Gathering Blue-Lois Lowery

The author of “Still I Rise” is Maya Angelou, a well-known poet, author, and civil rights activist. This poem is about a poet who struggles to meet the social pressure and injustices of her time. Her poetry thus concentrates on two kinds of oppression – both racial oppression, and sexism. Amidst the challenges and adversities, she managed to survive and successfully claims that she will not be broken nor will she be defeated no matter how many times she is brought down by society. In this poem “Still I Rise”, I will be looking at critical works by Sandra Cookson, R. B. Stepto, and Lyman B. Hagen and stating why I agree with them.

The first thing one should know about dictatorship is what laws the citizens have to follow. For example, in North Korea, citizens are not allowed to leave their country without the regime's permission. (The People's Challenges - Liberty in North Korea) Should North Koreans leave their country without permission, they are subject to many harsh punishments, which can include death. Also, if a North Korean is reported for criticising the regime, or North Korea’s Dictator, Kim Jong Un, the punishment would affect the whole family. (The People's Challenges - Liberty in North Korea) In

Communist had a long history during the 20th century, and communism was very influential. Almost all of Asia and East Europe became Communist. From the start of the theory then many civil wars in Russia affected the whole world. Communist defined the idea of itself in many different ways, it helps many nations came together formed a party fought wars, but it also made many countries became really poor, and the economy in most of the countries got pushed back about 10 years. Communism is an economic and political system that sought to create an egalitarian society; it collapsed because of personal interest and government’s corruption.

I believe that out of the four essays that we have read, the essay that presents the best and most powerful argument is presented by Mike Rose "Blue Collar Brilliance" (Rose, 2015). First Rose describes how his mother who work as a waitress in a restaurant. He defines his mother's, Rose Meraglio (Rosie) ability, “Rosie took customers’ orders, pencil poised over pad, while fielding questions about the food. She walked full tilt through the room with plates stretching up her left arm and two cups of coffee somehow cradled in her right hand. She stood at a table or booth and removed a plate from this person, another for that person, then another, remembering who had the hamburger, who had the fried shrimp, almost always getting it right….she’d

This is like a domino effect, it all started when Vandara accused Kira for being useless, “The accused orphan girl Kira is here!”(Lowry 23). During this strong opinions are said that mean life or death for Kira. “She drags that leg around like a useless burden. She is slow and eats a lot.”(Lowry 27). Another quote is, “There is no room for this useless girl. She can’t marry. No one wants a cripple. She takes up space, and food, and she causes problems with the discipline of the tykes, telling them stories, teaching them games so that they make noise and disrupt the work.” (Lowry 28). Next, Kira is allowed to live! “The orphan girl Kira will stay. She will have a new role.” (Lowry 49). “Kira, you will continue your mother’s work. You will go beyond her work, actually, since your skill is far greater than hers was. First, you will repair the robe as your mother always did. Next, you will restore it. Then your true work will begin. You will complete the robe.” (Lowry 49). Later in the story, more conflicts develop such as Anabella’s

Life to a dictator is dispensable. Dictators such as Adolf Hitler believed that “terrorism is an effective political tool”. People could be executed or tortured just for having a different opinion from their dictators, or for being of a different race [doc 5]. Hitler also said “already the boy in school must learn to be silent, not only when he is blamed justly but he has also to learn, if necessary, to bear injustice in silence,”… [Doc 8] This basically means that even if someone is wrongly accused of doing something they should just take the punishment and be executed or tortured rather than fight the police. Society was supposed to be submissive no matter what the circumstances were or be

The articles “Blue-Collar Brilliance” written by Mike Rose and “Are Too Many People Going to College?” by Charles Murray discuss the importance of education and its outcomes. Both authors talk about people’s careers on the aspect of whether a college degree made them succeed in life or it is just an expensive waste of time. Also, each article has its own opinion over the fact that some people with college education aren’t able to find jobs while others with no college background are able to succeed. Rose and Murray, both agreed on the idea that college isn’t for all just simply because of its cost, and how each person’s intelligence does not depend on their acceptance to a college; further, both authors also acknowledge the importance of blue-collar workers and their prosperity.

Night is a story that reveals some of the worst of the human race. It is a re-telling of a young Jewish boy, Ellie Wiesel, coming of age in the midst of the Holocaust. The book is quite short and very clearly written, but it is still a very hard book to read. The young boy who is also the author of the book makes us, the readers, accompany him through many in-human and near-death experiences. These are written in such detail that anybody taking the time to read the book will be left with an in-depth knowledge of what we as humans are unfortunately capable of and a desire to contribute in any way possible preventing this part of our history to ever repeat itself. This, I believe, is the authors goal, to teach us, make us aware through his own experience, and hence give us a reason to hopefully prevent it in the future.

In the short story “Sonny’s Blues”, by James Baldwin there is the notion or a reoccurring theme of a conflict between light and dark between the characters. The notion is carried throughout the story of two brothers finding their own lights and trying to work towards a greater life. In the late 50’s, after the Harlem Renaissance, adolescents are faced with drug sales everywhere and crime sprees around every corner, this is one example of the darkness in the story. Kids began to form bad habits that revolved around drugs and crime because it was what they became used to seeing in their everyday routine. Later on in life they would find themselves in unthinkable situations and not finding a way out. Sonny’s older brother, who is also the narrator of the story finds himself in disbelief because he finds out his brother is incarcerated because of a heroin addiction. Sonny wanted to be a famous pianist but thought that heroin would open his mind up and make his creative thought flow. By using his music, Sonny tries to make a better life for himself and attempts to return to the light after being in the dark for so long. The notion of light and dark reflects the character’s personalities and actions as they struggle to live in the ominous city of Harlem. The author expresses the human spirit throughout “Sonny’s Blues” to reveal how the characters and ordinary people find their own light within the darkness in which they live.

1. One of the main characters in the book Black and Blue is a woman named Frannie Benedetto. Some of the roles that Frannie had were being a wife, a mother, a Catholic, and a nurse. Her role as a wife was very challenging, due to the fact that she was in an abusive relationship and was married to a New York City Police Officer. Frannie had been married to her husband Bobby Benedetto for almost twenty years. Her entire relationship with her husband has been traumatizing. Numerous times Frannie had been physically assault, raped, and belittled. Bobby physically assaulted Frannie when she was nineteen years old for the first time in their relationship. Frannie recalls many times that Bobby came home drunk and would rape her. Bobby belittled his wife by accusing her of sleeping with the doctors she worked with and by making her feel like she had deserved to get beaten up by him. One of the major reasons that Frannie stayed in the relationship with Bobby was because of their son.

In 2009, Dr. Sylvia Earle wrote The World is Blue to educate and alert the reader about human impacts on marine ecosystems. Through this book she conveys her passion and methodical arguments concerning the importance of the conservation of the ocean, which encompasses approximately 80 percent of the earth’s surface. Dr. Earle states “the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume” (17). This statement emphasizes the significance of the ocean, not only for marine life, but all life forms on earth. The book implies that currently in today’s world, the conservation of the ocean requires a global effort to reduce human damage from the past generations. Using facts gleaned from credible scientific resources, she defines the problems of overfishing, bycatch, and pollution. By analyzing human impacts on marine ecosystems, Dr. Earle determines successful and unsuccessful solutions to these problems and suggests various ways individuals can change their lifestyles to reduce impact on the environment as a whole.

When it comes to a communist country following the capitalist standards, they have to take in to consideration the need for freedom and the chance of prosperity for the people. The dictators in China will not be successful in using a capitalist system if they deny Milton Freidman’s thesis that prosperity will create individual freedom and end dictatorship, because for a capitalist government to work they cannot be in a dictator ship because there is no freedom to the people and that limits their chance to prosperity.

The village that Kira lives in is anything but perfect. Her society was not suppose to be a Utopian society but the Council of Edifice where she moves in after her mother's death, had shown her otherwise. She has everything that the villagers may envy, to be privileged and to have luxuries, running water, hot meals brought to her by her own servants and clean living conditions, a soft, warm bed and all the materials that she would need to help her with her work. She does not find out till later that the man who is taking care of her killed her father for the reason that he did not want her father to become the next Council Member and is practically just using her for her talent in their plot to control

Eventually, Olga rejected by everyone and marginalised, she meticulously plotted against society in silence, declaring her intention for revenge against her family and the

Since so much of Communism’s ideas were put in place to protect the government from rebellion, it came with no surprise that one of the most important things to a dictator was loyalty. Under this philosophy, criticism was not tolerated for it was seen as disloyalty. Therefore, the dictator was always right even if he was not. However, for a country to flourish, it needed accurate information instead of what the dictator wanted to hear. This was one of the main reasons Communism failed. People told lies in order to stay alive, for no one could be truly trusted. Another major thing that was important to a dictator was the military because the country had to be run by physical force and the fear of it. For example, the Soviet Union spent twenty percent of its budget on the military. The United States only used four percent of its budget. The problem with this was that the Communist invested a large percent of their money on something that had no economic return, which was a costly drain of their resources (Nielsen).