Autobiography Of My Mother Essays (Examples)

The example Xuela sees of womanhood, and the one she later repeats, is one of jealousy and spite. At one point, this step-mother even tries to kill Xuela with a necklace, piece of jewelry. This is another example of femininity -- this time in the form of a feminine object, the necklace -- being used in a destructive way. Xuela so identifies with this picture of women that she repeats the behavior without even understanding why, such as when she seduces her step-sister's lover or sleeps with other women's husbands.

Eventually, Xuela marries a rich white man who loves her, and she uses this love to make fun of him and control her world. This is the only way she has been taught to be a woman. She has almost all of the traditional negative "feminine" traits, such as jealousy, manipulation, and selfishness, but none of the good qualities. She…

Autobiography of Iviannette Figueroa

In this paper, I will describe my life and how my life experiences have shaped the person that I am today, how they have impacted my dreams, and what I intend to do in the future. In this paper I explore my childhood and how the difficulties that I encountered in that childhood have helped shape the woman I am today. The woman that I am today is a mother, a wife, and a student working towards admission into the respiratory therapist program. Generally, I have worked hard to put a difficult childhood behind me. As a result, I have to acknowledge that an autobiographical paper was very challenging for me. I do not like to think about how my childhood has impacted the woman that I am today. While I am generally self-confident, I realize that the things I like the least about myself are…

childhood, personal and academic experiences, and future goals. I describe my childhood and family, my current living situation, my personal and academic experiences and conclude with my views on the experience of writing an autobiography.

Description

I am a 28-year-old female, born the middle child to my mother and father. I have an older brother who is 30 years old as well as a younger sister, born 6 years after me, who is now 22. I grew up with my siblings and both of my parents, my mother and my father. My family was regular, both of my parents shared equally in disciplining me and my siblings. My father was the most dominant figure in the household, although really both of my parents played a very significant role in raising my siblings and myself. In truth, they would fluctuate between who was more dominant based on the specific issue. For…

Michael Jones and I was born on the 19th of March, 1998, in Hawthorne, California. I am currently eighteen years old and in my fourth year of college. My parents are Stephen Jones and Callie Jones. Our family comprises of my father, mother, brother and a sister. My brother's name is James Arnold Jones and my sister's name is Joanne Jones. I am grateful to have my siblings and both of my parents in my life alive and healthy. I do not have a great deal of memory about my early childhood, but my mom incessantly mentions that I was a very lively, inquisitive, and talkative child. I was curious about everything and kept asking questions all the time, even without having to wait for the correct answers in response. It is for this reason that I assume my parents bought me numerous books as well as novels from an…

Auto Biography and Timeline

My family is of Irish descent. My great grandfather initially came to the United States during the potato famine that devastated so many Irish people during the middle of the 19th century. He was fortunate to escape in time before he was financially ruined, and was able to meet my great grandmother in New York where he attained a position in the financial industry. My family has largely remained in the U.S. ever since then.

As the oldest child in my family, I have been saddled with responsibility ever since I can remember. My parents had my sister a mere three years after they had me, and my little brother was born approximately two years later. My childhood was eventful to say the least. I have fond memories of playing with my siblings. However, whenever we got into mischief (which was inevitable for three children, especially…

Life Cycle

Today at the age of 54, when I look back at my life I feel an overwhelming sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. Life has come with its ups and downs, but it has never been a burden and that is precisely what made my 54 years translate into an exciting experience. I got married, had children and raised a family with the support and love of my husband and while all this was going on, I also held on to my own personal dreams. But life is never a smooth journey for anyone. It puts you in the path of danger and death only to test the limits of your strength, courage and will to live. I guess it was all these three factors combined that helped me come out of some traumatic phases with renewed sense of self and a more positive outlook on life.

CHILDHOOD:

I…

Like Jesus, the Buddha was a teacher who cared about the poor and desired to liberate others from all of the suffering in the world. I learned that Buddha was born a wealthy man, but one day, when he had left his fine home, he saw men who were sick, old, and dying, and was instantly struck by the injustice of the world. He resolved to leave his comfortable life and to find Enlightenment as a result. For many years, he embarked upon a spiritual journey of extreme asceticism. Then, one day, while on a long and terrible fast, a young girl offered him a bowl of milk and rice. The Buddha was so moved by her gestures and the simplicity of her kindness he was able to achieve Enlightenment, or an understanding and acceptance of the impermanence of all things.

Although some people find Buddhism depressing, Buddhism's teaching about…

Personal Autobiography

If you have any questions about this paper, please contact our customer service department at series of painful incidents moulded me into the person I am now. It has taken years to alter my psychological responses, to mature, and to appreciate the value of hardship. Each of my personal obstacles has ultimately transformed my character.

I have only vague memories of my childhood. The time I spent with my mother, father, and brother remained cloudy until only recently. I recall doing everything with my family as a young child: our time was divided between our home in Florida, a boat on the river, and our home located in Lake of the Ozarks. I had little interaction with other children other than in school, and I had no involvement in activities that would have fostered social and educational development. Sitting on my father's lap while he sipped martinis was…

Language and Culture in Autobiography

Language, Culture and Identity in the writings of Maxine Hong Kingston, Richard Rodriguez and Alfred Kazin: degradation of culture, family and self"

Through the three autobiographical works, "Talk," by Maxine Hong Kingston, "Hunger of Memory," by Richard Rodriguez and "Brownsville School Days," by Alfred Kazin a reader can plainly comprehend the difficulties associated with immigration and language learning and how those difficulties interact with a developing child's mind. Though the cultures and languages of all three of these authors are vastly different and the severity of internal and external reactions they have to the circumstances their emotional and intellectual responses to their challenges are strikingly similar.

The simple voices of these three children of different cultures become complex words and ideas issued forth through the phenomena of growing up as an outsider and immigrant and most importantly a non-native English speaker. In these three works…

Myles Horton's autobiography The Long Haul is a source of inspiration for teachers and students alike as it provides a thought provoking perspective on the role of education as one where individual minds are molded into working towards social change. Horton's passionate belief in such a philosophy of education led him to establish the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee's Grundy County in 1932 with the aim of helping the rural and industrial adult community achieve social and economic justice. The strength of conviction, which Horton had in his philosophy of education, is evidenced by the fact that the Highlander school went on to play an important role in facilitating the labor rights movement and the civil rights movement, which took place around the mid-twentieth century. However, Horton's autobiography is of interest from more than just the historical relevance perspective as its real value lies in understanding Horton's sociocultural approach to…

Not everyone is fond of Italian-Americans. Many believe that anyone with an Italian name must in some way be connected to the Mafia, and thus are leery of personal relationships, fearing some godfather figure lurks in the shadows somewhere. And I have seen Asians be the target of several types of discrimination, from hiring practices to business patronage. There has always been discrimination against African-Americans in some form or another. Today, it is the general belief of many that all African-American youth belong gangs, which is much like the idea that all Italian-Americans are Mafia.

Stereo-typing is common. In fact it could be considered normal, since everyone, no matter the color of their skin or ethnic background, is guilty of it. Each group sees the other as different, the same in many respects, but different nonetheless. My great-grandmother may indeed be rolling in her grave over the fact that my…

Personal Nursing Philosophy

My Nursing Autobiography

I have dreamt of being a nurse all my life. My mother and older cousins tell me stories of how I loved to line up my dolls and animals, place bandages over them to nurse their 'injuries' and stick branches in their armpits to have a feel of their temperature. Well, I believe these stories because to this day, these are the very things that keep my life going; I derive so much satisfaction from just being able to help people when they are in no position to help themselves. I took an elective nursing course in high school, where I was supposed to report at the local facility at least once every week to assist in the administration of basic care to patients. This marked the beginning of my career in nursing, and since then, I have logged almost 15 years of experience…

graduate studies in the USA, and have been here for 8 years. It was difficult for me to interact with the American people because it was a polarized interaction. When I first landed on American soil, I was hosted by an American family. There was a 10-year-old daughter in the family that hosted me. The distinction of our culture from theirs and the general approach and beliefs became apparent when I witnessed the girl's mother give her cold orange juice; though the girl had contracted flu. The Chinese believe that people who feel unwell should avoid cold drinks, believing that it aggravates the affliction. I had internalised the precaution from both family and friends back home. Indeed, people in China would disapprove serving cold juice/water to a sick person; particularly when it is flu. Concerned, I thought that I should speak out about the issue, I suggested that the girl…

Fisher

If I follow the path of memory back to its start, I begin life looking out my upstairs bedroom window. It's here I have my best daydreams and where I can make up stories I like to think about. In my mind's first flash of light, I am here, on the inside looking out of the Picketts' two-story house on a street at the edge of Glenville, the second house from the corner, a block from (Public School) 105. This is a snow-covered morning when the other kids, already school age, are gone and I'm alone, staring out into the blinding whiteness, thinking it's no fun being left behind, no one to play with."

Antwone Fisher's autobiography starts with these words. The book caught and held my attention from the first pages until the final period, not because I had personally experienced the events of Mr. Fishers' life, but…

Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published shortly after his assassination in February 1965, is a collaborative effort by Malcolm X and Alex Haley. Containing as it does the entire life history of Malcolm X, the book is a virtual kaleidoscope of the man's various philosophies, be it on African-American unity and integration; racism; religion; non-violence; or human rights. But the singular fact that stands out while reading the book is the many transformations that Malcolm X went through during his lifetime. The drastic shifts in circumstances, ideologies and life paths chosen make it extremely difficult to identify any one consistent philosophy that characterizes the man. Yet, it is precisely for that very reason that there is an identifiable underlying philosophy that shines through almost his entire life span. And that is, Malcolm X was a man who believed in the virtue of self-realization…

Pictures: My Life Autism Temple Grandin. For a special education teacher/Class. Double spaced 1in margins times roman font size 12 Order ID

Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism by Temple Grandin.

Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism is the autobiography of Temple Grandin, an extraordinary woman with autism. Grandin's accomplishments are so impressive her achievements would be noteworthy even if she had not been born with autism. However, when Grandin was born, autism was seldom diagnosed in infants, and her failure to talk, relate to others, and otherwise develop normally was seen as a sign of mental retardation. Her mother was advised to institutionalize her, but Grandin's mother persevered and sought special services for her daughter to enable her to talk, obtain an education, and eventually go on to graduate school in the field of animal science.

One of the most unusual aspects of Grandin's book is the…

Simic

Charles Simic's poem "My Mother Was a Braid of Black Smoke" appears in New and Selected Poems, 1962-2012. The poem is the story of the poet's genesis, and it is difficult for the reader to distinguish between what is actual memory and what is the impression or imagination of the speaker. The first stanza starts, "My mother was a braid of black smoke." The imagery in this stanza, with his mother's "swaddling," conveys the sense that Simic's childhood was not a wealthy or happy one. The cities were "burning cities," perhaps reference to the outbreak of war. When the speaker says "We met many others who were just like us," the reader gets the sense that they were outcasts. This imagery is in direct contradiction with the second stanza's imagery. For instance, the second stanza refers to gypsies, and distinguishes the speaker's family from the gypsies. "I was stolen…

The book Autobiography of My Dead Brother also deals with the identity crises of youth. It begins with three teenagers attending a funeral of their friend who died in a drive-by shooting. The main characters, Jesse and Rise, are not actually blood brothers, but they consider themselves brothers because of their close friendship. However, over the course of the book, the two young men began to become estranged. Rise becomes more and more interested with making a living on the street, selling drugs and living the life of the sort of people who killed Bobby, the boy whose funeral both young men attend at the beginning of the book. Rise justifies this because Bobby played by the rules and still died -- but in contrast, Jesse finds himself growing apart from his brother and instead finding refuge in art rather than violence. Defining his own values in contrast to those…

Both Taoism and Buddhism encourage meditation as a means by which to liberate the mind and achieve emptiness. One of the Buddhist practices that encourages emptiness is mindfulness meditation, or vipassana. However, there are numerous specific methods that be used during the meditation practice. Some are more Tibetan in origin as those espoused by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the Vajrayana tradition. Other meditation practices are like those I learned at the Hsi Lai Temple, which combine Ch'an (Chinese Zen) Buddhism with Buddhist humanism. Taoism, unlike Buddhism, also offers ancillary spiritual practices such as Tai Chi and Chi Gung. The teachings of Buddhism and Taoism go neatly hand in hand.

Therefore, I am continually growing from becoming more open to spiritual teachings. The spiritual journey is like a flower blossoming. I do not believe that religious dogma or ideology are necessary, and in some cases they can be harmful. As Chogyam…

Speaking of the United States, for example, since 9/11, there has been an increased in intolerance regarding Muslims. This prejudice toward Muslims has also sparked increased intolerance for Christian people, as Christianity is the dominant religion in America and is the religion most often associated with American culture. 1492 is also the fabled year with the Spanish armada arrived on the shores of what we know now as the United States of America. Therefore this film is a strong choice as it is an intersection of the history of the country and the history of my family.

How we remember our world, national, and personal history is often closely related to the geography and nature of the spaces wherein we lived and migrated to. These are the connections that I see among the texts by Nabokov, Bishop, and "The Passion of Joshua the Jew." These issues from history continue to…

Although his brother features prominently in the narrative, Nabokov cannot know, as most people cannot know, what it is like to be one of a set of triplets. The mental energy and power that comes from being one of a set is in part related to the practical issues related to our upbringing, such as the need to formulate a unique identity in spite of being treated and viewed as equals. We competed for our parents' attention, unlike typical siblings whose birth order defines much of who they are in the family.

When Nabokov's family is in exile, and they live as immigrants, the comparisons between his story and my own become even more salient. The comparison raises the question: to what degree does our environment shape our identity? Is it possible to separate the self from one's culture, class, and creed?

Like Nabokov, I had a privileged childhood with…

Authenticity in Multicultural Narratives of experience and language -- the problem of Rigoberta Menchu's I, Rigoberta Menchu

On the surface, there is no 'problem,' one might say, given the astounding achievement of native Guatemalan opposition leader and community activist Rigoberta Menchu. Rigoberta Menchu won the Nobel Prize, even after she was forced to go into hiding in her beloved Guatemala, and then flee her native land to Mexico, far from the land and community she loved. She remains a forceful and vigorous voice for the rights of disenfranchised Guatemalans to this day. Her resulting book, called in English, I, Rigoberta Menchu, tells of her experiences as a native Guatemalan woman, and then as the Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition (RUOG). But because of its translated quality and the subject's own perception of herself as a community spokeswoman as well as a lone sufferer of oppression -- indeed, what it means…

Her cancer and disfigurement distinguish the subject as being in a specific cultural group due for counseling, with many of the strategies used to engage her centering the culture of sickness and its attendant modes of recovery, rehabilitation and return to normalcy. Current logic supports group-based treatment imperatives for those who may be characterized accordingly. For the subject through, as with most any counseling subject, a number of specific cultural and personal features have made this sickness and its consequences a unique experience. e can also see that her perspective and needs have been formed by dimensions such as the subject's unstable economic upbringing; the sense of difference from wealthy suburban children; and an internal portrayal within the family suggesting a retention of the identity of foreigners in a strange land.

The interplay of these multiple dimensions is discussed in the article by Croteau et al. The article quotes several…

I have frequently felt her head, and found it nearly covered over with festering sores, caused by the lash of her cruel mistress. I do not know that her master ever whipped her, but I have often been an eye witness of the revolting and brutal inflictions by Mrs. Hamilton; and what lends a deeper shade to this woman's conduct, is the fact, that, almost in the very moments of her shocking outrages of humanity and decency, she would charm you by the sweetness of her voice and her seeming piety." (149) Slavery thus causes, what Douglass states are "THE BANEFUL EFFECTS OF SLAVEHOLDING ON MY DEAR AND GOOD MISTRESS," upon women in particular. omen are suggestible and such a bad institution as slavery corrupts even good hite females as well as harms the tender bodies of Black females -- again a very persuasive appeal to a hite Northern audience…

It will use historical evidence to examine the role of the church is a spiritual entity. It will examine the role of the church as a political entity throughout changing political landscapes. It will explore the role of the church as a social service provider with regards to the importance of this role in helping black people to redeem themselves in light of historical cultural atrocities that they have faced.

esearch Questions

In order to examine that topics of interest un this research study the following research questions be addressed.

1. How has the black church served as redemptive force in helping the black people to heal?

2. What factors served as a redemptive force in helping the image of black people in the black church to improve?

3. How has a black church helped black communities to regain and maintain their self-sufficiency?

4. How has the black church served…

Mirror" by Connie Panzarino

The Me in the Mirror" is an autobiographical work written by Constance Panzarino, a writer, activist and artist who talked about her life as a disable cause by the rare disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type II. Connie Panzarino was born on November 26, 1947 in Brooklyn, New York, and her book chronicles her life as a child growing and living with the said muscular disease. The book is divided into different sections that focus on various topics, and her narration is not a chronicle of her life from childhood to adulthood, but rather, Panzarino touched various aspects of her life as a disabled person. In addition to her struggle for physical mobility, her book speaks of her struggles also as a woman who is disabled, as an individual doing passionate work for her fellow disabled individuals, and most importantly, her fight against the concept of "Ableism,"…

I would like to explore Jungian theories about personality (as might be found in Meyer-Briggs instrumentation) and consciousness with respect to recall while writing memoir and the phenomenon Jung (2006) referred to as collective consciousness.

This little slice of memoir was interesting because in the writing, I experienced recollection. I had not thought about these events in my childhood for sometime. In fact, the last time I remember trying to recall the details of these happenings was during a visit with my brother. My older brother has digitized many slides that our father took during the period of time when we were growing up. He is fond of getting out his binder of enlarged slides, now in print format, and encouraging the development of our mutual memories about our halcyon days of our childhood in a small town.

eferences

Cohen, and Cohen, (Producers and Directors) (1996). Fargo. [Film]. Los Angeles:…

My father was a school teacher during a time when females dominated the profession. They still do. Through my adolescent years I received conflicting messages as teachers tried to push me to excel in the academic areas that society deems acceptable for women, while discouraging me from things that were usually considered men territories.

On a macro level this taught me that my family was strange and I remember for a short period of time flipping the roles my parents played in the work world. I would tell others that my father was the biologist and my mother was the teacher. I believed it fit more with what the structure of society expected from a normal family and I was at an age where being a normal family was of utmost importance.

My friends at the time also fed into the gender difference beliefs as they began to eye the…

Santa Anna Dictatorship

In his self-described revisionist biography Santa Anna of Mexico (2007), Will Fowler has courageously taken up the defense of the Mexico caudillo, fully aware that he is all but universally reviled in the historiography of the United States and Mexico. From the beginning, he made his intention clear to vindicate the reputation of a dictator whose "vilification has been so thorough and effective that the process of deconstructing the numerous lies that have been told and retold" is almost impossible.[footnoteRef:1] Timothy J. Henderson asserted that he had a great talent for exploiting and manipulating political divisions but none for governing a country. In U.S. history and popular culture, he has always been portrayed as a corrupt megalomaniac, the 'Napoleon of the West', responsible for the massacres at the Alamo and Goliad. As John Chasteen and James Wood put it, even his autobiography was an "extraordinary work of…

govern the extent to which we thrive as human beings. Our survival has been contingent on the fulfillment of needs since the moment we were born. Abraham Maslow saw great importance and significance in the fulfillment of human needs and created an entire theoretical perspective based in these needs. Everyone, including myself, is a product of the fulfillment, or lack of fulfillment, of certain needs. Essentially, our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being depend upon certain needs being met.

Maslow's theory rests in the concept that certain needs must be tended to and fulfilled prior to other needs. Furthermore, physiological needs must be established before safety needs, safety needs before belongingness needs, and belongingness needs before esteem needs, and finally all of these needs prior to self-actualization (Poston, 2009). These needs were arranged by Maslow in a pyramid, with physiological needs at the bottom and self-actualization at the…

history of Missouri there is a strained and well-documented legacy of slavery and conflict over it. As the nation divided itself on the political/economic rather than moral issue of slavery, deciding status of statehood almost entirely on this one issue Missouri was caught in the middle. Yet, this reality had little if anything to do with the reality of life for black women in the state. Black women's lives both free and slave revolved around work and family. In many ways black women, and marginalized women in general are the first real example of a women's working class.

Black women worked in and out of the home either for themselves or for another and lived their lives almost unaffected by the political decisions, made to seem so important in retrospect. That which was important to real working black women was the economy and for that reason most free blacks lived…

... She puts a robe on and stares at me. I can hear thunder in the distance and it begins to rain harder. She lights a cigarette and I start to dress. And then I call a cab and finally take the Wayfarers off and she tells me to be quiet walking down the stairs so I won't wake her parents. (Ellis 1985, 120-122)

In the second situation, he is with a girl Blair who was once his girlfriend. The girl needs to know if Clay has any feelings for her and his response explains why he was so devoid of emotions.

BLAI: What do you care about? What makes you happy?

CLAY: Nothing. Nothing makes me happy. I like nothing.

BLAI: Did you ever care about me, Clay?

CLAY: I don't want to care. If I care about things, it'll just be worse, it'll just be another thing to…

e must canonize our own saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate to positions of fame and honor black women and men who have made their distinct contributions to our history." (Garvey1, 1)

Taken in itself and absent the implications to African repatriation that we will address hereafter, this is a statement which seems to project itself upon both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, mutually driven as they would be by a belief that African men had been deprived of a humanity which it was their duty to see restored. But it is here that we can also begin to observe the elements of Garvey's rather poetic and frequently biblical rhetoric as producing multifarious responses in its future champions. Certainly, the greatest and most daunting common ground between King and Malcolm X in this instance is in their mutual 'creation' of 'martyrs.' They would both sacrifice themselves to the…

Alamo of affirmative action, the University of Michigan. The contradictory stances of Bush and Powell on this issue are dealt with. So is the position of Gerald Ford who believes like the proponents of affirmative action that affirmative action procedures lead to diversity at the educational institutions and opportunities for the minorities that are seen as a must to be offered.

Affirmative Action in Michigan

Diversity and Achievement

Is affirmative action the victim of its own success? That is one conclusion to be drawn from Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger, two cases challenging affirmative-action policies at the University of Michigan. Affirmative action has always counterposed two basic aspects of the American notion of equal opportunity. Opponents argue that taking race or gender into account in hiring or university admissions is discrimination pure and simple. Proponents counter that taking such characteristics into account redresses a legacy of discrimination; in…

Competence in AASEC Outcomes

Autobiography

Pesonal Educational Philosophy

AASEC-1 Knowledge Base (CE299-1)

AASEC-2 Child, Family, and Community elationships (CE299-2).

AASEC-3 Observation and Assessment (CE299-3).

AASEC-4 Learning Environments (CE299-4)

AASEC-5 Ethics and Professionalism (CE299-5)

AASEC-6 Individuality and Cultural Diversity (CE299-6).

Autobiography

Use your Unit 1 Project

I am 47-year-old individual who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in the public school setting. I grew up in the projects and my mother was a teen mother since she was 14-years old when my twin brother and I were born. In addition to loving basketball, my twin brother and I generally grew up in a rough neighborhood or environment.

The educational setting in which I participated was

The educational setting or context in which I participated was similar to normal educational settings. This setting was known as PAL, an afterschool program that assisted me with my school work and playing sports, especially basketball.…

I should wish her to be brought up in a manner suiting her prospects," continued my benefactress; "to be made useful, to be kept humble: as for the vacations, she will, with your permission, spend them always at Lowood." (Bronte, 1922, p. 28)

The young girl was to be defined by her future prospects, being meager, as she was an orphan with little income, she was to be taught an even more extreme form of humility because she would have to use her charm alone to get a good match or secure a position as a governess or ladies maid. There was little love in her early years, whether with her hostile relatives or in her school. As any reader would find it was this poor disposition she gained from her early life that she had to overcome to gain her match.

Just as women were ideally brought up by…

S. demand.

Before leaving China, Chang began to seriously question Mao and his methods, and after she left, she realized just how repressive the government was, and that she would not return to China to live. Today, long after Mao's death, China has made it into the 21st century, but it is still a repressive and controlling dictatorship, essentially, and this book helps put the country and its leadership in perspective. The Chinese are proud people, and they seem to accept power and control as a way of life. It would not be hard to imagine another revolution in the country, as western ideas and attitudes make their way into this emerging giant. It would be interesting to see what this author has to say about that, in the future.

In conclusion, Chang's book is a close look into 20th century history and development in China. It shows how the…

(269)

It would seem that the artists and the press of the era both recognized a hot commodity when they saw one, and in this pre-Internet/Cable/Hustler era, beautiful women portrayed in a lascivious fashion would naturally appeal to the prurient interests of the men of the day who might well have been personally fed up with the Victorian morals that controlled and dominated their lives otherwise. In this regard, Pyne (2006) reports that, "hen scandalized critics attacked Rodin's nudes, Camera ork defended the drawings by a strategy of veiling the body with the soul, praising them as 'the perception of the mystery of surfaces.... The adventure of the mind in matter... The divinizing of the sensual and the materializing of the sensuous.' Stieglitz thus used a histlerian gloss of shadows and music to mystify the eroticism of Rodin's 'pagan' figures" (44).

The portrayal of women was even regarded as a…

Stone Diaries

In the novel The Stone Diaries by author Carol Shields, a young woman deals with the pressures of being expected to conform to gender binaries in western civilization. The theme of the story is shown early in the text when Shields writes, "Life is an endless recruiting of witnesses. It seems we need to be observed in our postures of extravagance or shame, we need attention paid to us" (36). Daisy's life is a reflection of how she is seen more than how she sees herself it seems which is odd given that her entire existence is a figment of imagination. In the story that Daisy tells, her own mother died during the process of giving birth to the infant Daisy, which may serve as a psychological basis for why death is such an all-consuming passion in her life. The birth was marked by death and so the…

Ghosts in Two Novels

Immigration can be a painful and to a certain extent puzzling experience for those who leave behind a culture, which was starkly different from the one, they encountered upon immigration. We have heard and read numerous tales of immigration and related problems and thus there have been numerous books on the subject and some of them have left an indelible impression on reader's mind. Two such books, which we shall discuss in this paper are "The woman warrior" and "How Garcia Girls lost their accents" written by Maxine Kingston and Julia Alvarez respectively. In the first novel, which is part fiction and part autobiography, author has described her experience as an immigrant in the United States with reference to her native culture and its restrictions. In the second novel, we come across immigration problems of a Latin American family. While ethnicity, racism and cultural differences are…

Elaine Brown, a Taste of Power

Elaine Brown's autobiography A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story provides a snapshot of life in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Brown briefly rose to the leadership of the Black Panther Party. In North Philadelphia born and raised, Brown dropped out of Temple University and traveled west seeking a musical career in Hollywood, much like another noteworthy figure from this period obsessed with the mass insurrection of America's black population, Charles Manson. Brown, however, ended up not at the Spahn Ranch but at the Pink Pussycat, working as a cocktail waitress in "the hottest spot in West Hollywood" (74). She soon acquired a white lover, who talks of Stokely Carmichael over a meal of "Piper Heidieck champagne, bottled in 1952…beluga caviar…cracked crab with a mustard sauce. Our dinner was lamb, served on skewers, with wild rice" (80). After this a "radicalization"…

Myles Horton, one of America's greatest educators, believed that "you're supposed to do something worthwhile with your life, and education is meant to help you do something for others." (Horton, 2) Horton's words hold a special meaning in my life as I hope to use my education to practice as a child counselor in the field of Social Services.

Children are the future of society. Yet, there are many children out there who grow up with a sense of helplessness and a lack of confidence in themselves and their future. I should know because I was one such child. For, right through my early childhood, I believed that I would never amount to much in life. This belief was largely the result of my mother constantly expressing doubts over my abilities. Fortunately, my father disagreed with her and began taking an active interest in my education, leading to my graduating…

Also, the experiences he underwent in prison offered him the chance to survive in a cruel world, both inside and outside the walls of prison. Inside, as he states "language gave me a way to keep the chaos of prison at bay and prevent it from devouring me; it was a resource that allowed me to confront and understand my past" (Baca, 2001, p4). From this point-of-view, the time spent in prison represented a moment of reflections and of understanding.

The author placed his energy and belief in poetry and writing for a single reason which was that of transforming himself in the messenger of the ones who cannot express themselves. As a comparison with the person he was in his early teen years when he was unable to express himself, his needs, his creeds, or his culture, the prison time helped him understand that a connection with the others…

She was greatly disturbed by the hite Buffalo deer hunting party because she identified and sympathised with the deer. Unlike the rash temper Bernard Jr. displayed in times of conflict, Meteke was almost silent in her pain and anguish, to the point that her husband begged her to talk to him, resorting to offers for tea, food, and foot massages to ease her tensions and cheer her (Raboteau, Professor's 72). Professor Lester was fairly clueless about what ailed her, as she chose to steer around his questioning rather than answer him directly. One evening in bed she turned away from him, and when he asked why she seemed upset she responded "I'm tired," rather than confiding in him her fear for the dear (Raboteau, Professor's 83). The reader saw very little of who Meteke was before she married Professor Lester, so her identity was only really articulated in her response…

Lost Boy

David Pelzer's autobiography The Lost Boy (1997) is a very moving and disturbing account of his childhood experiences of severe abuse by his mother and abandonment by his father. He was removed from his mother's custody at age 12 by Child Protective Services and ended up in a series of foster homes for the next six years. He rarely spent more than a few months in each one, and did not receive the necessary psychological counseling that would have helped him resolve the issues of abuse and abandonment. Although David was grateful to the foster care system and believed it had literally saved his life, he recognized that it was often overwhelmed with the sheer volume of abuse cases and lacked a sufficient number of social workers and foster homes. On the whole, though, he was very satisfied with the social worker who saved him from his alcoholic…

autobiography Leadership, written by udolph Giuliani and Ken Kurson as the main resource for this biography of Giuliani. I have chose udy Giuliani for exemplary leadership because of his charisma, his fearless attitude, and the way he managed the crisis in New York City after the terrorist bombings of September 11, 2001. While Mr. Giuliani certainly is not a perfect man, he showed remarkable skill, empathy, and leadership when New York City (and the nation) needed it the most.

In addition, Mr. Giuliani is a charismatic man, and before the terrorist bombings, he was a controversial leader at best. Not everyone liked or admired him. He sometimes seems to have an abrasive and grating personality. I was interested to see how his persona before and after the terrorist attacks changed, and how he came to be a hero in the hearts and minds of a nation that had largely ignored…

Change may be difficult for a company, but necessary if the company is to survive. An effective leader is one who is able to harness and negotiate this change so that the company is able to deal with it and survive.

ome limitations to overcome

A leader has to possess the following characteristics: Empowerment; Risk-taking; Participation; and Development (Eicher; online). In a practical sense, this translates into the following schema: I need to empower employees listening to their ideas regarding how the organization can work. I would need to also inspire the employees to work independently and to gain their own knowledge.

Thirdly, I would need to inspire an atmosphere of innovation so that employees and myself together can decide how to work through difficult situations, and this must be accomplished in a face-saving manner in a supportive rather than in an accusatory atmosphere. Finally, I must endeavor to foster…

With Kim's help, I saw that I had a knack for helping people. I was able not just to be supportive of others, but I could really connect with people and help them. I also had a great knowledge of course planning for almost every major at UConn, because I liked to read through the course booklet and see what kinds of classes were out there and see the different majors and what the requisites were for each. Also, I realized that I often helped my friends with their course selections and major planning before they went to their own advisors. Therefore, I decided to major in Human Services, where my concentration was in academic advising.

Thus, in my own way, I was able to travel through each of the seven vectors identified by Chickering and elucidated by eisser, ultimately arriving at the final point: the development of purpose in…

in "Piaf," Pam Gems provides a view into the life of the great French singer and arguably the greatest singer of her generation -- Edith Piaf. (Fildier and Primack, 1981), the slices that the playwright provides, more than adequately trace her life. Edith was born a waif on the streets of Paris (literally under a lamp-post). Abandoned by her parents -- a drunken street singer for a mother and a circus acrobat father -- Edith learns to fend for herself from the very beginning. As a natural consequence of her surroundings, she makes the acquaintance of several ne'er do wells. She rises above the lifestyles of the girls she grows up with who prostitute themselves for a living in the hope that they will eventually meet a benefactor with whom they can settle. Edith has a talent for singing and she indulges this interest by singing loudly in the streets.…

Slavery

According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, a slave is a 'person who is the legal property of another or others and is bound to absolute obedience' (Blackburn 262).

To be very concise, slavery is the opposite of freedom. A 'liberated' individual possesses all the freedom to enjoy basic human rights of citizenship, profession choice and lifestyle. Not only this, he has all the rights of security of self and property. On the contrary, the slave is a hereditary chattel who can be legally punished, sold or transferred, controlled and separated from the loved ones. Both his productive and reproductive capacities are exploited by the master. Thus, a slave doesn't have any right that a 'free' individual holds. Slaves belong to a different economic group; totally separated with the 'independent' working class (Campbell viii).

Slavery can be described as an institution that is founded on a relationship of control…

Though Cartwright's concern and opposition to slavery was evident in his "Autobiography," an important observation that must be noted in studying his text was that his opposition was not mainly based on the detriments that slavery had on the slaves themselves, but only for the white American society. Slavery was a 'moral evil' because it made white Americans more vulnerable to moral degeneration, thereby putting into peril their belief in predestination, where the white American society, particularly the Christians, would be included in God's salvation and grace. Focus, in fact, was addressed towards the white American society, and not so much about the plight of the black slaves. Thus, Cartwright's position reflected the belief that slavery was like a disease that must be curbed, and the moral degeneration associated with the black community be cleansed through conversion to Christianity.

From these different viewpoints expressed by Jacobs and Cartwright, readers on…

My appearance was always good and my ability to play on the piano, especially ragtime, which was then at the height of its vogue, made me a welcome guest."(Johnson, 139) Nevertheless, this only increases his feeling that he does not belong to his own race, and his sense that everything is a bitter irony. As the hero passes as a white man, he is forced many times to listen to unjust commentaries that are made against the black race and he realizes that he himself is ironically a disproof of these unfavorable remarks and an evidence that blackness does not render a man 'unfit': "The anomaly of my social position often appealed strongly to my sense of humor. I frequently smiled inwardly at some remark not altogether complimentary to people of color; and more than once I felt like declaiming, 'I am a colored man. Do I not disprove the…

This attempt at banning this book cannot be seen as anything but another example of prejudice and racism, this time against a woman who is attempting to share her life and warn other young girls at the same time.

Probably one of the most eye-opening parts of the book is when Angelou acknowledges that for decades, blacks in the South acquiesced to whites simply to survive, and they taught these tactics to each succeeding generation in an attempt to simply get along. She writes, "Momma intended to teach ailey and me to use the paths in life that she and her generation and all the Negroes gone before had found, and found to be safe ones. She didn't cotton to the idea that whitefolks could be talked to at all without risking one's life" (Angelou 46). She graphically illustrates life in the South in the 1930s and 40s for blacks…

Works of Maya Angelou

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss author Maya Angelou, and some of her most important works. Specifically, it will discuss why her work is important, and give a brief biography of the writer. Maya Angelou has been an inspiration to writers, women, and Blacks ever since she began writing. Her career has spanned decades, and shows no signs of slowing down. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, Maya Angelou and her works are national treasures, meant to be enjoyed, contemplated, and to give inspiration forever.

MAYA ANGELOU

Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. Her name was Marguerite Annie Johnson. Her brother Bailey gave her the nickname "Maya," for "My" and "my sister."

Maya's mother, Vivian Baxter, was a nurse and card dealer; her father, Bailey Johnson Sr., was a doorman and also a dietician or meal…

The fact that this figure remains a guess says something important about what orrison was up against in trying to find out the full story of the slave trade. uch of that story has been ignored, left behind, or simply lost.

Through her works she attempted to retell the stories of grief associated with slavery and terror, her characters living their lives with greater understanding of its value than almost any other set of characters in fiction today.

Within the genre of the autobiography there is a different tenor of thought the words and deeds are that of the author and the message is clearly self, devolvement. Angelou in the Heart of a Woman demonstrates the ideals of her time, as a civil rights organizer and protestor. She clearly spells out the strife that exists between whites, and blacks and the dangerous dance they are doing during what most would…

Representations of omen

The concept of slavery in America has engendered a great deal of scholarship. During the four decades following reconstruction, despite the hopes of the liberals in the North, the position of the Negro in America declined. After President Lincoln's assassination and the resulting malaise and economic awakening of war costs, much of the political and social control in the South was returned to the white supremacists. Blacks were left at the mercy of ex-slaveholders and former Confederates, as the United States government adopted a laissez-faire policy regarding the "Negro problem" in the South. The era of Jim Crow brought to the American Negro disfranchisement, social, educational and occupational discrimination, mass mob violence, murder, and lynching. Under a sort of peonage, black people were deprived of their civil and human rights and reduced to a status of quasi-slavery or "second-class" citizenship (Foner). Strict legal segregation of public facilities…

Aria

Rodriguez, Richard. "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood," an excerpt from. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez: an Autobiography. Boston, Mass: D.R. Godine, 1982. Print.

Bilingual education is one of the issues that have been hotly debated in the last few decades. Though proposed by Hispanic-Americans in the 1970s and '80s, many second- and third-generation immigrants from the south of the United States now have mixed feelings about bilingualism. Some support it as a policy that would help Spanish-speaking and other ethnic American children maintain their cultural heritage and individualism, while others criticize it as something that may block their assimilation and integration into the American mainstream. Richard Rodriguez, the son of Mexican immigrants to the United States, is among the latter group, arguing that children of Spanish-speaking and ethnic immigrants must opt for education in English only; for that is the best way of becoming…

'" (oolman, Chapter 3).

Franklin's Autobiography, in contrast, is a tale not of submission, but self-realization -- Franklin even absconded from the tyrannical rule of his brother to begin his own enterprise because the young Franklin was determined not to bend to what he saw as a tyrant's rule. Some of his advice in "The ay to ealth" echoes oolman's in spirit, like the advice to avoid fancy dress: "you are about to put yourself under such tyranny, when you run in debt for such dress! Your creditor has authority, at his pleasure, to deprive you of your liberty," Franklin advises (Franklin, "The ay to ealth," 1758). But the purpose of such avoidance is not spiritual salvation through material denial, but to pursue "The ay to ealth" by avoiding going into debt.

Rather than trusting in God's Providence, Franklin trusts in his own efforts. Perhaps Poor Richard's most radical theological…

Sewall

The Diary of Samuel Sewall

An autobiography is written so one can share life experiences and views of the world with the public. In other words, an autobiography is that person's words and can used in the scholarly context to validate hearsay. This paper will focus on the life and times of Samuel Sewall. This paper will be presented in two parts: first, an analysis of his work and second, an opinion of the work. What does Sewall want us to see as important about his life? What can be learned about the author's life and the society in which he lived? What can be learned from Sewall's life and is his story believable? This paper will explore these questions.

Samuel Sewall's diary was not written for wide public consumption but more as a recorded family history as it documented day-to-day events relevant to Puritanical life in early American…

Monica was honored for her forbearance in marriage to an undisciplined, often cruel pagan man. Augustine's father suffers by comparison to Augustine's mother, but rather than suggest that she should have left his father because of his mistreatment, Monica's quiet example of patient endurance is praised by her son.

Augustine's turning towards his mother was seen, through hindsight, as the major development of his life, but he went through several stages of spiritual development, first paganism, and then a cultish version of Christianity called Manichaeism, which was later characterized as a heretical view of the world as evil, as opposed to the goodness of heaven. It also involved a number of highly elaborate eating practices. Augustine was particularly vehement in his later denunciations of the Manicheans and other Christian heretics when he became a bishop in North Africa, very likely because of his own past affiliation with them. Augustine was…