The Great Figure by by William Carlos Williams

Maya Angelou once said, “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it”. Perseverance is exactly that: overcoming struggles and not being defeated. There are many different ways to interpret the meaning of the word perseverance. This is the idea that will be explained in this paper. Perseverance is the topic of this essay because it is a main theme that has been explored in the books read by the freshmen English class. Perseverance is an idea that mostly has one definition, but the meaning of the word can be understood many different ways by different people. Perseverance is a universal

“Merry-Go-Round” is a poem about a little colored child that goes to the carnival. The child wants to ride the merry-go-round, but has a problem finding the back. From where the child comes from, Jim Crow laws segregate the blacks from the whites. This poem has a lot of depth and meaning, although it sounds very simple. It also tells us the mindset of most blacks in the South in the days of segregation. I chose this poem because the boy’s innocence was touching and its deep meaning was very powerful.

From the vantage point of the present, it is easy to look back at the tenure of any great leader and draw conclusions about just what it was that made him/her great. We can examine the circumstances under which their leadership flourished; piece together what we know of their character and personality traits; delve into the factors that may have driven them; and dissect their leadership style all in an effort to pinpoint the source of their success. The ‘Great Man’ theory, popular in the 19th century and now thoroughly debunked, held that leaders are born, not made; suggesting that men like George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., and Winston Churchill were born with the innate capacity to change the world (Landis,

Traditions throughout culture change with time, yet in most instances, a handful of people refuse to change their methods or beliefs. In “Dead Man’s Path,” Chinua Achebe creates a changing society and presents a group of people who are unwilling to change their way of life and adapt. Achebe uses symbols, allusions, characters, and setting development to give the reader an interpretation of the changes made throughout society that creates a conflict between a new generation and an old generation.

In the novel Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison depicts the many aspects of self-actualization, and the difficulties of growing up in a maltreated life. The story revolves around generations of black family in the south during the segregation of whites and blacks. The character of Macon Dead jr., suffers from a sheltered life. Macon jr., is unaware of his family’s history, and the cruel reality of mistreatment during segregation. In the sheltered and confusing environment Macon jr., lives pushes him to find the authentic individual within himself. Macon jr., evolves through the descriptions, events, and experiences of others. But, who is responsible for making Macon jr.,’s journey of self-actualization to be so slow and difficult. His parents, Macon Dead sr., and Ruth Foster Dead, represent the obstacle hindering Macon jr., from his true authentic identity. Many of Macon jr.,’s major problems are a direct result of his parents suffocating mistakes.

Imagine living in a world of perfect paradise, where no one disturbs you or takes away your freedom of thought. You’re living in pure harmony and feel as if your life is going to be peaceful forever. But what if one day someone comes along and changes your world, taking away your custom beliefs and changing your culture. What would you do? In the novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, the character Okonkwo, an indigenous member of the Ibo tribe, comes in conflict with the European settlers as they try to convert his tribe to Christianity. Even though many people choose to convert to this new system, Okonkwo, along with a few friends, respond adversely to this foreign settlement as they attempt to restore order in their native village. As the Europeans bring their religion, messengers, and government into the tribe, the outcome of Okonkwo 's response, causes him to bring his identity into query when he realizes that things that were formerly common, will always collapse in the end.

Throughout Langston Hughes' novel, Not Without Laughter, the author introduces multiple characters that reveal their notions of prejudice. The novel explores that prejudice in one form or another is in every aspect of one's life. Prejudice can be defined as an opinion for or against a person's look, race, class, or religion, which is usually formed by a hasty generalization. Most of the main characters, Aunt Hager, Sister Johnson, Jimboy, Harriet, and Tempy contain different accounts of prejudice in the world, which stimulate many of Sandy's thoughts of life as he comes of age. Aunt Hager, Annjee, Harriet, and Sandy, are a multi-generation poor African American family that live in a small home together but are eventually divided by multiple circumstances. The story takes place during the 1910s in the small town of Stanton, Kansas.

It is a common belief that the nurture aspect of our personal development has a lot to do with the way we see ourselves and the habits we form due to our past experiences. Unfortunately for Sonny, as well as for many other African Americans throughout history, even before the 1950’s, oppression had been a great burden to deal with on a day to day basis. In “Sonny’s Blues” the author James Baldwin provides us with a family whose lives revolve around this constant reminder that they are a minority and therefore, live a completely different life in Harlem, Manhattan New York where the influences and environment mainly keep one in trouble. Sonny was the brave exception in the family who allowed himself to openly have a fervor for jazz and grows spiritually, beyond the borders of restraint that oppression had placed on those who lived during these times, his passion towards jazz music definitely deepened his connection to his community, his cultural history, his family, and his interior consciousness.

A man “who [held] a beast, an angel and a mad man in [him].” This accurately describes Wales-born Dylan Thomas, world renowned poet and writer. A developmental wordsmith of his time, Thomas presented the people with evolutionary compositions originated from his own personal experiences and conceptions. Although Thomas’ poetry portrays several messages involving loss of innocence and youth, his more prominent style bases itself around the Freudian concepts of psychoanalytic criticism. Observed through his opaque style and endless fascination of death in his works, it can be concluded that the psychoanalytic impressions in Thomas’ stream of consciousness declare death to be inferior. This is made even clearer as his creations describe the struggle of the conflicts of man and how they can be overcome.

Majority of African American women get judged on the day to day basis. When scrolling through social media there will be large amounts of individuals who will bully or even belittle a colored female because of the natural kinks of her hair, her sense of fashion, the full shaped curves of her body, and the color of her skin . The poem “Still I Rise” by the well-known poet, Maya Angelou, specifically describes the reasons why she had so much confidence; even if she were to be judged by her appearances and mindset. This poem is about embracing females, but it mainly introduces similar life situations that many African American women have experienced. The symbols and point of view that Angelou specifically added in her poem made her readers realize that there are many meanings to this poem.

In the short story the doctor was trying to pry mathilda’s mouth open. May a doctor have more power on whether to lie to his patient’s or to tell them the truth. A physician should respect the patient’s wishes on whether to live or whether to die. “The Use of Force’’ by William Carlos Williams brings up the question if it is ever justifiable for a medical professional to use force.

Langston Hughes’s “Let America Be America Again” is a poem that could be endlessly applied to where America stands today. This poem illustrates the morals, ideas, and visions set forth by those who found this country and how America has begun straying from those principles. The poem expresses that America is made up of all walks of people and that no man should be crushed by those above him, but rather be given the same opportunity as those above him. Hughes desire to make America great again can be shared in some way or another by most Americans making this poem everlasting. “Let America Be America Again” has the personalization, the language, the connection shared by every American, and the rhyme to allow readers of every race, gender, or religious belief to be brought together as not only people but as Americans.

William Carlos Williams was an American author, screenwriter, and poet who was “one of the great forces in the twentieth-century verse” (Rosenthal 1). Remarkably, Williams was also a professional doctor who continued to practice medicine fulltime while simultaneously writing hundreds of pieces of literature. He was the son of a New York businessman, spoke three languages, and even studied advanced pediatrics in Germany. He was part of the professional, upper class and had traveled around the world prior to practicing medicine. Williams stresses Marxism in the form of literature in “The Use of Force” through his creative display of clashing of social classes, power relationships, and the use of oppression.

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself / and what I shall assume you shall assume” (Whitman 1-2). These lines not only open up the beginning of one the best poems of the American Romantic period, but they also represent a prominent theme of one of this period’s best poet, Walt Whitman. In Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, Whitman deals with his time period’s most prominent theme of democracy. Whitman tells readers that they must not only observe the democratic life but they must become one with it. As Whitman states, “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (3). Democracy provides a connection with all people. It is as if Joseph Stella felt this connection and decided to depict it in his collection of paintings entitled “Americans in the Rough.” The individual is of no greater or lesser worth than anyone else. Beatrice Marovich states that, “It is a song for fellow Americans, about the American body politic” (349). An analysis of Song of Myself portrays that understanding and becoming one with democracy through political collectivity essentially sets the stage for the American democratic self. Joseph Stella does a great job of interpreting and depicting Whitman’s ideals of democracy through his illustrations representing every facet of an American democratic life.

When reading the title, we often associate a love song as something jaunty,pleasureable, and celebrating, or its other extreme, regretting, nostalgic, and full of pity for the singer’s troubles in love. With Williams the singer, the main idea revolves around the concept of an incomplete union in first person point of view, which makes the reading more personal as the reader is using “I” instead you or he. From this concept stem the ideas that this poem is about hopelessness or happiness, communal sex or masturbation. Delving into history, literary techniques, association with the author, and own opinion of it, there is easily more to it than meets the eye.