The Kind Of Light That Shines On Texas By Reginald Mcknight

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a novel filled with despair, death, aspirations, fear, and fearlessness. It revolves around WWII, in Nazi Germany, the concentration young camps for boy soldiers, and two teenagers who struggle throughout their period of life as well as the people around them. The main lynchpins of this book are Marie-Laure, and Werner, they go in and out of trials and tribulations as well as happiness. Terror is one of the most important things to a human because they are fearful. The citizens of Nazi Germany were in a constant state of unknowing, that’s the affect the War had, the fear of not knowing if their young boy is going to get sent to a concentration camp with Hitler. The citizens of Nazi Germany has been petrified when Hitler made his grand appearance, then the citizens warmed up to him.

The short story, The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas by Reginald McKnight, is about an African American boy, Clint, who is attending a school that is majority filled of white people. In his class there are only 2 other African Americans, Ah-so and Marvin, while the rest of the class is white. Clint hates Marvin, because he gives the negative stereotypes of an African American. Clint hates the fact that the whites stereotype them and wants to prove himself that he can be anything but that. His teacher Mrs. Wickham, disapproves of Clint getting answers correct. She doesn’t hide the fact that she is racist, but states that she’s not. The other kids in the class room aren’t aware the fact they are racist. McKnight sets up very specific details in the story to give Clint a realization in the end of what he has become.

The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers best conveys the character traits of courage, ambitiousness, and supporting family even when times appear to be distressful. This book takes you through African American history with the excitement and thrill of fiction. It allows you to witness the glory of African American evolution, from a period of slavery to modern day. The reader witnesses courage as African Americans try and fight for freedom and equality in an unforgiving society. African Americans try and defy the society’s perspective of them in an attempt to reach an optimal level of success. They work to divert from their typical expectations, and strive for success even when the possibilities are minimal. They strive to build a better living besides being maids and factory workers, and they attempt to remove every obstacle in their way of success. They desire to go above what is expected of them, so they can achieve at a prodigious level in a segregated society. Even as technology advances, the reader witnesses the character’s sense of community. They always believe that family is crucial to success even in times of distress. If they abandon their community, then they abandon the only people that support them. In this time period, their community was composed of the only people that cared about them. The African American society emulates these traits throughout this book, as the author inserts you into their fight for equity and freedom. The Glory Field takes

From two different perspectives of the war, the author of this book showed that, depending on location and timing, everyone can be affected differently by warfare. It followed the story of two children who grew up on opposite sides of World War II. When their paths crossed, they developed feelings for one another, disregarding the fact that their historical circumstances placed them on opposing sides of the war. In the book All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr depicted how internal principles were able to overpower external pressures.

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.

The Glory Field is a novel by Walter Dean Myers that follows the Lewis family through racism and segregation. It starts with Muhammad Bilal being captured from Africa in 1753. It follows through to see young Lizzy escape from slavery on the live Oaks plantation in South Carolina in 1864. After the Civil War, the family is given is plot of land they refer to as the “Glory Field”, which represents hope for the family during their hardships. Lizzie’s son, Elijah, and his cousin Abby help the sheriff find a missing blind boy out on an island. After the hard journey the sheriff takes all the credit and threatens Elijah, who flees to Chicago with Uncle Joshua.

Throughout the book, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, there were many symbols that were present. One symbol that stood out to me the most in the book was the radio. This symbol stood out the most because of how the characters manipulated it throughout the story.

All the light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, chronicles the lives and relationship between Marie and Werner, two children who grew up in France and Germany. The society around them forces discriminatory ideals that cloud their perception of the world, but they find its meaning through their own self-definition. In this, they are both guided by a single radio and the message and legacy that it contains. Throughout the book, the author isolated the two characters, but also created subtle connections between the two. The most important of which would be the radio. It created a bond between the two where they learned from each other’s experiences and struggles. All the Light We Cannot See recreates a new picture of the world by contrasting the two separate journeys taken by Marie- Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfennig to gain that image, which is guided by the power of a radio and the message it contains, ultimately leading to the meeting of the two characters that officially forms an image of the world where one’s actions are valued more than one’s physical features.

Barbara Jordan said, “ We as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.” This tells us that everyone should be treated the same, no matter how someone looks different does not mean that they should be treated different because we are all humans. I agree with Barbara, because I would not want to be treated differently than others just because I look different or have different beliefs from them. In this essay i will be talking about how this quote ties in to what i have read in this section.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once wrote that “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” And that couldn’t be more prevalent in the book, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Every single character struggles with the internal conflicts of right versus wrong, forcing them to do things that will change their life indefinitely. Whether it’s through Werner’s choice to murder a one of his one Nazi officers to save Marie-Laure, Or through Etienne’s actions to stop being a bystander of the war and instead risk his life to help defeat the Germans.

My favorite nonfiction book is Devil in the White City  by Erik Larson. I enjoy Larson’s book because of my love for a book with mystery. The complex psyche of Holmes is something that intrigued me throughout the read and the abundance of history within the pages kept me turning them. Moreover, the multiple perspectives from which the “novel” is told kept my mind turning. The point of view may quickly change to Burnham to Holmes and the topic may shift from dissecting female victims to what color should the facade of a building be.  One takeaway I got from the book is the need to always change and evolve. To quote Winston Churchill “ To improve is to change, to perfect is to change often”, this ideology is found enrooted in the novel as architects

Associating with the self-fulfilling prophecy, master status, and symbolic interactionism, Howard Becker’s labeling theory, views deviance as not an innate act, but rather, elects to target society impulse to engage in stigmatization (Cartwright, 2011). In this paper, I will discuss the implications of labeling specifically in the articles “The Saints and the Roughnecks” by William Chambliss and “On Being Sane In Insane Places” by David Rosenhan. Additionally, I will be discussing the far-reaching effects of negative labeling an individual, with respect to concepts such as labeling theory, the self-fulfilling prophecy, and master status.

Crime is often found in every society. Why? Crime/deviance can be an indication that an area needs attention. Also, it can bring about solidarity or confinement in a community. The “Devil in the White City” shows, that where there is good, there is also evil. Daniel Burnham portrayed the good. He brought dignity and positivity to Chicago, by building the World’s Fair at a point in time when the United States was in an economic depression. Crime was not Burnham’s thing. He used his knowledge to make Chicago a better place, and also had tremendous respect for authority. The World’s Fair brought in thousands of tourists, and revenue into the country. Holmes on the other hand, was the total opposite to Burnham. He was the devil himself. Holmes used his intelligence to charm, manipulate, and kill people for fun. With the presence of the World’s Fair, Holmes used it as a way to lure people into his maze, the castle that he built to kill them. He believed that he was born a serial killer, and everything that he does was for his benefit and no one else around him. Holmes loved the idea of committing crimes and getting away with it. Rules nor regulation, didn’t apply to Holmes because of his mental state.

My dad picked me up from school that day. I felt really uncomfortable trying to ask if he had heard anything about my mom. He felt really uneasy and I knew something was up. I just thought that mom was hurt and he was trying not to alarm me. Once we got home he told me to “Sit down. I have important news to tell you.” I responded “Why do I have to sit down.” “Just do as I say” He said. I sat down pretty confused. “ Your mother is dead son. I knew how much you loved her and she meant to you.”He said. When I processed what he said my entire world came crashing

I nodded then walked out if the trailer to see the officers waiting for me. They opened the door as I walked in and sat their silently. My father was an asshole, yes. But that did not mean if anything bad happened to him I did not care. This is why I never attach myself to people. It hurts too bad to lose them. I put my heart in my father and he crushed it with everything that he did.