many life experiences are portrayed in new stories told chapter by chapter intrigue the reader of the book. This paper will review Dawson’s many stories and his perspective on life at the time, as well as the way his views and mindset compares to the philosophy of African Americans at this time.