The Virtue Of Appreciation Essay

This shines light upon her Native American roots and how it can be an inspiration for her Century Quilt, each square representing her family’s racial diversity and mixed roots. It is quite difficult to learn of all the harsh animosity they were enduring, such as Meema and her yellow sisters whose “grandfather’s white family nodding at them when they met” (24-27). The hostility is clear as the white relatives only register their presence; no “hello” or warm embrace as if they didn’t acknowledge them as true family. However, with descriptive imagery, the speaker’s sense of pride for having the best of both worlds is still present as she understands Meema’s past experiences and embraces her family’s complexity wholeheartedly; animosity and all.

Moving from a childlike bliss to an awakening of the world's prejudice, the author makes the words take on flesh. The story is made alive as she breathes life into a time that is unpleasant yet not void of hope. "The hush-hush magic time of frills and gifts and congratulations" disappeared when they were told the cold hard `truth' of their fate that some white man had already decided for them.

Racism is an issue that blacks face, and have faced throughout history directly and indirectly. Ralph Ellison has done a great job in demonstrating the effects of racism on individual identity through a black narrator. Throughout the story, Ellison provides several examples of what the narrator faced in trying to make his-self visible and acceptable in the white culture. Ellison engages the reader so deeply in the occurrences through the narrator’s agony, confusion, and ambiguity. In order to understand the narrators plight, and to see things through his eyes, it is important to understand that main characters of the story which contributes to his plight as well as the era in which the story takes place.

There is value in togetherness and whole families that should not be absentmindedly discarded. Families at this time proved especially important, due to the fact that there was little else to enjoy. Work proved exceptionally difficult with little potential for promotion or change. All three provide books covered situations where the hope of escaping the same continuous struggle was a possibility; nevertheless, all three have inspiring outcomes. Hickam subconsciously portrays African Americans as less than perfect. Telling the story of an African American man who leaves his wife for another woman. In Hickam’s novel “We Are Not Afraid,” the young man caught in this mess did not want to hurt his family, “I’m a good man, he kept telling himself. I just wanted to be happy” (Hickam Pg. 135). Hickam portrayed this man as a hard worker and upstanding man, nevertheless chose his embarrassing encounter to share with the world. Looking back in history, African Americans show the importance of resilience. For generations, they were not treated fairly. The world does not always provide the same opportunities to everyone who deserves

Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel, Ceremony, reveals how the crossing of cultures was feared, ridiculed, and shunned in various Native American tribes. The fear of change is a common and overwhelming fear everyone faces at some point in their life. The fear of the unknown, the fear of letting go, and the fear of forgetting all play a part in why people struggle with change. In Ceremony the crossing of cultures creates “half-breeds,” usually bringing disgrace to their family’s name. In Jodi Lundgren’s discourse, “Being a Half-breed”, is about how a girl who struggles with understanding what cultural group she fits into since she is a “half-breed.” Elizabeth Evasdaughter’s essay, “Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony”: Healing Ethnic Hatred by

In the novel, Chesnutt uses mixed race characters, which have both black and white ancestors and these characters display the conflicts between black and white societies. Within the novel, Janet Miller is the best example of a mixed race character. Janet’s father was from the white aristocracy, while her mother was a slave and a servant. Janet is emotionally hurt because she doesn 't receive the same affection like white half-sister. She views herself as black and submits to the segregation of the time. In comparison to societal views, Olivia Carteret also cannot view her sister as an equal which is incredibly sad. Janet’s angry compassion for her white sister sets the novel’s climax and represents hope for equality between the races. The Millers are well educated and were brought up in the white world where they exclude themselves from the poor and uneducated members within the society. However, the whites within society do not welcome them due to their race because they think that Africans lack sense of purity. When exploring the complexity of mixed races in the South Chesnutt describes, “looking at these two men with the American eye, the differences would perhaps be the more striking, or at least the more immediately apparent, for the first was white and the second black, or, more correctly speaking, brown...but both his swarthy complexion and his curly hair revealed what has been described in the laws of some of our states as a “visible admixture” of African blood”

Traditions and old teachings are essential to Native American culture; however growing up in the modern west creates a distance and ignorance about one’s identity. In the beginning, the narrator is in the hospital while as his father lies on his death bed, when he than encounters fellow Native Americans. One of these men talks about an elderly Indian Scholar who paradoxically discussed identity, “She had taken nostalgia as her false idol-her thin blanket-and it was murdering her” (6). The nostalgia represents the old Native American ways. The woman can’t seem to let go of the past, which in turn creates confusion for the man to why she can’t let it go because she was lecturing “…separate indigenous literary identity which was ironic considering that she was speaking English in a room full of white professors”(6). The man’s ignorance with the elderly woman’s message creates a further cultural identity struggle. Once more in the hospital, the narrator talks to another Native American man who similarly feels a divide with his culture. “The Indian world is filled with charlatan, men and women who pretend…”

Throughout literature many pieces of work can be compared and contrasted to each other. In “Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie discusses the challenges he faced as a young Indian adult, who found his passion of reading at an early age, living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He challenged the stereotype of the young Indian students who were thought to be uneducated while living on a reservation. Likewise, in the excerpt from The Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez shares his similar experience of being a minority and trying to break stereotypes of appearing uneducated. He shares the details of his life growing up learning a different culture and the struggles he faced becoming assimilated into American culture. In these two specific pieces of literature discuss the importance of breaking stereotypes of social and educational American standards and have similar occupational goals; on the other hand the two authors share their different family relationships.

Racism is something that is surrounding William yet he frowns upon it. This is very contradictory because, although he is so quick to clarify that he is Native American brown, not dangerous brown. William is self conscious about himself and does not want his color to define him, yet at the same time he claims he takes pride is his color. In “flight patterns” the story is told in the narrator’s point of view. This is important

In Conclusion , you can see how these three characters from the book were affected by racism. All of these situations were a tad bit different but you can see how they often got caught in the middle of what other people thought was right and what was really right. All humans should not be judge of their work ethic or ability to do something just cause of their skin color. We all live on the

There is a difference between appreciating the Blues, and trying to claim it as your own. In The Blues Feel Like Going Home by Martin Sorsese, different musicians discussed who really owns the Blues and what it means to play it. After finishing the film, I believe the Blues belong to no one except the African Americans being oppressed in the 1930’s and 1940’s, trying to escape the ridicule and poor treatment. To try to take the Blues and apply a different meaning, one unrelated to the stuggle of the black people of this time, is to take something that was never meant to be yours. White people playing their own versions of the Blues today is different from the original Blues of the 30’s, because that Blues had

Clotel is an interesting piece of literary work by William Brown, as it exposes the depraved social conditions of Chattel Slavery and its effect on Marriage relations between slave and slave owner. Interestingly, I recognized the stereotypes that can develop from conditions of race and class in our society. More importantly, we see how race and class present higher priviledges to mulatto slaves (quadroons), than what William coins as the "real negro." Undeniably, there is a stereotypical belief in today 's society that light skin or fairer skin people have an esteemed privilege than that of dark skin people. Although fictional characters, Currer, Clotel, and Althesa are real-life representations of that belief because they were mulattos.

A change in organization can always seem difficult for many employees, some tend to resist while others will take the negative route and complain, but only a few are open to change. Through the appreciative inquiry approach employers can focus on its employee’s individual’s strengths and values. People like to talk about success, they like to share positive stories, by using the appreciative inquiry approach, is using the philosophical approach, positive thoughts. In the organization I currently work for, we value our patients and customer satisfaction, we value teamwork. But like many organization we are going through some changes, new leadership and new ownership. Through Appreciative Inquiry many companies have

In Silko’s “Lullaby”, the role of storytelling in her Native American culture seems to be a central theme and translates the oral tradition of storytelling into a written English essay. The narrator Ayah doesn’t tell her story to anyone in particular, but instead she reminiscences on a story that weaves her past memories and her present happenings through a series of associations, rather than in a set chronological order. In addition to the focus on the oral tradition of storytelling, Silko is concerned with the ways in which Native American traditions can be adapted to the contemporary circumstances of Native American life and the difference between her culture and the white culture. Her characters are often caught between a traditional and a modern way of life when it comes to nature, raising the issue of environmental racism throughout the story.

From the distance I could hear the faint sounds of dogs barking and someone loudly cussing them out. That was my sign; my sisters and I had exactly thirty minutes each day to be free, to sit on the couch and relax or talk on the phone with friends, which weren't many since we weren't allowed to go anywhere, but those were the thirty minutes we valued the most. And once the dogs barked the freedom would end.