Refugee Blues’ by Auden and ‘The Last Night’ Essay

Belonging in society is challenging for specific groups of people and they can be demoralised by this greatly and that can have a huge effect on their working life or social life but after being accepted or being resilient, their life can become much better. In The Happiest Refugee Anh Do overcomes exclusion is various ways after he has fled from his own country to Australia. Sometimes Anh is affected by the ostracisation by some people in the new community that he has become a part of in Australia.

Australia’s greatest aspects are its embracement of cultural diversity and the embracement of customs and cultural differences. But are we really an accepting country?

Throughout the world, there is an estimate of about 65.3 million refugees that have either been forced out of their homes or chose to willingly escape the violence or corruption they faced in their homeland. Of those millions of people, only a small percentage are given the status of refugee as many nations have strict requirements and only allow a specific amount each year. This leads to an increase in the amount of illegal immigration as many are desperate to risk their lives to for a better one then they had back home. Even as refugees are given asylum, many often face difficulties such as discrimination due to the racial stereotypes that exist as a result of negative depictions in the news and media. Although nations have generally become more open to receiving and providing aid for a significant amount of refugees seeking asylum, people’s ideology of race and the misrepresentation of the media towards immigrants prevent an even larger amount of refugees from being accepted into society.

Imagine not having a safe spot. A place where you don't feel protected. A place where you're not frightened. A place where you're not scared of dying if you don't leave immediately. In Refugee by Alan Gratz three characters are refugees in different times, going through the same experience of fleeing the life they knew. The 1930’s: Josef, a Jewish boy living through the Holocaust, must flee Germany on a ship headed to Cuba. 1994: Isabel, a Cuban girl living through riots and protests, flees Cuba on a makeshift boat after the Soviet Union collapsed. 2015: Mahmoud, a Syrian boy living through the Syrian Civil War, must leave Syria with his family after his home is bombed. All three of these realistic characters are experiencing the same journey,

Refugee is about a boy named Mahmoud and his family. Refugee is written by Alan Gratz and begins in the Middle East and ends in Europe. The trouble starts when their house in Aleppo, Syria is destroyed by a missile, and they are forced to find a home elsewhere. They decide to make the treacherous journey to Germany. On their way they have to make life and death decisions and have to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Most of the countries welcome Mahmoud and his family, but on their way through Hungary, they were beaten and harmed by tear gas. This book has many turns in it. For example, while trying

America is the land of freedom and opportunity. It is a place where anyone can take refuge from harm and pursue their own dreams. However, the novel, The Refugees, by Viet Thanh Nguyen, portrays another perspective of being a refugee in the United States. The retelling of him becoming accustomed to America practices indicated that he faced an identity crisis. Specifically, he faces a contentious dilemma concerning how he would strike a balance between seeing himself as a person of Vietnamese heredity or of his American lifestyle. He amplifies the significance of this issue through the inquiry of certain practices of the community, his mixed views about fighting Communism, and his interactions with his family.

Our cohort is nearing the end of its secondary education and therefore it is important that we reflect on the ways in which it has shaped our attitudes, values and beliefs. For example, over the past five years, we have read, analysed and evaluated various literary works such as novels, plays, poems and films in our English studies. These texts have expressed various ideologies, explored interesting themes and introduced us to fascinating characters. These elements have left a lasting impression on our attitudes, values and beliefs. In addition to this, English literary texts have provided us with historical knowledge as well as a thorough understanding of the role that aesthetic devices

Anh Do’s story is a timely reminder of the plight of refugee in our country. Discuss the Happiest Refugee in the light of Do’s universal message about the suffering of human beings during times of war and the struggle to make a better life in a foreign country.

In this poem there is a lot of figurative language. One of the biggest types of figurative language used in this poem is irony. The irony in this poem is how the mother wouldn't let her child go to march because she feared her child would get hurt. Instead she sent her child to church because she believed it was a safe and sacred place but ironically the church ended up being bombed. Another piece of figurative language that is very effective in this poem is imagery. The way the poem is written helps me create images in my head for example, "She raced through the streets of Birmingham." I can imagine her running around desperately, looking for her child. The metaphors and hyperboles in this poem also help with the imagery, for example, "...night dark hair," and "…rose-petal sweet." These metaphors make me think of the girls smoothly combed black hair and her fresh and beautiful rosy smell. A hyperbole that had a huge effect on the tone was, "But that smile was the last smile to ever come upon her face." This hyperbole really helps me understand the effect of a tragic moment like this and how it can completely ruin

Ahn had not left this oppressive environment, he would have grown up in extreme poverty and would be a very different person due to the trauma that poverty causes. Refugees are here to escape poverty and persecution; because they have experienced severe trauma, they are at a much higher risk of psychiatric illness than the general population. I believe that these statistics can be reduced if our negative attitude towards marginalized groups changes. Because of the media and government induced stereotypes, Australians often show disdain towards refugees. This inhibits their adjustment to Australian society and creates further division among us. 'The Happiest Refugee' is a valuable resource in the fight against racism because it shows that refugees share our values, embrace our culture and are eager to contribute to Australian society, and I strongly support it’s inclusion in the Rochedale State High School English program.

The development of acceptance is a process laid upon several significant factors, and by belonging in community settings, one may gain confidence and feel tolerated. Likewise, being alienated and ostracised because of racial and social insecurities can have a negative influence on how one may act, and thus outcasts are made to feel inferior as a result of the harmful manner in which they are treated. These concepts of inclusion and discrimination are explored through the contemporary memoir of Anh Do, which focuses on a refugee’s journey from Vietnam to Australia. The Happiest Refugee (2010) methodically displays an array of perspectives surrounding belonging and presents factors of both family and community allegiance.

    Wiesel began his story off with having to leave his own home. All Jews in Sighet were forced to board cattle cars which would travel to one of many concentration camps. When Wiesel and his family arrived in Birkenau, they knew they were in danger. Weisel described the smell in the air, the smoke rising from chimneys, and the flames in the distance. The Jews were ordered off the cars and were told to separate women and men.  He wrote, “Yet that was the moment I left my mother. There was no time to think, and I already felt my father's hand press against mine, we were alone” (Wiesel 29). This quote helps establish the purpose of the novel. The purpose of “Night” is to make the readers understand how horrible the holocaust really was.  This single quote gives a small idea of what the Jews went through, such as being separated from loved ones. The imagery included in this quote helps the reader picture what truly happened in the concentration camps and what Wiesel went through

The two poems entitled “Harlem” and “The Weary Blues” where both written in the time if the Harlem renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was time when the people expressed their selves and the hardships and the reality of their times. The two poems are similar in a way. They both take place in Harlem and are both written by Langston Hughes. They both describe some type of sad but energetic tone, also known as blues.

    Another effective literary device used in the poem is the first person narrative in which the narrator identifies with those victims which he describes. This is seen in the case where the narrator says "I am Dreyfus", or "Anne Frank, I am she." The narrator does not claim to understand what the feelings and thoughts of these  people are, but rather, he is acknowledging the fact that they are feeling, "detested and denounced" and that unlike the rest of the world who turned its head, or the Russians who actually abetted such heinous crimes, this gentile narrator can not empathize, but does sympathize with his Jewish "brethren."

The speaker says that her German father is like a Nazi and that she feels like a Jew. This metaphor is the most powerful one in the entire poem. It shows us as readers how she feels like she is a victim of her father. She never directly calls him a Jew though. She points to the fact using metaphors and imagery. For example, the author wrote: