Wendell Berry - the Hurt Man

Both “The Right of Love” by Gene Lees and “The Canonization” by John Donne represent a form of forbidden love due to ethnicity and religion where both parties are fighting for the acceptance of their relationship. Donne, although catholic, falls in love with a non-catholic woman which is looked down upon by others. In his poem he states, “we in us find th’ eagle and the dove”,the two birds represent two polar opposite symbols, the eagle represent strength and courage, while a dove represents love and peace. Although a relationship between catholics and non-catholics were forbidden, they found a common ground in their love for each other. Differences can strengthen the love between two individuals, which is also shown in “The Right of Love”,

A person reading this section of the story feels dismay, grief, compassion and sympathy for Matt even if they don’t have children. The reader can understand that if their child was killed in cold blood, they would not have a clear conscious knowing that their child’s murderer was walking free and that they couldn’t do anything about it.

The short story “Hurt” by Alden Nowlan offers a glimpse into the effect of childhood relations. The story is a recollection about the narrator, Skip’s, childhood friend, Stevie, and how he interacted with the people around him. Stevie lives a difficult life but learns from the hardships instead of turning bitter. The most influential relationship children have in their early life is with their parents. In "Hurt" Stevie's father does not take care of him and just let’s him do what he wants. This has made their relationship hard and has also caused Stevie to be very hard on himself. He is smart but afraid of others hurting him. However this fear has not prevented him from making friends with Skip, in their friendship he is very kind and teaches him about life. The way Stevie sees himself and his relationships with others have shaped him into an intelligent but closed off person.

While listening to a story, one can engross his or herself in the action, experiencing the events vicariously. By experiencing the story one can gain an understanding of the purpose that the author is trying to portray. In “A Place Where the Soul Can Rest” by bell hooks and “How to Make a Slave” by Jerald Walker the audience is taken on a journey through the progression of each of the author 's life experiences dealing with racism and sexism. Through use of anecdotes the audience develops a comprehension for both of the authors’ lives, witnessing their hardships of being subordinates in a white, male dominated society. Although both authors bring awareness to the atrocities of racism and sexism, hooks’ story’s purpose stands above

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

Ultimately we all find ourselves in that moment when our last breath is released from our body, dieing is our final destination, but what truly determines the worth of our life is the fight and the will power each individual endures in order to continue living. In the story “Sonny’s Blues” written by Jamis Baldwin, Baldwin writes about the suffering we all face in life and how difficult it is to make it through the darkness when one can not see the light. It is the acknowledgement that one did not give up on his or herself that makes life worth living. Sonny and the Narrator's life chronicle emulates the raw uncensored reality of life. Although Sonny made horrible deleterious life decisions, it is important to acknowledge that these decisions

Soul by Soul by Walter Johnson centers on the internal slave business in New Orleans as well as the slave market as a place of portrayal and oblique connotations built around the commoditization of the physique of slaves .A significant interest in Soul by Soul relates to the slave pen, where slave bodies as commodities determined the identities of black and white persons. Slave transactions were typically about show and filled with meaning-making, which was itself characterized by cost and worth. The paternalism ideology employed the black persons’ physique and slave transactions to imply that white persons were assisting powerless black people in the slave markets. In essence, the ideology suggests that, contrary to common perceptions, white persons were not separating slave families .The slave market history discussed in Soul by Soul relates to that of the antebellum in the South where slave trade was basically about purchases and sales. Those who owned slaves were consumers in the marketplace. Consumer way of life had structured individual identities. Slave bodies were regarded as items to be rated and assessed and were usually the subject of discussions. Every slave was given a made-up and decorated past. The market culture of slavery in that era was based on fantasy just like the ideology of paternalism. Succinctly, the slave market stimulated the self-definition of white persons from the South.

How To Kill Your Guilt Have you ever wondered what guilt and pain could do to a person? Have you ever wandered what immense pain and hurt can drive a person to do or thin? In two short stories, authors delve into these ideas and take on different forms of pain and guilt, and the consequences it has on the human mind. The story “Killings”, by Andre Dubus depicts a man named Matt Fowler. In the story his son is killed after having romantic relations with another man’s wife.

“What is equality?” one might ask. We all have different views on specific topics and can describe what something truly means to one’s self like in the 3 text, “I have a dream,” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (published; 8/28/1963, genre; narrative and argumentative), “If we must die,” by Claude Mckay (published; 1919, genre; narrative and lyric), & “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (published; October 1961, genre; satirical & dystopian science-fiction short story). In all 3 texts the authors are giving their touch on equality. Equality can convey being treated the same when a colored and a white man/woman are next to each other as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr says. You can also see equality as Mckay who thinks it’s being on the same level of strength and worth as a white man being in the shoes of a colored man. Or equality can be being exactly the same in every way as anyone around you in every exact way in Vonnegut’s eyes. All these 3 authors have a particular view on how to answer “What is equality?” and we can compare their ideas.

The two poems “White Lies” by Natasha Trethewey and “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes were written to express racial dilemmas that the authors went through. Thematically, they represent the American Dream. In “White Lies” we see that Trethewey went through some racial identity issues. She felt as if she had to lie to blend in with the rest of the whites, which was easy for her because she was mixed. To understand the full meaning of this poem, one assumes that Trethewey was the product of an interracial marriage. This type of thing was frowned upon during the time she grew up. In the poem “Theme for English B” Hughes seems to accept the fact that he is different. Hughes does not seem to have a problem with expressing his difference. He looks at as his individuality and strives to let everyone know that he is proud of who he is. The two poems have many similarities and differences.

Throughout the story “Sonny’s Blues”, by James Baldwin, several themes are prevalent. One major theme is suffering. Almost every single character in the story suffers in some way, shape, or form. The story takes place in 1950’s Harlem, a time when African Americans did not have as many rights as they do today. Harlem at this time was a low-class, poverty-stricken section of New York City. Many people were suffering, in the story and in real life. In the story, the theme suffering is shown through the narrator, Sonny, and the father.

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.

Learning to fight for your life was easier than this. Though the life was difficult in itself nothing came close to the difficulty of watching someone you love walk away, it seemed to only get harder even if it was your fault in the end. Pushing people away was a specialty of his and when it actually worked it was earth shattering. The silence pointed out the flaws that he’d managed to go without noticing with her by his side but now they screamed at him yet again. He was back to the self-destructive, sacrificial, self-loathing creature he always was. Though he always knew his family was broken it wasn’t even close to this damaged. He wasn’t the only one that felt the loss, his brother had lost someone as well. It was a feeling in the air

King uses pathos to appeal to the readers emotions by triggering relatable responses that help prove everyone is mentally ill to a certain degree. In his selection, King starts by persuading the reader that “we’re all mentally ill” helping to further comprehend his thesis. By using an inclusive word such as we, King is also referring to himself in his statement. Through the usage of words such as this, the reader will feel involved and it makes the author feel more approachable and relatable, as though it were just a conversation taking place between two people. Starting with a firm statement, such as King did, will instantly get a reaction out of the reader. Whether this reaction be good or bad, it will activate a response from the brain,

Patton Oswalt's essay, “You Gotta Fight for Your Right to F%@k Up” (2016), argues that the freedom to make a mistake without having it affect the reputation of one’s peer group is integral to the improvement of humanity. Through excess use of repetition, Oswalt exhausts the reader through his provision of numerous present day and past examples of minorities making mistakes, having their peer group suffer from stereotyping as a result. By tiring the reader with similar examples phrased in similar fashions, Oswalt stresses the notion that it always has been and forever will be ridiculous and ignorant to make assumptions about entire groups of people, as a single individual never characterizes the masses, in order to evoke possible change. Oswalt