Essay on Flight in Song of Solomon -- Song Solomon essays

The Importance of Flight in Song of Solomon   Ã‚  Ã‚   Flight is a major theme in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. â€Å"Flight echoes throughout the story as a reward, as a hoped-for skill, as an escape, and as proof of intrinsic worth; however, by the end this is not so clear a proposition†(Lubiano 96). Song of Solomon ends with ‘flight’ but in such a way that the act allows for multiple interpretations: suicide; "real" flight and then a wheeling attack on his "brother"; or "real" flight and then some kind of encounter with the (possibly) killing arms of his brother.    That Guitar places his rifle on the ground does not make him any less deadly - his smile and the dropping of the gun both precede the language of "killing arms" - and his "my man - my main man" is an echo of the same irony that allowed Guitar to call Milkman his friend even after his prior attempt at killing him (Middleton 298). And Guitar's arms are killing, not just because they want to answer the challenge posed by Milkman's move toward him, but because they are the arms that have killed, that killed white people, that can kill anyone who isn't black, or anyone Guitar can convince himself isn't black: like Pilate. In other words, Guitar can make an "other" of anyone who crosses the boundaries of the definitions he constructs for the group that he purports to love: black people. What Guitar has constructed in his life is a category of political ciphers that does not allow for the existence of the idiosyncratic Pilate or for the existence of the individualistically apolitical Milkma n. Milkman's journey forward to flight is a journey into his past; his future is behind him. The text's refutation of the idea of a whole untroubled self is thus crystallized in the ... ... it is Pilate who represents not only embodied history but the praxis that comes with recognizing history's effects, the willingness to theorize about possibilities in the face of history, and the ability to make concrete alternatives to personal and public inequities. Remaining on the ground of history, then, is a labor of love.    Works Cited: Middleton, David. Toni Morrison's Fiction: Contemporary Criticism. New York: Garland, 1997. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: Penguin Books, 1987. Lubiano, Wahneema. "The Postmodernist Rag: Political Identity and the Vernacular in Song of Solomon," in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon," in New Essays on Song of Solomon, ed. Valerie Smith, Cambridge University Press 1995, 93-116, 111-113: Peterson, Nancy J. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.   

Positive influence by a person on my life Essay

For the past eighteen years that I have walked this earth, the most influential person in my life has been my mother. Although the passing of my father deeply affected her, she was still able to persevere and raise me and my siblings to think and act like responsible young men and women. She motivated me to make something more of myself than to sit and become waste on a street corner. My mother played an important role in my life and has always been a positive factor in me growing up. My mother is my mentor and my friend; these two qualities make her more than a mother. She is like my guardian angel, always watching every move and keeping me on the right track. My mother is a strong woman and she holds well for a single mother. But, the days that she has to struggle are the days I have to stand up and help her by lifting some of the burdens off her shoulders. My mother has taught me how to not only overcome the death of my father, but also how to overcome some of the hardships that will affect my life in the future. Being the eldest male in my home, she helps me realize that my brothers look to me for guidance. By emulating her leadership, I often take on some of her roles, such as helping my younger siblings in their schoolwork and leading them away from negativities in their surrounding environment. She sees many great things in me that, at times, are not so obvious to me. She constantly tells me to become something great in life to make her and my dad’s spirit proud. This encourages me to strive for the best of my abilities. I reflect back to the day of my high school graduation when my mother approached me and told me, â€Å"It’s time.† It was weird because it was like a time bomb went off inside of me. I got up and I knew what I had to do. It was â€Å"time† to use the skills she equipped me with and finally become a young man. I wanted to get into college and I wanted to eliminate all my weaknesses and turn them into my strengths, and all of my threats into opportunities. In the future, I see myself taking the reins as patriarch of my family. I  believe with my mother’s guidance I have the necessary tools to stand against almost anything; she has trained me well. I have overcome deaths, and many more personal struggles. I believe I have what it takes to make it through college because of my â€Å"angel.† My mother has prepared me mentally and spiritually to withstand the trials and tribulations that await me in the future. She is a strong woman and I am proud to call her my mom.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - 1472 Words

Analysis: (plot) †¢ The story plays off in the near future of 2021, in this future a large part of the population has emigrated to mars, technology has advanced very much and they have androids that serve as their personal slaves. †¢ The main character is Rick Deckard, he is a bounty hunter that works for the police and hunts down escaped androids to retire them (what basically means kill them). †¢ In this book Rick Deckard has to hunt down 5 escaped nexus-6 androids, these are a new kind of androids that are much more advanced then any other type of androids. They look exactly the same as humans and are equally smart or smarter. †¢ During this hunt for the androids Rick becomes confused about humanity and empathy and has a†¦show more content†¦(it’s what they do that really defines these characters) The setting plays a very important role in this novel. It causes for a very gloomy tone throughout the entire the story. †¢ In the original book the story plays off in 1992, but the story was written in the year 1968 and because the story is set in the future they had to change the date to 2021 (because 1992 is the pst of course). †¢ Somewhere after the present and before 2021 the world had been in the world war terminus, this is what many people believe to be a nuclear war that would be the successor to World War 2 and this war will destroy most of the world. †¢ Because of this nuclear war the world is filled with radioactive dust which causes a lot of people to emigrate to mars in attempt to save humanity. The time that passes in the story is a whole 24 hours, this is longer than it takes to read the 210 pages that contain the book, so we are speaking of an acceleration of the events that take place in the book. Societal frame †¢ The novel also has a political aspect that can be linked with the Political frame of that time 1968; the novel was written at the time of the cold war, all the big countries were arming themselves with nuclear weapons, tension was building up and it was a common idea that the next World War would be a nuclear war that would be devastating for the earth. This novel is a warning for what very likelyShow MoreRelatedDo Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep1211 Words   |  5 PagesDick’s 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, examines the idea of empathy—forcing characters and readers alike to question just how much empathy one must have to be considered human. The main hero, Rick Deckard, feels as if androids and electric animals are incapable of feeling empathy toward humans or other machines—a characteristic that determines androids to be nonhuman. Since Deckard classifies androids as being nonliving, he believes it is acceptable to â€Å"retir e† androids. While Rick DeckardRead MoreDo Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?1116 Words   |  5 Pages Sherryl Vint’s essay â€Å"Speciesism and Species Being in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?† discusses the relationship between androids in Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and animals in reality. In the novel, humanity has had to flee to Mars in order to escape the dust that is plaguing the Earth. On Mars, androids are used as a readily available labor source. Vint compares the relationship of humans and androids in the novel to that of humans and animals in the real worldRead More`` Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep 1515 Words   |  7 PagesPhillip Dick’s â€Å"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’’ is a science fiction novel describing humanity’s struggle for survival in a post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear war has irradiated the Earth, the world is pretty much a wasteland, forcing hu mans to create a separate colony on Mars. 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