Let The Water Hold Me Down By Michel Spurgeon

In Robert Cormier’s novel, We All Fall Down, is a young-adult thriller that explores the evil side of humanity through a number of corrupt characters. Cormier, to a large extent, accurately depicts manipulative and dishonest behaviour whilst also showing the evil lurking within the prominent characters of Harry Flowers, Buddy Walker and Mickey Stallings who showcase the dark side of humanity. Cormier explores this through Harry Flower’s manipulative actions that result in the suffering of others. Additionally, the constant dishonest behaviour is shown predominantly through the main protagonist of Buddy Walker, who deceives the one he loves. Cormier continues to depict the evil lurking in society through the theme of appearance

Nicholas Kristof attempts to be humorous in his article “Let them Sweat,” however Kristof ends up hurting his ethos significantly. Kristof attempts to lighten the mood by cracking several jokes, and statements that are unheard of and unexpected to the reader. While this attempts to create pathos, the reader is unable to relate to his statements, causing the verbiage used to harm his ethos, thus causing the reader to question his credibility. For example, “The Gentle Reader will think I've been smoking Pakistani opium” clearly shows that Kristof expects that the reader will think that he is insane, automatically creating a damaged reputation at the beginning of his article.

In his book “Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free,” Hector Tobar recounts the story of 33 miners who spent 69 days trapped more than 2000 feet underground in the Chile’s San Jose mines following the collapse of the mine in 2010. According to Tobar (2015), the disaster began on a day shift around noon when miners working deep inside the mountain excavating minerals started feeling vibrations. A sudden massive explosion then followed and the passageways of the mines filled with dust clouds. Upon settling of the dust, the men discovered that the source of the explosion was a single stone that had broken off from the rest of the mountain and caused a chain reaction leading to

The movie “Lean on Me” was published in 1989. The movie depicts a time period when drug use/ abuse, and violence was very prevalent at Eastside High the inner city high schools in Paterson New Jersey. Eastside HS having these challenges created a societal view of low expectations for the students that attended the school. The students that attended the high school were predominately African American and Latinos, and because of their race they were considered minority groups with low social economic status and/ or expectations. Throughout the movie the diversity of race, and social economic statuses were factors mentioned. Another important factor that the movie only touched on slightly was the challenges with crack cocaine. The 80’s was an era when crack cocaine was introduced to the inner-city communities, causing much destruction to the foundation of families that had members that indulged in its use. This caused the lack of parent engagement and support systems for youths. Many of the youths in the movie was raising themselves, which included finding the means to support their and/ or their family’s basic everyday needs such as: food, clothing, and shelter. That alone opened the door to negative influences like drug dealing, drug use, drug abuse, and violence. Many of the students at Eastside HS were more focus on everyday survival, then the importance of having an education and the growth that it would bring them. The movie

In “So Much Water So Close to Home”, Carver creates a story describing the disparity of power between genders, focusing especially on a female perspective to allow us to understand how the protagonist Claire is feeling throughout the situation with a rape victim, Susan Miller. Through her viewpoint, we witness events and feelings that even Claire’s own husband does not realize, and also some feelings that Claire herself does not fully comprehend. These characteristics help shape the text and establishes gendered modes of experiencing the world. As a whole, “So Much Water So Close to Home” exhibits how women during Claire’s time were more prone to gendered imbalances both in a relationship and society.

Chi, is what gives life, it differentiates a corpse from a live human being. It is energy that unites the body, mind and spirit. This concept is one that we all would be familiar with and has its origins in early Chinese philosophy, but in terms of the novel “Things Fall Apart” written by Chinua Achebe in 1958, this concept of chi differs slightly. In Igbo there are two distinct meanings of the word chi, the first is often translated as guardian angel, personal spirit etc. and the second day or daylight and is most commonly used for the transitional periods between day and night or night and day. It is an individual’s personal god, whose merit is determined by the individual’s good fortune or lack thereof. It is said that “wherever something stands, something else will stand beside it”, nothing is absolute. A man lives here and his chi there. Meaning that there are two versions of everything, one in the spiritual world and one in the human world. As there is for the characters in the novel. *Put up the two pictures of Okonkwo, write up one for Okonkwo + Okonkwo’s chi*

“Things Fall Apart”, written by Chinua Achebe in 1958, is a book about the changes that occur to the central character Okonkwo and the Ibo culture, and the way these changes like colonisation affect the characters’ identity. Tony Harrison’s poems, such as “Them and [Uz]”, “Breaking the Chain”, “Me Tarzan”, “Book Ends”, “Currants”, and “Bringing Up” were written in 1940-1960 and they explore Harrison’s identity as an educated writer from a working class family. “Frankenstein”, which was written by Mary Shelley in 1818, portrays Frankenstein’s and his monstrous creation’s search for identity and the conflicts caused by it. All three texts explore the individual search for identity. However, the styles and techniques that each text uses to present this concept differ in many ways.

In our society we push for sameness, not wanting to stand out as being different, and to follow the rules that are placed without questioning them. Carson Kressley once said, “It 's really important to share the idea that being different might feel like a problem at the time, but ultimately diversity is a strength (brainyquote).” Like Kressley is saying, whether we know it or not, we are teaching our children at a young age that being different is a problem and wrong. We begin to draw ourselves a box of what is normal and acceptable and as we grow and learn we find that the ideas inside boxes tend to line up with the ideas with the rest of societies box. This idea stays with us for most of our lives and we judge and regard other people based on if they are different or if they are normal like the rest of society. In the novel Never Let Me Go the author, Kazuo Ishiguro, uses structure, character, and imagery to try and bring to light the damage that we are causing when we create these strict boundaries to be the same and rules that we expect everyone to follow and how we need to change this mind frame lest we allow it to affect our morals and what we deem to be truly important in our lives.

Chinua Achebe’s postcolonial novel Things Fall Apart was first published in 1958 and narrates the fall of a great Ibo (Nigerian) warrior, Okwonko, after the arrival of white colonialists. Tony Harrison’s Selected Poems was published in 2006 and includes poems taken from his renowned sonnet sequence School of Eloquence, which draw upon Harrison’s own upbringing and pay tribute to the challenges of the British working class. Finally William Golding’s dystopian novel Lord of the Flies, first published in 1954, is about the struggle faced by a group of young boys abandoned on a desert island to retain civilisation and basic humanity. Problems with expression and communication are central in all three texts, and are explored on several levels.

Things Fall Apart, the critically acclaimed novel, by Chinua Achebe brings to light the transition that occurred due to European colonization in Africa. Okonkwo, a member of the Umuofia tribe, is deeply rooted in his religion, culture, and traditions. The Umuofians are exact and precise when making decisions as they relied on their ancestors and religious beliefs to guide them. As members of the Igbo religion, they have different view point, explanations and ideals than what is commonplace in current western civilization. Using a system of retribution and repayment in order to maintain balance in their clan. But, that does not affects how they should be viewed and discussed. We see how, through the colonization of Nigeria, their religion, culture, and traditions slowly fall apart.

Cultural perspective is the manner in which the environment, social, and cultural factors shape people. These factors are gender, race, and nationality of an individual. Cultural perspective has a significant influence on how people relate between themselves as well as their capability to communicate. People that have a diverse cultural perspective might have difficulties understanding why the other conduct themselves in a particular manner. Moreover, cultural perspective affects the relationships that individuals have with themselves like emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing or their absence. Things Fall Apart is a novel that was written by Chinua Achebe, who is a supporter of multiculturalism as depicted in his book through the

Before Things Fall Apart was published, most novels about Africa had been written by Europeans, and they largely portrayed Africans as savages who needed to be enlightened by Europeans. For example, Joseph Conrad's classic tale Heart of Darkness (1899), one of the most celebrated novels of the early twentieth century, presents Africa as a wild, "dark," and uncivilized continent. In Mister Johnson (1939), which in 1952 Time called "the best novel ever written about Africa" ("Cheerful" para. 15), Irishman Joyce Cary's protagonist is a semieducated, childish African who, on the whole, reinforces colonialist stereotypes about Africans. In 1958, however, Chinua Achebe broke apart this dominant model with Things Fall Apart, a novel that portrays Igbo society with specificity and sympathy and examines the effects of European colonialism from an African perspective. Chinua Achebe uses the role of religion in Things Fall Apart from the Igbo tribe's perspective to illustrate the destruction that the ignorance of the white missionaries creates.

In the novel Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro presents the story of Kathy H., and her friends Tommy and Ruth, who are growing up at Hailsham. Hailsham resembles an English contemporary boarding school, but one discovers that this school is specifically for clone children that have been created to donate their organs for the betterment of society. The author uses a descriptive narrative by Kathy to present the story of the short lives of clones, and the human lives they lead with all the difficulties intensified by mortality; this magnifies due to the short allotment of time they live. Art and creativity are prevalent throughout the story lending a feeling that the children’s art can lead to immortality as they will live on even after their demise through their art. Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go, presents a search for one’s identity and sense of meaning in a dystopian society focusing on self-expression and creativity.

Imagine a world one day when every single person shares one culture, the most influential and powerful existing. There are millions of cultures in existence but how can they all possibly collapse, equaling only one? In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the father-son conflict of Okonkwo and Nwoye is used as a microcosm representing how societies of multiple cultures fall apart, reflecting upon the roots of the conflict. In this particular case, the Igbo society and British culture collides, resulting in the destruction of the inferior Igbo culture.

Chinua Achebe wrote the fictional novel “Things Fall Apart” based on a tribe located in an Ibo village in Nigeria. This story takes place in the era of colonization and imperialism except this time; it is from the viewpoint of the Africans. It is reasonable to say that Achebe’s work focuses around the unique protagonist, Okonkwo, and his beliefs along with how white men’s colonization impacted the African society. This novel can tie into our classes’ discussion with the various elements of the white colonization of the African continent.