Go My Son by Chaim Shapiro Essay

The reading of interest is “Anybody’s Son Will Do” by Gwynne Dyer. The author was primarily focused on the intense resocialization civilians experience during military basic training. The idea is that those who enter basic are socialized into soldiers and killers, which in return creates efficiency. Dyer argues that any man can be changed through physical and mental pressure, isolation and exhaustion, all after losing their civilian identities.

Before the war started Solomon Radasky was living in a small town in Warsaw called Praga. “I had a very nice life there, I had my own shop. I used to make fur coats”(Radasky). The last week in January in 1941 his Mother and his older sister were killed. “One morning I was caught by the jewish police on the street and they forced me to keep the trains running and to keep the snow off the tracks, one day I was returning from work

Intro: This book is about a Jewish boy named Yanek. This gives an inside look of what happened to Jewish people in the 1940s. He had a very hard life in the 6 year time duration he spent in the ghetto and concentration camps.

Richard Wright, wrote the fictional novel Native Son, using three intellectual forces, which include: Naturalism, Existentialism, and Communism. He uses these forces, along with racist ideology, to shape the life of a young black male, Bigger, living in the ‘Black Belt’ of Chicago in the 1940’s. Wright refers to the ‘Black Belt,’ as a ‘black world’ where violence is directed towards other American Americans, and warns that this violence will be aimed at white people. Bigger, is used to depict the criminal actions that come along with living in racial confinement under the fear of white people during this time.

James Baldwin and Brent Staples are some of the many individuals who have shaped the ideas of black culture and understood the reality of what many black people go through. James Baldwin is a zealous author who shares his experiences with being black in America, writes about the relationship he has with his father, and even discovers characteristics about himself and in the environment around him. In Notes of a Native Son, James Baldwin puts an end to the black stereotypes from the American society and rather reproves them. Brent Staples, a known author and reporter of New York, tells us his side of his struggles as a black man. In Just Walk By:Black men and Public Space, Staples pinpoints the perspective and misjudgements that the majority of black people face. Through diction and syntax, Baldwin illustrates an angry and reflective tone while Staples uses a softer and humorous attitude which highlights white privilege and the injustice of Black oppression.

"It was crying and praying. So long we survived. And now we waited only that they shoot, because we had not else to do" (267). This quote from the end of the novel ironically describes what the Jewish people endured after the concentration camps. Vladek Spieglman among other suffered through traumatic experiences; though Vladek certainly did survive the holocaust, old Vladek did not. Post-Holocaust it is revealed by Spieglman that his father, Vladek, develops two personalities—before and after the concentration camps. Vladek’s post-holocaust life was haunted by the horrors he witnessed while being in the concentration camps; he went from a young, handsome resourceful man to a miserable, old man who does nothing but complain.

Tobias Wolff’s parents divorced when he was around 5 years old and Wes Moore’s father die when he was age 3. At the same time, fathers of both these men were missing from their life at an early age. Wolff writes, “For the breakup of our family five years earlier and the misery of her long violent affair, she was going to make up for lost time, and I was going to help her.” By moving from Florida to Utah, Tobias states “We are going to change our luck.” (Wolff, 1989, This Boy’s Life, chapter 1) Likewise, without the presence of a father, the mothers faced raising the boys alone. Just as Moore writes, “I tried to copy his walk, his expressions, I was his main man. That is one of only two memories I have of my father.” (Moore, 2010, The Other

On June 28, 2015, The Atlantic published an article on Ta-Nehisi Coates, acclaimed author, journalist, and socio-political activist, titled “Letter To Son”, in an effort to addresses how social injustice in America limits the opportunities of individuals based upon race, going against the so called “dream” in which the citizens were promised. Coates supports this claim by developing a sense of sympathy through his definition of what it means to be Black in America then references the harsh period of slavery and his own experiences being a Black citizen of the United States.

Once Hitler and the Nazis took control of Poland, morality went down hill. Anti-semetism got worse; the Jews had to wear the yellow Star of David, although Yanush Korczak refused to wear it. Also, his radio program was cancelled due to complaints from anti-semitic people. Even with the bad times occurring, Korczak served as a parent figure for the orphans. He always told the children to be positive and not to give up hope. Because Korczak had many connections with higher people in society, he was offered refuge on the Aryan side of Warsaw. But, he refused the offer repeatedly. He had the chance to save himself, but he couldn’t abandon his children. In addition, he declined the invitation to be smuggled out of Poland. Korczak would do anything he could do to save the children and not leave them, even if it meant he was going to die with them. He tried

Written shortly after the conclusion of the second world war, Sylvia Plath published ‘Daddy’ to great controversy, with critics denouncing the poem’s many insensitive uses of Holocaust imagery. ‘Daddy’ is not, however, a poem that minimizes the tremendous atrocities endured by the Jewish people, but rather enlarges the reader’s understanding of how devastating are the effects of abuse by parallelizing the suffering of the Jews with the psychological trauma of abuse.

By analyzing Rose Cohen’s autobiography, “Out of the Shadow”, it uncovers the various social and economical hardships that Russian-Jews faced living in America. Even though adapting to a new life in America came with many obstacles for Jews, Rose’s story shows that many of them made it through their hardships and ultimately overcame their adversities. Rose Cohen’s autobiography serves as a great resource as to what Jewish life was in everyday America during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.

Reporter: Hi Mr Hughes, so I’ve learnt that recently one of your poems , “Mother To Son is published”. Congratulations, but besides from the blissful joy of happiness, can you share with us your feelings right now? Are we happy? Proud?

I’ve killed two-- The vampire who said he was you”. The powerful imagery of these

African-American citizens who live in the United States have experienced a tough life through personal experiences. They have struggled to obtain basic civil rights--a struggle that has spanned many centuries (Mabunda 311).

The poem “On my First Son” by Ben Jonson explores the poet’s struggle to grieve and survive the death of his eldest son. The voice that is speaking throughout this powerful piece about love and loss is the poet, Ben Jonson, as he tells a personal story from the perspective of a father. In this way, he can connect to several audiences because of his heartfelt experience that makes readers appreciate what they have and not take any time given with family members for granted. The poem sets up a sorrowful and morning voice as he is going through his own personal thoughts and feelings surrounding the sudden and untimely death of his first born child.