On The Pulse Of Morning Essay

Prejudice is embedded into society and is taught from generation to generation. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the setting is 1930’s in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. The people in this town look down on those different from them and have been taught prejudice for generations. Even though it was set so long ago the lessons are still applicable to many situations today. In this story a young girl named Scout is the narrator and her father is a lawyer who is representing a black man accused of raping a white girl. It is obvious what the fate of the man will be but the story highlights how and why an innocent man is sent to prison and later murdered.

In “champion of the world”, a chapter in Maya Angelou’s autobiography, “I know why the caged bird sings”, she reflects on what it was like to be African American in the 1920s. She describes her uncle Willie’s store, a place where the black community gathered to listen to a boxing match. Angelou shows the anti-white sentiments of her community through derogatory dialogue, aggressive diction, and celebratory imagery. She demonstrates this through the victory of Joe Louis, an African American boxer, against a white competitor.

“Graduation Day” illustrates Maya Angelou’s experience on her graduation day. All of Angelou’s feelings, reasoning, and thoughts of her graduation day are depicted between the pages of her short story. Her text covers multiple different aspects of a segregated community’s lifestyle and explains their decisions on coping with their limitations. The power of words impacts the community in several ways during Angelou’s story. Because words impact and shape people, they influence individuals into themselves.

Maya Angelou acclaimed poet and author wrote a poem entitled “America”. The poem offers words of truth of our country America. The poem begins, “ The gold of her promise, has never been mined.” America, promises us that all men are created equal. The first problem with the promise is we are not all men. The gold of her promise, address equality. Although it is promised to all in this country, its never delivered, when discrimination, of race and gender are still existent. “Her borders of justice, not clearly defined.” We all have our opinions on what justice is, because circumstances differ when we speak of justice in the terms of punishment, to make up for ones wrong doing. Yet, the borders of justice are not

Imagine a world where evil and unjust actions are based on the color of skin; a world where some don’t even realize that they are prejudicing. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, these themes are present. People and how they commit evil, hypocritical, and unjust acts. We see these themes and great issues through the point of view of a child; the vigorous, youthful, elementary-aged Scout. Through this character Harper Lee shows the innocence of children, and what they go through in our inequitable world.

Prejudice is seen throughout the world in many forms even after the Civil Rights Movement. To Kill a Mockingbird shows the extreme prejudice that African Americans were faced with at that time period. This book shows prejudice through character interactions.

“I tend to see the similarities in people and not the differences”, this was stated by Isabel Allende. Maya Angelou with her piece On the rise of morning and Cady Stanton with her piece Declaration of Sentiments prove this point greatly. While reading the paper, it will be seen the similarities they share in the topics of freedom and equality. It will also show the differences they share on achievement and success. Angelou and Stanton are not as different as some may think.

The literary works “Indian Education” by Sherman Alexie and “Champion of the World” by Maya Angelou both contribute to the very prevalent subject of cultural pride and diversity. However, each author strives to attain this common result through different rhetorical techniques. Angelou narrates a memory of watching African American Joe Louis win a televised boxing match, with the goal of exhibiting the steadfast conviction of African Americans in the face of discrimination. She attempts to provide a heightened sense of realism in “Champion of the World” through her use of colloquial dialect and rather informal style, which allow for a much more comprehensible work. Alexie writes about his experiences from his first grade year to graduation, using them to illustrate for his audience the hardships in the lives of Native Americans both on and off reservations. He creates a somber effect in “Indian Education” through formal diction and a rigid organization of content. The arrangement of his narrative into sections causes it to appear both orderly and understandable for his audience. Although both works achieve the similar goal of communicating the struggle of minorities, the use of specific rhetorical techniques give each work an entirely different effect.

“Defeating racism, tribalism, intolerance and all forms of discrimination will liberate us all, victim and perpetrator” – Ban Ki-moon. The historical fiction novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee demonstrates the way discrimination can shapes one’s beliefs. Discrimination can occur in many forms, some which include racism, prejudice, and social class. When discrimination is present, the whole character of an individual is often overlooked and one certain trait is focused on instead.

The reader also learns more about social status and how people were ignorant and prejudice towards other people, especially African-Americans. In this passage, the literary elements diction, character development, and point of view develop the theme that innocence is a shield to racism and prejudice.

In the poem, Maya Angelou demonstrates the pain and hardship of African Americans caused white people over hundreds of years. Even though everyone was prejudiced towards her, such as telling her lies, she did not let them push her down, and instead she kept on fighting for the rights that her people deserve. Harper Lee reveals how prejudice goes hand in hand with empathy, in the book To Kill A Mockingbird.

The poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, addresses White people who discriminate African Americans. During this period of time, Black people were not being treated equally, with this poem Angelou wants to defend African Americans. As a civil rights activist it is her job to fight for people's rights. By employing simile, imagery, and repetition, Angelou defends African Americans against their oppressors and shows that people have to be confident and strong, and not feel put down but rise above their problems.

Poetry is an expressive form of art that illuminates a poet’s truth and inspires its readers to embrace or change their reality. Many poets, like Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes for example, create works that embody this definition of poetry and force their readers to reflect on themselves and society around them. Though both Angelou and Hughes were prominent during different decades, they experienced similar truths. The poems, “Still I Rise” by Angelou and “I, Too, Sing America” by Hughes, expose the nature of the authors’ lived experiences and speak directly to the Black community living in the United States. Hughes uses imagery and metaphors to illustrate the pain and plight of Black people in the United States while Angelou uses imagery

That night, the life of all African American people from that period of time will change. Joe Louis is going to defend his world title against a white contender. For many people that is just another boxing match, but for all the African American people is not just a title match. That match is the chance to show the world what they are made of. At the same time they have the opportunity to show the whole world that they can be more than just another black worker or another black maid.

In “On the Pulse of Morning”, Angelou uses visual imagery and symbolism to argue that people must learn from the past to eliminate racial injustice in society today. The vivid descriptions found in the poem evoke feelings of injustice through the emotionally painful pictures that they paint. Americans as a whole are described in the poem to have “crouched too long in / The bruising darkness, [...] / Face down in ignorance” (“On the Pulse of Morning” 15-18). The speaker of the poem insinuates that “humans have been hiding, [...] afraid of what they might learn” from history (“On the Pulse of Morning”, 1998, 3: 276). The bestial visual of a person “crouching” takes away the humanity of the subjects, and the description of “bruising darkness” calls to mind the dark times of slavery over a hundred years prior. The image evokes a feeling that Americans have made terrible mistakes in the past that have not yet been corrected. They have committed terrible, animalistic acts in the blackened cover of history. These people refuse to look up and accept what has been done. The shadows of slavery and the pain caused by it are still ubiquitous in modern society, and if humans do not stop hiding from the truth, they cannot right the wrongs that have been committed. In order for the ignorance to end, people must accept the continuing prevalence of injustice. Not only does Angelou use detailed descriptions, but her use of symbolism allows the reader to see the injustice in society through