Keeping Close to Home by bell hooks Essay

As I mentioned earlier, David writes about how education can change the social behavior of people and have them connect better, as said by Lewis. He says “...an acquaintance with the literature, both sacred and secular, that forms a culture’s legacy and its sense of community” (Downing, pg. 2). He is saying that this view of education and purpose is a moral component for people in communities to stand firm and connect with each other (Downing). This is the main point in bell hooks' text Keeping Close to Home. She says the most powerful resource to study and teach in a school setting is to understand and appreciate the beauty and richness of our family and community backgrounds (hooks). Communities will connect better and diversity needs will

Hooks expresses when growing up she consider her family as poor because of how large her family was and how they had enough money to make ends meet. Although, her family was among the working class, when she went off to college she began to she herself as poor. Hooks states that she had scholarships and loans to attend Stanford University, but her parents were concerned with how she was going to pay for getting there, the things she needed for classes, and for emergencies. She says she spent her breaks, when she couldn’t go home, with the black women who cleaned the dormitories. Hooks states that they were more likely to understand where she was coming form than other individual who attend Stanford. She claims they supported and affirmed her efforts to be educated.

Using powerful, interesting vocabulary in an easy to understand manner is another way bell hooks strengthens her argument and persuades her readers. Minor use of hyperbole in her essay by using the term “no one” a few times challenges the reader to change what she states nobody does. There is a clear lack of fussy, confusing language in her work that allows her audience to easily read and understand her argument. Her tone aids in keeping the audience interested and aware of her passion on the topic, instead of muddying her voice with complex, sterile language.

It’s pretty clear that Bell Hooks hated her time in school, and the reasons for this go back to how her mother raised her. Bell was taught that it was wrong to strive for what you did not already possess, and because of this she did not make the most of her years in school. She believed wanting to be accepted by her peers, and wanting to resolve her other conflicts, was wrong, and because of this she grew to hate everything about her life at school. The “boundaries” that she believes were places upon her were the boundaries of her upbringing.

Finally, hooks used the strategy of cause and effect in her writings. She writes “Since our society continues to be a primarily ‘Christian’ culture, masses of people continue to believe that God has ordained that women be subordinate to men in the domestic household.” (hooks, pg2) By writing this, she effectively analyzes the cause of the problems, and why our culture continues to be sexist. For those who have scientific minds, this statement carries

It is important that we hold onto and cherish our past so that we may never be divided from it. One way hooks remains faithful to her working class past is by speaking or writing in an "anti-intellectual" way. When hooks feels she has an audience this would apply to, despite the criticism she may receive, she uses eye contact, speaking directly to the audience. As hook points out, "..., the use of a language and style of presentation that alienates most folks who are not also academically trained reinforces the notion that the academic world is separate from the real life, that everyday world where we constantly adjust our language and behavior to meet diverse needs" (90). It is important that people work to keep the academic world from being a separate world as bell hooks has done.

I liked bell hook’s essay “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”. Bell assesses the light in which higher class people view the poor or lower class. Bell hooks, also known as Gloria Watkins grew up in a small Kentucky town where her father worked as a janitor for the local post office. As one of seven children she was taught that money and material possessions did not make her a better person but hard-work honesty and selflessness determined character. Her hard work landed her acceptance into Stanford University. Although she received various scholarships and loans, her parents worried that she would not have enough for books and supplies or emergency funds. Regardless of this, belle went on to earn a Ph.D. Her experiences and education earned her a very good reputation and even an authority writing critiques on popular culture and diversity (hooks 431-432). She uses ideas in her essay “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, that stem from her own personal experiences with poverty to add credibility to her writing, as well as examples from pop culture and mass media to demonstrate how these representations portray the lower class in ways that radiate negative stereotypes. She wrote the essay because she saw how the poor had many assumptions made about them. It wasn’t until college thought that she made that discovery. She discovered how unjustly they were represented due to the

In “Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education”, bell hooks writes about her experience with her family as she, a young educated black woman, first of her family, goes off to Stanford University. While her parents’ attitude towards her leaving her home to further her education was not the best, hooks used this struggle to make an educated point that while pursuing a higher education, it is important for young adults to maintain family and community values. While reading this essay, I not only agreed but also connected personally with hooks’ point about never forgetting where you come from due to my family’s immigrant background.

In “Keeping Close To Home: Class and Education”, Bell Hooks argues that we have to not only maintain our ties to home but adapt to the new settings around us . In order to strive in one’s life, you must be able to interrupt daily life changes and maintain stability. (74). She explains that being an African American woman, coming from a Southern state, not really experiencing the things she did once she transitioned to Stanford University was a little frightening for her.(74). Hooks found many differences in the environment she now lived in. For example, the way the students interact with one another was strange to her. Where she comes from, children treated their parent with respect, but her white, middle-class roommate thought otherwise. She explained that “things were different” there and people “[thought] differently.”(76).

It is easy to dismiss people either as too detached from the subject or as attention seeking, and this has been too common when anyone talks about any of the disenfranchised. bell hooks has approached the misrepresentation of the poor in a way most people either have not or cannot. By sharing parts of her life, she is connecting with the reader in such an intimate way that it is difficult to dismiss her. The reader knows that she has struggled to get to where she is now, and the reader knows that there are many who have worked hard and are still impoverished. Before the reader finishes the essay, he or she knows that not all poor people are lazy, witless degenerates. In conclusion, it is through the sympathetic bond that she created that the reader is able to fully understand

Bell Hooks' rhetorical strategy is one that is very emotional and aggressive. Hooks does not hesitate to express her emotions, no matter what they may be. This rhetorical strategy is one that could potentially be a very powerful one to get a message across a large group of people. Being so emotional and aggressive it could be so powerful that it runs the risk of people taking her words in to action or try and create an unhealthy form of retaliation. Hooks point for using an emotional and aggressive rhetorical strategy is to let her point be heard and as a way to cope with her feelings and to release some tension or stress. People tend to deal with issues they are faced in multiple ways and this is how Hooks deals with hers.

Hooks takes on the issues of Black males and education in a more abrasive manner (than Jenkins or Howard. Not as dry as the other two writings Hooks piece is more entertaining with insights such as (“Crime is an Equal-opportunity employer. It never discriminates. Anybody

Immanent Critique is the process of using work to expose the gap between the aspirations and the actuality of whatever issue is at hand. bell hooks stands for the process of helping create a world of mutuality. She also believes that we are able to learn and build a stronger understanding by educating people who are unable to process a new idea or “the right” idea. With hooks idea of mutuality she does not mean equality but mutuality in the sense that everyone agrees to agree that we are all different and have our own ideals that we follow. If that type of thinking was placed into every ones thought process we would not have to need for Immanent Critique. This is because we would all have created a world where there is no conflict. With everyone agreeing to look past our beliefs and ideals we arable to minimize the profound gaps and could lead to bigger and better ways of life. hooks believes that word of mouth and incidences will help break free from types of oppression and inequality. One quote from bell hooks ideas matches with the process of Immanent Critique, she goes on to say. “Feminist thinking helped us unlearn

The author tends to group individuals together based on her own biased belief. For instance, she implies “classmates believe that lower class people had no beliefs and values”. Instead of stating “some of my classmates believe that lower people had no beliefs and values”. Hooks grouped everyone in the class, she uses examples to get her point across, but the examples don’t correlate with the texts. Additionally, every individual in that class couldn’t have believed that biased, ignorant, and untruthful statement.

1) How does Reagon's "Are My Hands Clean?" song about social justice relate to "feminism," as hooks explains feminism?