Tillie Olsen's Yonnondio Essay

Narratives about captivity have often intrigued readers in Western culture. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano’s stories helped pave the way for stereotypes within both European and white culture; teaching Europeans to see Native Americans as cruel and allowing whites to see the evil in the American slave market. In both “A Narrative of the Captivity” and “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano share their individual stories of being kidnapped and enslaved. Though the two narrators share similarities in their personal accounts of being held captive, either individual’s reaction sheds light on the true purpose of both Rowlandson and Equiano’s writing.

He loosened the gun in the holster. ‘Go ahead,’ said Ma. ‘Scarin women/ I’m thankful the men folks ain’t here. They’d tear ya to pieces. In my country you watch your tongue.’ The man took two steps backward. ‘Well, you ain’t in your country now. You’re in California, an’ we don’t want you goddamn Okies settlin’ down.’ … ‘Yeah, Okies! An’ if you’re here when I come tomorra, I’ll run ya in” (pg. 215, Chapter 18). The significance of this passage is it shows how life changed so much once the Joads moved west, they were in someone else’s territory now. This passage shows how the Joads would have to change the way they acted since they moved to California. This passage relates to the work as a whole because it shows the reader how difficult and cruel it was to move to the West back during the dust bowl. People weren’t treated equally because of were they came from and how poor they were.

About a year later, Robinson’s uncle came to visit. He had served in the first World War. Afterward he had settled in California. When he returned to visit his family in Georgia, they scarcely recognized him, because he was dressed so finely (Mann 57). Once he learned of their troubles, he was immediately convinced that his sister and her children would do better in California. Within a few days, she boarded a train with her five little ones.

White sets the tone for the piece by informing the audience of his “increasing admiration for the teacher in the country school.” This simple beginning statement puts a positive image of country schools into the readers’ minds without too harshly pushing his opinion upon them, which could in turn, result in alienation of the audience. By using this technique, White is able to begin to persuade readers without them even realizing

In the poem “Of the Threads That Connect the Stars” by Martin Espada, a father and his son are looking up at the night sky, stargazing. Having a father and son moment both go into a conversation, the father asks his son “Did you ever see stars” (1). The poem goes through three generations, the speaker and his father, then the speaker and his son. The father was a former boxer and that was his own understanding of stars, then he had a son (the speaker) that had a rough upbringing, he never got an opportunity to witness "the stars" or “galaxies”, but once he (the speaker) had a son he seen real stars, the planets etc.

life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy Maxson, and his two sons, Lyons and Cory. By analyzing the sources of this conflict, one can better appreciate and understand the way the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.

Imagine living as a motherless farmgirl during a time when horrendous dust storms would occur. Not only do you not have a mother and are living in a terrible environment, but at the same time, you are living during The Great Depression. Billie Jo Kelby in, “Out of the Dust” by, Karen Hesse, had to deal with these painful events as a teenager. She has been in a terrible accident that took her mother’s life and scarred Billie Jo forever. To make matters worse, Daddy is so heartbroken by his wife’s death, that he can’t talk about it with Billie Jo and the two almost separate from each other until Billie Jo runs away but then comes back and reunites with Daddy. Billie Jo is friendly with the people she loves, sorrowful

In a society of people all in the same situations how can someone feel so alone. When lives fall apart and people have nothing to hold on to people need each other most, yet are pushed so far from others. The novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, follows the storyline of two men who are displaced farm workers during the Great Depression; they travel around and stick by each other’s sides no matter the circumstance. After many jobs they end up on a farm,the farm they hope will be their last stop. The time spent on the farm is filled with blooming friendships and careless quarrels, yet with an abundance of characters and entertainment- many people on the farm feel alone and out of place. Characters such as Crooks and Curley’s wife often come to mind when the subject of loneliness is brought up. Throughout the book using characters such as Crooks and Curley's wife, John Steinbeck demonstrates that humans are immensely impacted by separation from society and it will change the way that people will act and show themselves to others.

Ann Marie Low’s diary opens in 1927 when she is a teenager living with her family on a stock farm in southeastern North Dakota. Low’s diary tells the story of her family's struggle to maintain a way of life, keeping their farm, and educate their children. She discusses her family and friends, descendants of homesteaders, through the next ten years, a time when entire communities lost their homes to mortgages and to government recovery programs. Low’s faces economic hardship, unfortunate family circumstances, and the restrictions that society had placed on women. Low's diary is about life in during the Dust Bowl, and Great Depression.

As the many families camp together, proximity combined with necessity breaks down barriers of relation, and miniature societies form with there own unwritten rules and expectations. It is in one of these "Hoovervilles" that the Joads have a wicked confrontation with a vigilant police officer. A woman is shot, Tom and Floyd Knowles nearly become fugitives, and Jim Casey is arrested and thus removed from both the family and society. This sacrificing of self for the good of the group strengthens the bonds between the migrants in the Hooverville, and Casey's experience with fellow inmates in prison gives him an important realization about the power of organized protest. Incidentally, these terrible losses at the Hooverville drive the Joads in fear to what will turn out to be a far better place, and the knowledge that there are others in the same situation who will help lends unifying strength to the family and other migrants.

‘..Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world they got no family they don’t belong no place.’ This is what many felt during the ‘great depression’ in the 1930’s. John Steinbeck gives us the sense that many felt lonely ‘they got no family they don’t belong no place. The main theme of this novel is alienation; the three characters, Curley’s wife, candy, and crooks are all alienated, and felt it by another person at some point. They all have dreams... it’s the American dream... but not all dreams come true...

Chapter 1: “Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place.”[78]This quote sets the tone of the novel early on as a bleak and hard way to live. It helps the reader connect with George and Lennie by giving them an idea of their situation, that what makes it good.

Olsen’s adult life was no less full of both exuberance and despair (Web). In 1930 she joined the Young Communist League, also known as YCL. With the disapproval of her parents, she married Abraham Jevons Goldfarb. Under the YCL, Olsen wrote, organized, and participated in strikes (Web). When she fell ill, she was released from the YCL. During her break, Olsen began to write. She typically wrote of families struggling to meet ends meet (Web). She published her first novel, “Yonnondio: From the Thirties,” in 1972 (Web).

The symbolic interactionism is an excellent sociological perspective that allows us to focus on micro activities and to analyze our society which is the product of everyday’s life. Tuesdays with Morrie is more than a simple book, more than a romance one; it is a great book that teaches us many of life’s greatest lessons. An analysis of this book using the SI perspective and concepts such as meaning making, status, impression management, looking-glass self, role taking, role making, and self-presentation helps us understand the real meaning of Morrie’s words and lessons.

Steinbeck wants the reader compare this episode with the violence with which the Joad family and the migrants in general are treated. Just like the grasshopper is being subjected and crushed by the predominant power of a human being, Tom, the Joad family, or the migrants in general, are defeated by who hold the economic power. But not only form them. In fact, even the Californian people mistreat the migrants and the Joad family. They consider the farmers bugs because of their tendency to stay clump, and handle them as disgusting