The Death Of A Brother And Friends

A couple years ago,( my freshman year), my family received a very terrifying phone call from the police station. That early sunday morning my sister was in a death car accident.

The great poet Maya Angelou once said in her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you” (Maya Angelou Quotes.) Angelou’s autobiography and words have inspired many readers and rape victims. One victim, fourteen-year-old Melinda Sordino, a fictional character from Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, is inspired by Angelou after her own tragic date rape and subsequent depression and silence. Melinda relates to Angelou and is inspired by Angelou’s power to speak and to seemingly conquer her rape. Melinda has a poster of Angelou and uses it as an example and inspiration. Due to Maya Angelou’s rape experience as a young girl, understanding Maya Angelou’s life gives readers insight

The Joe family was introduced to counseling prior to the death of Mama Joe whose death resulted in conflict within the family. Prior to the death of Mama Joe, there were a rise in emotional stressors in the family such as financial stability, Family conflict, and coping skills. The initial problem presented in this family is the death of Mama Joe and individual conflicts within the family. Many of the problems seen in this family can be traced back to the death of Mama Joe, without her acting as the families functioning unit, there is a shift in the Joe family dynamic. Terri expresses financial strain from maintaining the family’s bills, there is also a noticeable conflict between Maxine and Terri, as well as infidelity between Cousin faith and Terri’s husband. After doing an initial assessment the best treatment in this family is first helping the family cope with the death of Big Mama. The impact of death within the family system is something that is not discussed, and inadequate attention has been given on the long-term effects of death within the surviving members. Froma Walsh assists professionals in understanding the complex issues that arises when families are faced with death in her book Living beyond Loss: Death in the family. Walsh breaks down family adaption into 4 major tasks which she uses to help strengthen the functioning unit. One task that can help the joe family is what Walsh describes as Shared acknowledgement of the reality of death This task states that, “Every family member must confront the reality of a death in the family. Acknowledgment of the loss is facilitated by clear information and open communication about the facts and circumstances of the death. Inability to accept the reality of death can lead family members to avoid contact with the rest of the family or to become angry with others who are moving forward in the grief process. Long-standing sibling conflicts and cutoffs can Often be traced back to the bedside of a dying parent or to the graveside.”{pg. 28} This accurately depicts the Joe family whose family dynamic shifted after the death of Mama Joe. Because of this shift the family lacked the ability to cope, which lead to isolation amongst family members, sibling

In Mk Asante memoir of buck struggles are reveled regarding the broken bonds in African American homes. The motive of this essay is to evaluate the silence and invisibility within black families through a feminist theoretical frame walk regards to the crucial role the mother’s strength is to the African American family. Broken homes seems to be normal in society now of days and the burnt of the weight is left on the mother. Black men are an Integral part of the black family and this is important for men to lead with understanding, support and Love. In this memoir family struggles are current when Mk Asante mother Carol also known as Amina expresses her level of depression writing to herself throughout BUCK. “I don’t know how to deal with yet another pain. I want to scream while dance and dance while I scream. I want to forget that pain can be so intimate”. (Phone Tap Chapter 7) Page 113. Amina is struggling with pain and wants to physically express herself but can’t due to silence and insecurities. Growing up I lost my parents temporary to drug abuse and street violence at an early age, I completely understand what it feels like to be broken but silent on the inside trying forget the pain and struggles families go through. Mk families’ faces mental health illnesses, street violent contretemps and broken family principals. These are common struggles that are found in many African American homes today.

From the role it plays in literature to its looming existence in our everyday lives, race has an undeniable influence on many aspects of our lives. Toni Morrison and Peggy McIntosh, a writer and an activist respectively, both have the urge to understand this presence and impact of race in literature and everyday life specifically. Through self-reflection and attempts to see from others’ perspectives, both Morrison and McIntosh manage to answer their own questions regarding race and its role in literature and everyday life while articulating their discoveries and intentions in similar and comparable ways. Both of their pieces, “Playing in the Dark,” and “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to see Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies,” help Morrison and McIntosh, as well as readers, to understand the polar yet interdependent nature of African American and white status in America.

I believe we are defined by events that happen throughout our lives both passivity and negatively. Most of the events that change people’s paths often happen suddenly in their life and sometimes have long term effects. Whether it is a personal, religious, life style, or even a career change the fact still remains the cause for change was caused by the event.

When one looks at a glacier, it is impossible to tell the depth. It is only upon closer inspection that the true extent can be known. This superficial example can be applied to the vast majority of literary works. The first time reading something, it is easy to miss out on the importance of certain phrases, themes, or even the entire purpose. Upon reading “Lust” by Susan Minot, it is easy to just write this story off as a girl’s sexual journey through adolescence, but that analysis merely scratches the surface. “Lust” cleverly discusses both misogyny and rape culture through its narrative told from the perspective of a nameless teenage girl. Minot discusses double standards and gender roles which enables her to shed light on the normalized

The exposition of the story, “Really, Doesn’t Crime Pay?” tells the story of an aspiring female writer, Myrna who goes mad after being betrayed by the male lover who steals her work and publishes it under his own name. The stolen story, which is about a woman who loses her leg in an accident caused by her neglectful husband and who then hangs herself, seems to be a metaphor for the mutilation and destruction of black female creativity. The dominating influence of her husband within a racist, patriarchal world emphasizes her feeling about a woman whose husband doesn’t understand her ad wants to keep her in a gilded cage. Her excuse for having the affair is that she is trapped and her husband will not allow her to express herself with her writing

Sometimes you dream of your future, and it's beautiful, but what your doesn’t tell you is the reality of your life. So we question yourself what happens to a dreamed deferred? In the novel, The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor explains to readers about seven black women who live life in Brewster Place by confronting alienation.Sometimes a place can take on the characteristics and functions of a living character, and such is the case in Brewster Place. Naylor identifies alienation by exploring racism and sexism. It serves as a testament to the life of African American women who have maintained self- respect and hope in the face of suffering. At the same time, Mattie, Lorraine, and Etta Mae Johnson three characters who have gone through

The myth of “Philomela” is an ancient one and finds itself in the contemporary works of many African American female writers, such as texts written by Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. The incidence of this myth within texts supports the image of a powerful archetypical story which unambiguously joins the images of rape, silencing and the complete removal of female subjectivity. In the three specific texts, namely: Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, each main female character experiences a similar fate yet each has a somewhat different outcome. Walker, however, tends to reconfigure her characters fate completely in withdrawing from patriarchal violence, which is present in all three texts.

This book is not easy to digest and definitely not for the faint of heart. It deals with a controversial subject that never fails to make my blood boil: rape. Every day, on the news, I always see reports of women, girls or even men raped, and every time I do, my heart cries out. And majority of the time, I see the women ashamed of that fact - that they were made powerless and taken advantage of. And these are only the small percent who actually cried for help.

These women suffer in silence repressing their emotions, until finally like Celie something causing them to snap and everything changes. They find the courage to express their emotions and anger toward the unjust sexist society and with the help of friends and a support system women like Celie are able to escape from their abusive past and create a new life for themselves. It is clear that Walker with this novel intends to shed a light on the flaws of our sexist society in the hope that it will give hope to those suffering the same situation as Celie was, while at the same time inspiring the rest of us to rebel against our sexist societal system and one of peace and equality for

If I were to conduct research on a Sociological Topic that is applicable to my own life, I would choose to research how the experience of having loved ones pass away affects people overtime. For instance, an certain individual I know very well has only experienced the death of one individual they were close with in their entire lifetime. On the other hand, I have been affected by the passing of loved ones since I can remember. Case in point, just over the past couple of years I have lost upwards of 8 people I was very close with. Furthermore, I currently have three different people whom I am close with battling terminal cancer. When I think of my own experience with death compared to that of the other individual, I notice that I handle the grieving process in a more logical way opposed to thinking my happiness and life as a whole ended when the loved

I couldn’t tear my eyes away even if I wanted to. This book, guys, encompasses everything that is wrong with this society. Where a woman can accuse a man of abuse and not for a second will they believe her, simply because the man has always been considered an upstanding member of the community. Because naturally, the facade we put on for the public is completely our true selves and can immediately absolve someone of any accusations. This was a terrifyingly realistic account of the aftermath of rape, of small town mentality, the immediate stereotypes that get doled out and how truly horrid people can be to one

The novel opens with an opening letter where we discover that Celie, the main character, was savagely raped by her father.  Such a bold beginning lets us know that Celie's life is anything but ordinary.  The sanctity of the family unit, so important to the American way of life, is destroyed.  The shocking details of rape as Celie writes, are sad but a factual everyday occurrence.  Celie understands that as a black woman she is seen as worthless, having a meaningless existence.  There is no other way of life.  It is as if all black women are enslaved to the typical hell of exploitation, bigotry, and abuse.  The female characters are molded from pain and sacrifice.  As the novel progresses, the reader gets to follow Celie as she offered to a widower with four children.  The widower hesitates in getting Cellie, but after some encouragement and a cow, he agrees.  Implication here is that women are nothing but cattle and worthless.