Sumayyah Book Review

X by Ilyasah Shabazz is set in the mid 1900’s before equal rights laws were passed and an extremely difficult time for Black America. The book starts in a small town in Michigan called Lansing where the main character, Malcolm Little, who is described as a poor teenager in a large family. Malcolm is independent and introverted in the beginning. The book soon explains that Malcolm lost his father early in Malcolm’s life causing Malcolm to be a natural leader. Malcolm gets out of his home town as soon as he can moving to Boston, Massachusetts with his step sister Anna in hopes to become a new man. In Boston, Malcolm makes friends with a character named Shorty. Shorty leads Malcolm around a suburb of Boston called Roxbury. Malcolm gets a new name,

Peter Wood’s Black Majority is a social history examining the cause and effects, both explicit and implicit, of the black majority that emerged in colonial South Carolina. His study spans the time period from the settlement of Carolina through the Stono Rebellion, which took place in 1739. He also takes into consideration and examines certain events that took place in the years immediately preceding the settlement of 1670, as well as those that immediately followed, as a direct result of, the Stono Rebellion and their respective relationships to the black majority that existed in the colony. Wood introduces the book as possibly the first real study of this black majority and its impact on the colony in its earliest years. Wood also

Like an artist’s palette is full of different colors, I am individual with many different interests, hobbies, personalities, and abilities. My personalities are as bold as a bright yellow. My hobbies and interests are all similar shades of each other, and my abilities are united like one streak of paint. All these colors combine on one canvas to create me, Srivinay Tummarakota.

Reyita tells the story of Maria de los Reyes Castillo Bueno, a black Cuban woman living through several pivotal moments in Cuban history as a member of perhaps the most disenfranchised group of people in Cuban society; Reyita was poor, she was black, and she was a woman.

“Blackness,” by Jamaica Kincaid, introduces the short story with a description of the silent and soft blackness. Even though she discovers happiness when buried in blackness, it prevents the unknown narrator from speaking her own identity. It devours her memories and retracts her voice. The narrator feels no joy when immersed in the blackness; she becomes wrapped in turmoil and anarchy. The narrator has brief moments of joy from time to time: the setting sun´s beauty, a laughing child playing with a red ball, and her gazing at clear blue skies. There is a little “blackness” in everyone. The story exposes the different types of blackness that can control one’s life through their fulfillment, stress, weary, power, and identity.

Marjane Satrapi’s memoir Persepolis is considered a “coming of age” story based on her experiences growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. This graphic novel explores the life she lead in Tehran which encompassed the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. Undergoing life with such a chaotic environment, it took Satrapi courage to act and live as her “authentic self” and explore what it meant to her to be authentic. Similar to Aristotle, May and Medinas Persepolis examines the concept of courage, through the view of innocence; through Satrapi’s childhood.

In the novel My Ishmael, Daniel Quinn uses methods to help develop a deeper understanding. Methods he uses are the character of Ishmael, and the maieutic method of teaching. The device of using Ishmael explores Ishmael being a gorilla, telopathic and Ishmael being a caged animal. The maieutic method helps Julie understand through experiences.

I will be writing my essay on innocence and experience to show how it relates to “Araby” by James Joyce. While reading the story, and what I’ve understood is that it’s a very depressing story about a young boy that is between 12 to 17 years of age who had his first experience in feeling loved and perhaps having a life alone. Later on in the story towards the end the experience will be very sad as we talk about it.

James Joyce’s “Araby” is a short story narrated by an adolescent boy who falls in love with a nameless girl on North Richmond Street. Every day this boy watches her “brown figure,” which is “always in [his] eyes,” and chases after it (27). According to the boy, “lher image accompanie[s] [him] even in places the most hostile to romance” (27). He thinks of her bodily figure often, invokes her name “in strange prayers and praises”, and emits “flood[like]” tears at the mere thought of her (27). The boy exhibits all this emotion, despite the fact that he “had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words"(27). Therefore, when he finally has a conversation with her, about a Dublin bazaar called Araby, it causes him to become disoriented. The boy fails to concentrate at his Christian Brother School and at home, because Mangan’s sister finally talks to him. The boy, determined to get something for his lover at the bazaar she cannot attend, asks his uncle for money. However, to his distress, his uncle forgets and the boy is unable to attend the bazaar until “it [is] ten minutes to ten” (31). This delay and the long journey by train causes the boy to become irritated. His irritation soon turns to anger as he enters the bazaar only to find it practically empty except for two men with “English accents” and a female engaged in a conversation (32). At this point, the boy loses interest in buying anything at the bazaar for his lover and decides to feign interest to appease the

Aniya Walker, also known as Niya was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She was born on May 16, 2002 in Mercy Medical Center, located in Downtown Baltimore. She grew up on the East side of Baltimore and lived in a single parent household with two older siblings. Growing up she was well taken care of and described that her childhood was swell. She attended St. Katharine School which later got closed down so she transferred to Abbottston Elementary School. Later on she went to St Thomas Aquinas School and once graduating eighth grade, she attends Cristo Rey Jesuit High School.

When asking someone there first thought about Israel, each person will have their own version of what they believe that it is. One might say that it is the land of the Jews, while others say that it is Jesus Christ’s birthplace. The excerpts from My Promised Land by Ari Shavit capture the true essence of what Israel really is.

Syahmalina became a spouse in her late teens and a mother in her early twenties, thereby limiting her chances to graduate college through a traditional four year process (Syahmalina). Syahmalina was an honors student whose assigned gender roles and spousal responsibilities both made it difficult to maintain focus on academics in a typical university environment. The availability of online courses at UMUC assisted her greatly as they allowed her to schedule her time and classes around the schedule she had as a homemaker (Syahmalina). Syahmalina graduated from UMUC in a degree in business, with a focus on applying information technology in foreign markets. The author knows the financial struggles facing the working poor all too well. For the

A study of Black AYA concluded that they rated providers’ characteristics as more important than confidentiality when they sought STI care and treatment. The specific attributes listed by Black AYA were that providers 1) indicated exactly what the medical issue was; 2) answered AYA’ questions about STIs; 3) were knowledgeable about AYA health concerns; and 4) explained everything they did during a physical exam (Lane et al.,

A&P by John Updike and Araby by James Joyce are two short stories that have multiple differences and similarities. A&P is about a teenager and his lust for young ladies and Araby is about a young boy who had a crush on a older girl. I will be comparing and contrasting the portrayal of women, love and epiphany in the two short stories A&P and Araby.

In this essay I will be comparing two poems which show connections between people and the places in which they live. The two poems I will be comparing and contrasting are “Blessing” by imtiaz Dharker and “Island Man” by Grace Nichols. Both of these poets express their feelings through these poems. Grace Nichols allocates her experiences of how people feel when separated from the environment and place they lived in for such a long period of time. On the contrary Imtiaz Dharker uses the poem “Blessing” to convey the importance of water for less fortunate people. From both of the poems I have chosen I can see that the poets have written about something they feel is important. The reason why I have chosen these two poems is because both of the