The History Teacher By Billy Collins And Southern History

Have you ever referred to someone as “high class,” “middle class,” or “low class?” The article “Class In America” is a very educated read and describes the way people are characterized by their “class.” I think that this article informs all types of readers and allows people to see how people are grouped based on themselves. “Class in America” is written to show and prove to society that people do not talk about “class” anymore, because of the way the world looks at it today. Gregory Mantosis is the author of the article, and he uses many facts and data to prove his points.

The opening and closing scenes of the short story “The South” in the book Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges have a large degree of influence on the way the reader experiences the story itself. The opening scene, for example, very much sets the tone and foreshadows future event in the story through an introductory description of the character of Dahlmann and his background. The closing scene, on the other hand, holds a good deal of significance because it contributes a good deal of ambiguity to the ending, as it is not known if Dahlmann died in the knife fight, died back at the hospital, or died at all. Altogether, the opening and closing scenes both contribute to the reader’s experience of the book greatly as they gave necessary context to

Wendell Berry’s past is more than just his own in “My Great-Grandfather’s Slaves,” but his past is intertwined with the slaves that grew up with. A quick reading of this poem by Berry would not give the reader that he was connected with the slaves, but rather that they lived separate lives. Berry says he sees the slaves and their activities but does not ever write about how they are connected until the very last stanza. After reading the final stanza it gives the rest of the poem a new meaning and if the reader does not take the time to closely re-read the writing they will miss out on what Berry is really trying to portray. Wendell Berry is trying to show the reader how his past is linked with the past of his grandfather’s slaves with his

In “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins, adults provide easy explanations for children when confronted with harsh realities. Both works explore the use of white lies to respond to children’s fear and curiosity in an attempt to preserve their innocence. However, the writers employ literary devices that convey these concepts in different ways. While Wilbur presents parents’ well-intentioned untruths as beneficial to a child’s peace of mind, Collins reveals the serious consequences of a teacher’s trivial fabrications.

When it comes to American history , the credibility of our textbooks has been a problem recent years, especially those in high school. And what we are taught in class seem to be far away from our real life. Facing such an irrelevant and boring subject, most high school students have no choice but to suffer the course and struggle for it. The book Lies My Teacher Told Me may account for this phenomenon to some extent.

Herbert, a coca cola executive uses appeal to logic and historical context to convince Seaver, the author of the book “Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher” to change their slogan “It's the real thing” used by both companies to advertise their products.Seaver replies with references, hyperbole, and sarcasm to state that they aren't changing the books slogan. They both were trying to appeal to their audience, the people who buy Coca-Cola and the book. Whereas Herbert’s letter addressing the issue of both companies using the same slogan. Seavers response is more persuasive due to its use of rhetorical strategies such as references and sarcasm.The letters were made to persuade the audience the who has the right over the slogan that coca-cola used

James M. McPherson sets out to discover what motivated the Confederate and Union soldiers to continue fighting in the Civil War in his book What They Fought For. McPherson analyses nearly a thousand letters, journals, and diary of Union and Confederate soldiers to determine what urged them to fight is this defining American Conflict. McPherson reads and groups together the common thoughts of the everyday soldier, from their letters and journals that none of which had been subjected to any sort of censorship, in that time period. He then generalizes the motivations that they used to fight for their country. Whether it be for slavery or for the Union, the author views both sides of the fighting to analysis their ideological issues, how deep their belief coursed through their veins to continue fighting, and how the soldiers held their convictions close to heart in the time of war.

Before using her Facebook as a means to connect young minds about civil rights movements and issues that still plagues the nation today, Sandra Bland used her social media like every other citizen. That is until just after Christmas of 2014 when she made the decision to speak up about “the economic crisis burdening young African Americans,” trying to, in her words, inform her readers about black history, or American history as she liked to describe it (Nathan). Sandra Bland, a 28 year old African American, had just received a job interview from her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University. Her life seemed to be going smoothly, just received a job offering, rekindled her relationship with her mother, and seemed optimistic about the future to

The South vs. The South by William Freehling is a narrative that focuses on the civil war that affected a vast number of Southerners who opposed the Confederacy regardless of whether they were white or black. These “anti-Confederates,” as termed by Freehling comprised Slaves and Boarder state whites who together formed half the southern population and were significant to the Union victory. By weakening the Confederacy military, contributing manpower and resources to the Union and dividing the southern home front, the anti-Confederates made a critical contribution to the Union war efforts that hastened the end of the war leading to the Union’s victory. The U.S was not the only house that was divided; Divisions between pro-and anti-Confederates, white and black, and the loyalty of both upper and lower states to slavery contributed a lot to the downfall of the confederates. “Divisions within the South helped pave the path toward war. The same divisions behind army lines helped turn the war against the slaveholders.”(p.10). William Freehling argues that more than 450,000 Union troops from the South, especially southern blacks and border state whites, helped in the defeat of the confederates. Further, when the southern Border States rejected the Confederacy, more than a half of the South’s capacity swelled the North’s advantage.

Imagine if you couldn’t control your own fate? Ever since you were little, your fate has already been decided for you. Any dream that you had, consider it gone. Going to school, finding a job, creating a family, take those lifetime goals and throw them out the window. You are forced to work for the rest of your life as a slave. That’s what life was like as an African American prior to Civil War. If you were African American, or even “one-drop” black, you were qualified to be part of the slave trade. Slaves didn’t know when their next meal was going to be or if they were even going to get one. Slaves, especially those in the field, worked from the time the sun would rise until sunset. Hours were long; men, woman, and children were worked to the bone and were expected to perform hard but not be given the proper food or sleep needed to refuel themselves. That’s what made the slave trade so horrible, African Americans weren’t looked at as human beings in society, and they were looked at as property. Even small children and the elderly were not exempt from these long work hours; there were no excuses for anyone who was African American. In class we talked about the United States Constitution and it’s significant to our nations history. It talks about the proper rights given to the people and the rules set forth for everyone to

“The History of White People”, is a book written by Nell Irvin Painter. My first impression was very wrong. From the title, I expected a documentary type video about white culture; honestly, I expected the video to concentrate mostly on the historical time period when slavery existed. However, the video is Nell Irvin Painter reading from the beginning, and ends of her book. Rather than the video being about a certain historical time period, it is a literal adaptation of the title. The book is about how the “white race” came about; it discusses how certain ethnicities, and races came to be considered white, or Caucasian. I believe the book probably contains a lot more history, however she skipped over most of that and touched on the main points.

The point of the poem was to deliver the horrors of war to the public

This is a way for the students to understand what they are reading and to be able to put what they are learning from this story and from their teachers into what they will learn later on in school.

Why are people so impatient to leave their own culture to adopt new beliefs? Throughout history, African countries have been full of Christian Missionaries who offered education, as long as people in the village convert to their faith and learn English leaving behind their cultural roots. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the British colonized Nigeria and built churches in villages to get individuals to practice their religion. Thousands of Nigerians started to accept Christianity and reject their own traditions. As time went by, European missionaries gained much power in these tribes and started controlling people. The British believed their culture was superior. They felt they were bringing civilization to primitive "sinful" cultures. Some individuals decided to escape the British colonial education system to reveal the truth about their history and renew their beliefs. This is presented in the short story “The Headstrong Historian” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who writes to show the ways cultural conflict can influence different individuals in the same environment. Through her protagonist Grace, known as the headstrong historian, Adichie tells her own story and the story of her struggle to fight British ideologies. Adichie uses Grace 's dynamic character to show that an individual can reconstruct her lost knowledge of her people when she finds a cultural and spiritual connection to

A short story about a dystopian future in which everyone is equal and a short story about a Nigerian family reclaiming their history, on the surface, seem unalike, but Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Burgeron” and Chimanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Headstrong Historian” bear a strong resemblance when further examined. “Harrison Burgeron” and “The Headstrong Historian”, while seemingly different stories, share many similar themes and ideas. While “Harrison Bergeron” mainly considers people’s concept of equality this is not the central theme of “The Headstrong Historian”. They both delve into the theme of oppression.