Studying The Poetry Of Plath And Hughes

Studying The Poetry Of Plath And Hughes Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 February 11, 1963) and Ted Hughes (17 August 1930 28 October 1998) are known as some of the best poets of all time. They wrote with passion and flare and their poetry brought fire to the souls of their readers. I have always found that Hughes last poetry book, Birthday Letters, was, in short, a reply to the feelings between him and Sylvia, those judging him for her death, and, in some small form, Sylvias poetry. In this essay, I will be discovering the core significances and connections found between their poetry. I will take two poems from each poet and analyze each one, find the links between one and the other or, in some cases, their life. I will begin with Sylvia Plaths The Courage of Shutting Up, which was written in 1962, during the same week in which she wrote The Detective, The Courage of Shutting Up and a series of poems collectively called Bees The Bee Meeting, The Arrival of the Bee Box, Stings, The Swarm, and Wintering. The courage of the shut mouth, in spite of artillery! unlocks the beginning of Sylvia Plaths The Courage of Shutting-Up, a poem written about the cruel circularity of fury, the way it makes the disks of the brain revolve, like the muzzles of cannon, a needle journeying in its groove. One of the many poems Plath wrote in her illustrious eruption of passionate rage in the autumn of 1962 after becoming aware of Ted Hughess unfaithfulness, this poem was part of the monstrous bombings of literature that Plath let soar throughout the course of the twentieth centurys most well-known poetic outburst. When Hughes betrayed Plath, she grinded her pen into a knife and went used in the only way she knew how. Intimacy became her nuclear warhead: living beneath someones skin always makes it easier to condemn them. Many times she tells herself in her journals I think the worst thing is to exteriorize those jitterings so I try and shut up and not blither to Ted. His sympathy is a constant temptation. She argues with herself throughout her life about things she should and shouldnt say to Ted Should I tell the boy, before its too late warn him to set his sights on other prey more domesticated prey, at that. Or should I just shut up and plunge maybe making us both unhappy. This poem seems to be the release of every pent up emotion, thought, secret, that she ever held inside, that she ever kept from him, that she ever kept her mouth shut about. The title The Courage of Shutting up, previously known as The Courage of Quietness, gives an excellent summary of the poem, although, without reading it, there could be many assumptions about it. For example: A suffering child, a mute, a mime, and many more examples spring to the minds of those with true imagination. As in many of Plaths poetry, there is no rhyming scheme, which could be her way of portraying her anger, how she is so outraged by all the secrets she has kept, that she does not care for rhymes anymore. Another example is that she lets some of her lines flow over into the next. In the first stanza she makes it clear that she is holding back some deep dark secrets inside her by the simple mention of the shut mouth, in spite of artillery!, signifying that she has a great many secrets to tell, shamefully though, she has not told them. The line pink and quiet, a worm gives the image of the tongue sitting peacefully in its confinement, the mouth, the head, the mind, but the word basking gives us the impression that it is just waiting, for its time, for its moment, for the mind to finally give in to the temptation of letting go all of the secrets balled up inside of it. Her disks of outrage emphasise this idea, as black disks seem to be referring to a pair of black old records, filled with secrets that are meant to be played. Her outrage at the knowledge of her husbands infidelity could have been one of the inspirations for this idea. The outrage of the sky leaves us under the impression that her anger is so greats that it fills the sky itself and the last line leans strongly towards the thought that the disks in her mind, which could also be referred to as her mind, her memories, ask to be played, or in the minds case, relived or told but without their needle, their tongue, that lay basking quietly, untiring, their story can never be told. The second stanza is also filled with rages, as she explains that her disks are filled with memories of bastardies, bastardies, usages, desertions and doubleness which could be interpreted as a rough translation of all the awful sufferings her husband put her through. Her needle, or, in medical terms, tongue, plays around inside her mouth, or its groove. Her tongue is her most prized weapon. Her inner beast could be considered her dagger, her whip, it is her secret weapon, per say. During the final part of the second stanza and most of the third, describes a surgeon turned into a tattooist. This could be construed as her take on her transformation from a great poet laureate, to a housewife and a mother. Obviously she loves her children, but if you take this description how most do, she is clearly describing how she felt during her writers block. Shes tattooing over the same blue grievances, in other words, shes describing how she wrote, what she apparently considered to be, the same awful poems, over and over. The mention of The snakes and the babies gives a huge reminder of Edge, leaving us under the impression that one could have something to do with the other and that The Courage of Shutting Up could have influenced, or at least slightly inspired Edge. The fact that she says he is quiet and that he has seen to much death, his hands are full of it gives the idea that she thought she had written too many failed poetry attempts to try and go back and try again. So the disks of the brain revolve like the muzzles of cannon, could be describing how her memories replay themselves over and over in her head, grinding at her mind to speak the bastardies that she knows so deeply of. When she mentions the antique billhook, the tongue she is describing once again how dangerous her words would be if they were released. The billhook is a traditional cutting tool used mainly in forestry for cutting smaller woody materials such as shrubs and branches. If her words were only set free they would destroy her enemy with indefatigable power, meaning that she is extremely persistent and untiring. It must be cut out because it has nine tails like a cat o nine tails whip. There are three ways to lash with this type op whip. Soft lashings leave marks but they will heal, severe lashings leave scars that will not heal and savage lashings can kill. Clearly Plath was set to kill, which is why her whip must be cut out. It even flays from the air, once it gets going, w hich gives it even more power and even more reason for it to be cut off. However, in the fifth stanza we see that the antique billhook, the tongue has been put by, cut out, silenced, maybe even tongue-tied up with the fox heads, the otter heads, the heads of dead rabbits, which could be interpreted as a strange representation of all the women that Plaths husband had been with so it may be her description of how he was trying to put her up there with them. Clearly he failed. However, when we consider this from a different perspective, there is the possibility of the heads being her past poetry, a vast collection of different animals, some more dangerous than others but none so dangerous as the tongue itself that put all of those heads up there. Plath describes it as marvellous, so it is clear that it is one of her most prized possessions. It has pierced many things in its time; meaning that her spike of a tongue has pierced many a person or, some people might think it has silenced them when in a verbal discussion. When she mentions the eyes, the repetition of the eyes enhances their significance; perhaps she is referring to the well known phrase If looks could kill. She continues to write that mirrors can kill and if she is comparing mirrors to her eyes like some would think, one could assume she is speaking of how eyes mirror emotions, feelings, etc as they are Terrible rooms in which a torture goes on one can only watch showing that there is pain and suffering in the eyes but one can only sit and watch it play out in the eyes as if in shock, entrancement, or from paralysation. However, she mentions after to not worry about the eyes probably insinuating that they cannot actually kill anything or anyone. They are white and shy signifying purity, innocence. Perhaps she seeks to show that she does not use her eyes to kill, but her words. Also, in the last stanza, Plath describes how her eyes are not stool pigeons, meaning a criminals look out or a decoy, so they are not purposely looking for anything. She says that they are folded like flags and it is well known that in some countries when a soldier is killed the flag is folded in a certain way and given to the soldiers family. Their death rays folded like flags Of a country no longer heard of, An obstinate independency Insolvent among the mountains. Moving onto the selected poems by Ted Hughes, Freedom of Speech was published in 1998 along with all the others found in Ted Hughes Birthday Letters, about his relationship with the American poet Sylvia Plath, who committed suicide in 1963, the book was described as Book of poems breaks Hughes long silence on Plaths life and death. The title Freedom of Speech doesnt really give an exceptional overview of the narrative poem, it seems to hint towards the idea that everyone in the poem with the exception of the author himself, who is mentioned in the poem, and the person he is addressing are speaking, smiling, laughing, etc. There doesnt seem to be any kind of rhyme scheme, but there a few random lines in which a half rhyme can be found, could this be a possible indication of how scattered everything described in the poem is, the fact that everyone is laughing but him and her, the main characters, the birthday girl, could make everything rather disrupted. He does not end each line with a comma or a full stop, like is usually done in an a b a b rhyming scheme, which tends to be the most frequent, he lets a few of the lines spill over into the next, enhancing the idea of a scattered, desperate stream of consciousness throughout the poem. The theme is clearly fictional, as it is impossible for the person he is addres sing to actually be there on her sixtieth birthday because she had ended her life thirty years before. He describes Sylvia as a quiet bystander, sitting in silence, feeding her last book, her last love, grapes from her lips pursed like a kiss. The word kiss refers to her love for the book Ariel which was a gathering of the last poems she wrote before she committed suicide after a life of depression which ended in loneliness in 1963. The word kiss also gives the impression that Sylvia is caressing the book, and the ss also makes it sound so. The fact that the author describes the two as Ariel sits on your knuckle in the cakes glow stands to reason that she and the book are in darkness, lighted only by the cakes glow, as it would not have been that bright had the lights been on. This bring up the question: Does this mean the whole room was in darkness or just that plain solid area in which the tortured poetess and her last poetry book could be found? If it be that Hughes is trying to demonstrate that the whole room is in darkness, then the party was clearly a false and it is quite possible that he was lying to her about everyone laughing so that she would start the laughter and happiness. The trouble is that since the person referred to is clearly void of such emotions and, to be frank, isnt even there, he could be talking to himself, willing himself to start the laughter. If however the whole room is bright minus that one area in which the cake sits, in which Sylvia and her last love sits, then this has turned into a com pletely different poem. If the second option is true, then it seems that the person being referred to is a sort of ghost, sitting in the darkness, remaining solemn and unemotional, haunting him on this memorable day, her sixtieth birthday, a full thirty years after her suicide in 1963. It has always been discussed that Hughes never stopped loving or thinking about Miss Sylvia Plath and the fact that Ted Hughes even wrote the book of poems which includes Freedom of Speech supports that theory because clearly he must have thought about her often to write such a long and elaborate poetry book. In the second stanza the narrator describes the others as laughing, as if grateful. This could be trying to tell her that they are grateful to be invited, to be in the presence of such esteemed poets. There is a huge group of people the whole reunion, old friends and new friends, some famous authors, your court of brilliant minds, and publishers and doctors and professors. The entire third and fourth stanza gives the effect of a metaphor, as it has given human qualities to dead relatives, inanimate objects and the flowers around them. The description of Sylvia herself could be construed as a metaphor as it is impossible for her to actually be there as she died thirty years ago. His sense of wording in the last three stanzas are noticeable as he mentions that the children are hers, not theirs, and yet simply calls Ariel by its name, giving the illusion that Ariel is a single-minded being that Sylvia did not create, and if she did it was not alone as it was Hughes who discovered the poems and put them together, so he obviously does not say it is hers because he was also a part of its creation as he put the poems together and corrected all her mistakes that he found in the poems. The one last mentionable point is that he uses capital letters in the last line when he says Only You and I do not smile. Normally when someone uses the word you there is no capital letter but he has used one and has obviously done it for a reason. This could be to illustrate her importance in his life, to make her seem more important because at the time she is there with him, on her sixtieth birthday, sitting solemnly in the darkness with her last love, Ariel, and because of that Hug hes cannot join in on the fun everyone else is experiencing because he feels attached to her, haunted by her spirit being there. In conclusion, an analysis of Freedom of Speech shows that this poem is an author-oriented, first-person, single-angle (only the viewpoint of Hughes is shown) narrative poem which contains a mixture of modes (prose and verse). The courage of shutting up The courage of the shut mouth, in spite of artillery! The line pink and quiet, a worm, basking. There are black disks behind it, the disks of outrage, And the outrage of the sky, the lined brain of it. The disks revolve, they ask to be heard- Loaded, as they are, with accounts of bastardies. Bastardies, usages, desertions and doubleness, The needle journeying in its groove, Silver beast between two dark canyons, A great surgeon, now a tattooist, Tattooing over and over the same blue grievances, The snakes, the babies, the tits On mermaids and two-legged dream girls. The surgeon is quiet, he does not speak He has seen too much death, his hands are full of it So the disks of the brain revolve, like the muzzles of cannon. Then there is that antique billhook, the tongue, Indefatigable, purple. Must it be cut out? It has nine tails, it is dangerous And those it flays from the air, once it gets going! No, the tongue, too, has been put by, Hung up in the library with the engravings of Rangoon And the fox heads, the otter heads, the heads of dead rabbits. It is a marvellous object- The things it has pierced in its time. But how about the eyes, the eyes, the eyes? Mirrors can kill and talk, they are terrible rooms In which a torture goes on one can only watch The face that lived in this mirror is the face of a dead man. Do not worry about the eyes- They may be white and shy, they are no stool pigeons, Their death rays folded like flags Of a country no longer heard of, An obstinate independency Insolvent among the mountains. Freedom of Speech At your sixtieth birthday, in the cakes glow, Ariel sits on your knuckle. You feed it grapes, a black one, then a green one, From between your lips pursed like a kiss. Why are you so solemn? Everybody laughs As if grateful, the whole reunion Old friends and new friends, Some famous authors, your court of brilliant minds, And publishers and doctors and professors, Their eyes creased in delighted laugher even The late poppies laugh, one loses a petal. The candles tremble their tips Trying to contain their joy. And your Mummy Is laughing in her nursing home. Your children Are laughing from opposite sides of the globe. Your Daddy Laughs deep in his coffin. And the stars, Surely the stars, too, shake with laughter. And Ariel What about Ariel? Ariel is happy to be here. Only you and I do not smile.

Mountains Beyond Mountains Essay

The title is a haitian proverb that translates â€Å"beyond the mountains, more mountains.† As it relates to the book, I believe mountains beyond mountains means the never ending struggle to control disease involving the poor. In this case, the poor are the haitian people who are in a struggle to improve their health and the institution in place allow this to perpetuate. Farmer sees health in a way that differs from most. Farmer believes improvement of health is not only the actual treatment of the disease. Instead, it is the complete assimilation of institutions where the poor are given power to succeed politically as well as the access to health care. This is evident in what resources Farmer’s clinic has available to his patients that go beyond access to equipment and medications that are not easily attainable in Haiti. In order to provide the necessary resources for a healthy community today and into the future they provide a school, housing, kitchen that feeds people daily, sanitation, as well as filtered water systems. These different resources combined make up what a community needs to have an improvement of health today and into the future. This philosophy rings true for me. How can you expect to have a healthy community when these basic needs are not available. In a country like the United States these resources are at at your disposal in the most rural locations and their benefits forg otten because of it. Farmer’s Story shows how a small group of practitioners can make a positive and lasting impact in a world with poverty and a lack of health care provisions to those without insurance. One major component to this ability is the level of sacrifice these practitioners were able to endure. For many, the dreams of being a doctor include the big bucks that come along with it. In order to provide the level of care Farmer believed was necessary he sacrificed an extraordinary amount of his personal wealth. Another major sacrifice was his time with family. He split his year in Boston and Haiti so the geographic aspect was limiting. Then, the enormous amount of work that seemed never ending (mountains beyond mountains) kept  him busy way beyond an average 9 to 5, leaving no time for vacation to visit. These sacrifices are not to be taken lightly. I don’t know if I would be willing to live for others like Farmer has. It takes a certain character that one is born with to do this. Farmer used every tool he had to help. He sweet talked workers at hospitals and walked away with tuberculosis medicine for the poor and even paid for it himself. When caught he paid back the 96 thousand dollars in medicine he had take. When he was with others he would lecture all he came into contact with on the plight of the poor. He felt as though the poor were all too often forgotten. Tuberculosis control was the perfect example of this. Pharmaceutical companies had controlled TB in wealthy countries and made no effort in poor nations like haiti because it did not make sense financially. Once Farmer came into contact with a resistant form of TB in haiti he was on a mission to make MDR available for all not just the wealthy. The biggest block was cost. His goal of MDR for all was not shared by pharmaceutical companies that wanted to keep the prices high. That didn’t sway him one bit. Ultimately, Farmer was able to acheive his goal and make MDR affordable for all. This motivation with no regard to a personal financial benefit is an attribute I have seldom seen in my lifetime. I imagine Farmer had been approached or had the opportunity to make huge profits from his position and public image. This ethical character seems mythical in today’s world of business and bottom lines. His ethical standard is something to aspire to. The most intriguing quality I see in Farmer is his ability to understand the position of the poor in all its complexity. Wether the person is from Haiti or the United States he treats the patient with a respect that puts the patient at ease. His overall goal is to help the patient in a manner where it improves their overall health. One example that stuck out was Farmer’s experience with Joe a drug addict who doesn’t take his medication or eat properly. He sits with him and asks what his needs are in order to have a successful change in health. The response was definitely unique. His needs were a warm place to stay, 6 pack of beer, person to make sure he takes his medication, and someone to make sure he eats. Instead of listening and  completely dismissing his needs as out of the question he promises to try his best. On a board he writes what Joe’s current situation and the situation he wants to place him in and begins his mission. Ultimately he finds Joe a homeless shelter but they do not allow alcohol, but that doesn’t stop Farmer from pleading Joe’s case. This unorthodox method for providing the care Farmer felt would make a real change in Joe’s health was impressive. Farmer’s story is impressive. After reading this book I understand that a medical career is more than the good life. The abilities we are about to have can help so many and we need to know that is the goal of a good practitioner.

What Is A Learning Disability - 1280 Words

Children are uniquely made by God and the parents that he has entrusted to have stewardship over their lives. There are no two children that are exactly alike. They may have similar tendencies or characteristics, but there is something different about each individual that will eventually come to the surface. This report will give in-depth insight on a student with learning disabilities that is included in a regular classroom, receives classroom modifications, according to his IEP, and receives additional services offered by resource teachers. What is a Learning Disability? What is a learning disability? A learning disability can be explained in a variety of ways but it deals with the way the brain is wired that may cause a student to have†¦show more content†¦This also makes a person lose focus and not have the ability to concentrate long enough to complete a task****. The Square in the Circle The square being referenced is a student by the name of Bryar Jackson. This title was chosen to explain that all children are different in their own unique ways. Bryar is in the fifth grade. He is eleven years old and his learning disabilities are Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and Specific Learning Disability (SLD) in writing and mathematical calculations. ADHD is a disorder that a student to have a hard time focusing and it makes it hard for the student to be able to sit still. The student will often times perform poorly in class because this disorder keeps them from being able to be still long enough to completer the classroom assignments*. ODD is a disorder that cause one to have issues with the person that may have charge over them such as their parents or teachers*. This causes the student to argue and be disobedient with authority and others. Bryar’s academic strength is in reading. He likes reading and his favorite pastime is to read on the laptops in class with a reading program called Big Universe that the teacher allows the students to use with many books to choose from. Bryar struggles in math. He hates math and will do all that he can to avoid math completely. He will finish any math assignment as soon as he can, regardless if the answers

My Friendship With My Friend - 983 Words

As a little girl, I have been always told to act in a way that I think is correct. I did not the true meaning of that until I got to Grade 7. I became good friends with a girl. She became part of my group that included my former best friend and I. It consisted of three people, which made me a bit doubtful, because I knew that meant someone would always be on the side, depending on the situation. Unfortunately, my new friend usually fell into that situation. I did not realize that because I was so absorbed in my friendship with my former best friend. Being so absorbed in my friendship with my former best friend, I said bad things about my new friend behind her back, so I can keep my friendship with her. We avoided her on purpose, and we†¦show more content†¦It was not good for her either. She was also crying as much as I was. I must have scared her by screaming in her face. When I walked into TA class crying like crazy, my teacher got really worried. She realized that the fight between my friend and I got out of hand, and it was starting to hurt me. So, she called the two of us together to fix it. It was an emotional experience. We both talked about how we were rude to each other and said sorry to each other. Even though it seems like an official mending of our friendship, it was not. In the same month, I moved to Tom Baines because my parents bought a new house. She left for Houston in October. I did invite her over once, but she didn’t come over because she was busy. I was not able to give her the apology I wanted to give to her. Our lives went by for around three years without any communication. We blocked each other from everything so we were never able to contact each other. I thought that I was never going to be able to give her the apology that she deserved. I didn’t want this fight from three years ago to ruin our friendship. It was from three years ago when we were younger, foolish, and more naà ¯ve than we are now. 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Nature Of Conquest Understanding The East India Company...

Nature of Conquest: Understanding the East India Company s role in Bengal A reassessment of the eighteenth century in Indian politics goes hand-in-glove with a discussion of the EIC s intrusion. Before that, a few words are in order regarding Bengal during this period. Referred to as Subah Jannat-i-Bilad-Bangla by Aurangzeb, the province of Bengal proved to be one of the most successful experiments of successor states in eighteenth-century India.1 The efficiency in administration brought about by Murshid Quli Khan in his capacity first as the Diwan (civil and revenue administrator) and later, as the Nazim (governor) in 1717, on the one hand, met the needs of the decadent Mughal state for revenues, whilst on the other hand, laid the†¦show more content†¦Thereafter, Siraj s defeat in Plassey as a result of the coalition of indigenous and British interests, and the sequence of events that followed, are too well-known to be recapitulated here.4 Studying the EIC s conquests, P. J. Marshall argues that there were no conscious attempts towards political dominance of India on the part of Britain until the the passage of the Pitt s India Act in 1784. Though the connections between trade and politics in this age can not be ignored, the EIC s acts should be seen as a response to the political and economic conditions in eighteenth-century India. According to him, the British were active participants in struggles for power in the regional polities. This involvement in local politics later gave way to empire. This was the handiwork of the men on the spot. Lack of proper communication, and knowledge about conditions in India made the exercise of effective control from home impossible, thus leading to a classic instance of what has been referred to as sub-imperialism . The company servants placed the directives from Britain at their own discretion, exploited the opportunities of territorial and commercial gains that came their way, and guarded their hard-won victories by the use of force.5 Whilst this emphasis on local interests is usefu l in understanding the historical context in India as a prelude to the EIC s intervention, it altogether denies the

Rain of Gold Occupied America Comparison Free Essays

string(33) " were just itching for violence\." A Dreamer’s Struggles In Victor Villasenor novel, Rain of Gold is an accurate view in how he portrays what his family experienced in migrating into the Southwest of the United States, in attempt to live a safe prosperous life. Lupe, Victoriano, and Juan are three characters from the novel that best illustrates the struggles that many immigrants face in crossing over in search for work and safety. In Occupied America, by Rodolfo Acuna supports the experiences of the characters in the novel, making it clear that the events that took place in Rain of Gold are in fact what people experience in the real life. We will write a custom essay sample on Rain of Gold Occupied America Comparison or any similar topic only for you Order Now For instance, Lupe struggled with the threat of being rapped as well as any other young lady in the novel; she also struggled with education by either not having the support of the community to establish a school district, and or putting obstacles that keep her from attending school when school was available. In the case of Victoriano, he experienced discrimination from his own race, and beatings from authority. Lastly, Juan, struggled, like Victoriano, discrimination, and like the other characters in the novel struggled to cross borders and under goes difficult struggles as a young boy, and then the biggest issue we still struggle with today, assimilation. Growing up was difficult for Lupe. She endured a lot of hardship growing up, where instead of living a peaceful childhood she had to constantly hide and be aware of those around because at any given moment a creature from hell could just come and grab her and snatch her innocence from her, on page 74 of novel Lupe states that, â€Å"No girl was safe anymore. La Liebre and his men were raping any girl that happened to walk by the plaza unescorted†, examining this quote it is evident that no female girl or woman was safe in their own home, in order to run errands or do daily chores away from home they needed to be accompanied to keep them from harm. In Occupied America makes it easy to understand that these incidents truly did occur to women, â€Å"Californio families lived in no Utopia. They were patriarchal; sexual violence, rape and incest burden fell on the poor and native women, who did not have â€Å"protectors†. (pg 127) In other words women had no worth, and no one to defend their worth. Being a woman myself I cannot imagine what they went through and to think that many of them after the years perhaps thought that this is in fact was their purpose, to be nothing. Lupe was no exception she encountered many incidents where she was nearly raped, as a matter of fact a lot of the girl of her town were raped so bad that the y died from the impact. â€Å"And not only had the bandits killed Don Tiburcio, they’d taken their gold, raped Paloma and other two Indian girls, killing all of them. (pg 198) Another obstacle Lupe experienced that majority of girl’s experienced were no support for an education. It was a privilege for any child to go to school, none less a girl. The novel puts emphasis through the story how Lupe struggled to get an education. For example, when Don Manuel declares, â€Å"He’s under no written obligation to supply a school for the village. † He was arguing with the mothers of the students whom attended school when they discontinued paying Senora Munoz, though she continued to teach which was leading her to secretly starve. But the village united and helped maintain education by paying the teacher what they could as long as they could and took turn having her over for dinner and feeding her in the meantime she was there. Another occasion was when Lupe was older and by then she had migrated to the United States, she had returned to school and although she was making great progress and maintain good discipline and determination she went through a hurdle that scared her from ever returning she explained to her mother stating, â€Å"Mr. Horn my new teacher, was real nice to me, too, helping me after school; but then one day he, he, he grabbed me from behind while I was writing on the blackboard. †(pg267) This frightened Lupe especially when he called her a dirty Mexican prick-tease that she was too old to be in school. In her time women Mexican women were taught to be respected and not allow a man to ever mistreat them, their customs were solid in marrying a virgin, so this act from a professor raged anyone with values like Lupe. Occupied America† also supports lack of education affirming, â€Å"Spanish authorities were not inclined to educate them. † Meaning women, â€Å"Few religious schools dedicates to educating young women existed. † (pg 27) It is clear that there was very little if any support to educate women, Euro American viewed women to be inferior and keeping them ignorant was in their best interest, though I am proud to say that today because of good men and intellectual ingenio us women the female gender has an overall equal fair chance at an education. But like everything else it was not an easy rode to et there. Victoriano, which in the novel is Lupe’s older brother by a few years, battled his own demons. For example, when he saw that his family was struggling to survive he ran to find any scrap of gold that was left behind were the miners threw old scraps of materials, during his search he founds a few rocks that could potentially had been gold, when he ran into trouble doing absolutely nothing wrong, â€Å"Nothing he could say would stop these vicious men. They were sneering at him like huge, hungry cats ready to pounce on a mouse. (pg85) At this point La Liebre found him digging the grounds and questioned him and accused him of stealing though that was open for anyone to dig, but they were just itching for violence. You read "Rain of Gold Occupied America Comparison" in category "Papers" They tried to hang him stating that they were going to make an example of him for stealing, but his mother would die before watching h er only make son die. In the process she managed to save her teens live from being hanged and shot the main leader of La Liebre, forcing the other men who were still alive to leave the village leaving the people to celebrate for uniting against terror. Victoriano having experienced injustice beatings and almost death provides lucid narrative of authority abuse. Where an official or someone with some form of power takes matters into their own hands. â€Å"Los Mineros† video delegates the experiences of miners in the United States that were brought from two main territories Chihuahua and Sinaloa, based on their past experience as miners, little did they know that they would be getting paid scrap money and live in horrible conditions. When they reached their ending point they began to organize protest and fight for healthcare and welfare. During their battle many participants were jailed and beaten sometimes to death, for protesting stating that they were disturbing the peace. In reality government officials would make up any story to imprison these men, which were only fighting for what was owned to them. The video was not made up by actors it was a documentary of the men who experienced the unfair treatment of the â€Å"white man. Evidence is all around us it’s just a matter of us realizing and making a change. Juan was an interesting character. He came of a line of heroes and embraced his ancestry; he was a boy who grew up to be proud of his past. When I first began to read into Juan’s story I had the impression he was a grown man based on is actions and attitude, little did I know he was just a thirteen year old boy who know more about life than the average 20 year old today. Juan went through a lot of discrimination throughout the novel, at one point when he is talking to two of his nephews he informs the two that, â€Å"Hell he treated the dogs better than me. He only had eyes for my brother Domingo, who was blue-eyed like himself. †(pg228) and goes on and tells the boys that prejudice exist in Mexico too, meaning that it’s not just in the United States that narrow-mindedness is present but in their native country as well. In the article, â€Å"The True Significance of the Word White† maintains how assimilation came to birth and how the mindset of the Euro American affected the culture and lifestyle of the Latin people. One piece of the article it’s obvious what they thought of the Mexican people and therefore look down on then and discriminated against them, â€Å"European Americans believed Mexicans were an â€Å"indolent† people, whose backwardness reflected their having poor personal habits and collective deficiencies such as laziness or a penchant for extravagances. In them succeeding in passing along this â€Å"opinion† of Mexican people it was just as easy for Mexican people to accept this concept. In result, any trace of being Mexican was viewed as even being ugly, yet if one was Mexican but had traces that made them look white it was praised upon and it made it quite easy to blend with the rest and reject their cultural which is what the Euro Americans wanted and s ucceeded in. This is also referred to as assimilation. In the novel many of the characters adapted assimilation, Juan was sure to be one of them. When he left Montana to visit his mother his sister and mother noticed he was not the same young boy they once knew. He was almost unrecognizable at first and second glance, â€Å"Just look at you! These clothes, and the taxi† (pg223) His sister took notice of Juan’s transformation, and though she did not emphasize too much about how much he had changed it was apparent that he had lost a part of himself along the way. He realized that he could hardly speak clear Spanish anymore having difficulty pronouncing words fluently. In â€Å"Occupied America† there is an important message written that is empowering and influential, it reads, â€Å"Yet the debate is not whether assimilation is taking place, but what it means. Most agree that assimilation into life in the U. S. is not an instant transformation in which an immigrant suddenly becomes a full-flagged American. Nor does it require the obligation of ethnic identity. Instead, assimilation is a long-term, sometimes multi-generational, process in which newcomers of different backgrounds adopt basic notions of American life—equality under law, due process, and economic opportunity. Put another way, assimilation is not about immigrants rejecting their past, but about people of different racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds coming to believe that they are a part of an overarching American family. † It was necessary to write it all out to truly capture the depths of this message. Thou some may argue was assimilation is this we can all agree in. In the case of Juan it took him a while to find him and to realize that one must first think with our minds before acting on impulse. Juan experienced a true roller coaster like I am sure many did. I felt that Juan stands out among the rest because if analyzed piece by piece it is true that he experienced by far what most immigrants have and do presently in their quest to the southwest. Rain of Gold, Occupied America and other resources studied in class, identifies how events stated in the material used was very much so true, and though people may deny or ignore the truth it is not likely to be forgotten if informed, it is up to the individual to own up to the truth. The three characters Lupe, Victoriano, and Juan were good examples in the novel that added emphasis to real life experiences of people migrating to the southwest. Though there is so much to say about these characters and others with just concentrating with this analysis one can conclude that a life of an immigrant is not a choice or a preference but a form of survival. How to cite Rain of Gold Occupied America Comparison, Papers

The Plus Point of Malaysia free essay sample

Malaysias cuisine reflects the multi-ethnic makeup of its population. Many cultures from within the country and from surrounding regions have greatly influenced the cuisine. Much of the influence comes from the Malay, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Javanese, and Sumatran cultures, largely due to the country being part of the ancient spice route. The cuisine is very similar to that of Singapore and Brunei, and also bears resemblance to Filipino cuisine. The different states have varied dishes, and often the food in Malaysia is different from the original dishes. 4. Holidays / FestivalMuslim holidays are prominent as Islam is the state religion; Hari Raya Puasa (also called Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Malay for Eid al-Fitr), Hari Raya Haji (also called Hari Raya Aidiladha, the translation of Eid ul-Adha), Maulidur Rasul (birthday of the Prophet), and others being observed. Malaysian Chinese celebrate festivals such as Chinese New Year and others relating to traditional Chinese beliefs. Hindus in Malaysia celebrate Deepavali, the festival of lights, while Thaipusam is a religious rite which sees pilgrims from all over the country converge at the Batu Caves. We will write a custom essay sample on The Plus Point of Malaysia or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Malaysias Christian community celebrates most of the holidays observed by Christians elsewhere, most notably Christmas and Easter. East Malaysians also celebrate a harvest festival known as Gawai. Despite most festivals being identified with a particular ethnic or religious group, celebrations are universal. In a custom known as open house Malaysians participate in the celebrations of others, often visiting the houses of those who identify with the festival.