Maya Angelou conquer the notion of rebellion from three specific and popular subject positions: that of a woman, a black, and a black woman. ... She always carries herself as a strong black woman. ... She writes: "You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. " she also says: "You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise. " And she ends her poem by: "Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am ...

• Word Count: 1141
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

It seems like the only way to connect her story is through loyalty. ... She felt like he wasn't doing his job as a husband. ... He didn't cheat on me but it felt like he let me down in the same way. ... This is just like with my brother and me. ... It connected to black women and men. ...

• Word Count: 1879
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

Gwen Harwood is a poet who appeals to me in many ways. ... I find Harwood's poems particularly fascinating, and this is one aspect that that really attracts me to her poetry. ... To the wind she says, "They have eaten me alive." ... The language used in this line creates a very clear image - it is almost as if they are in a black and white movie, expressionless simply "rehearsing" their lines, in this case being the children's names and birthdays. ... The melting west is striped like ice cream. ...

• Word Count: 1594
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Alice Walker does not like to be called a feminist. ... Walker defines a womanist as being a Black Feminist. ... Quotes such as " he [Mr. ______ ] beat me like he beat the children. ... But I"ll kill him dead before I let him beat me" (p. 38). ... But this hard work, let me tell you. ...

• Word Count: 949
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In the film, a 17-year old girl's dreams are deferred but, her dreams do not dry up like a raisin in the sun. ... The strength of this black family, immediate and now extended, is the foundation for positive images within the black community and thus the culture. ... This advice from Shantell's parents is interpreted by me, as negative. ... Like most black woman, Shantell realizes that she has made a mistake and wants to rectify it with very little help. ... In short, I would definitely recommend this movie to all black families. ...

• Word Count: 740
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

To me this technique is exceptional. ... To me it is easy to understand her points and feelings. ... This piece is very strong to me. ... This piece is just very strong to me and informative. ... It is so common in these days for a situation like this to occur, it happens to so many people each day. ...

• Word Count: 1301
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

It did not exactly have me sitting on the edge of my seat in suspense, but it also didn't bore me to death and leave me trying to keep my eyes open through out the whole thing. ... He is the local doctor in this all black community, and he provides his mostly married female patients with more than just medicine. ... Poor Mozelle is upstaged by someone with a genuine gift for prognostication, and who would like to snuff out cheap fakes like Mozelle. ... To me Eve's Bayou was a well written, and directed movie, that at times made you feel as if you were in the actual movie. ... It was ...

• Word Count: 590
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

It is quiet and cold, but it doesn't make a difference because it feels like another day. ... She doesn't like the sunset. ... He is wearing long, black wool coat. ... Why is he wearing black gloves? ... She closes the door and looks at me. ...

• Word Count: 823
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The play "Medea" reminds me a lot of two movies - "The Diary of a Mad Black Woman"" and "Waiting to Exhale. In the movie "The Diary of a Mad Black Woman", the main character was cheated on by her husband and then put her out of their home and she was left with nowhere to go. In the movie "Waiting to Exhale', another woman was also cheated on by her husband and also went through a deep depression just like Medea. ... One passage that particularly stood out to me was lines 200 -220 on pages 849 and 850. ... That line made me think about women who are or have been in domestically violent ...

• Word Count: 921
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

When I go through an intersection with a green light, I assume that the traffic perpendicular to me will stop at its red light. ... I would have thought he was a young black man, in high school, who probably plays football or basketball. ... This Jada could be nothing like Will's wife; she could be white or Asian or Indian but just because they have the same name, I assume she's black. ... I feel honored to have parts of my parents with me all the time. ...

• Word Count: 673
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

You were never there for me to express how I felt. ... Now I"m older and I feel like I could let some of this anger fade. ... Another band in the 80's was Black Sabbath, who sang about a woman breaking a man's heart in the song "Paranoid." In that song, Black Sabbath showed the pain of a man being emotionally hurt by a woman. ...

• Word Count: 526
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Singing is a part of theater to me that gets very boring if not done in an entertaining type manner. ... Every word was loud and strong, symbolistic of a strong black woman. ... The women were dressed in all black dresses. ... Although my overall impression of the play was that it just wasn't the kind of play I would like to see again, I thought that it was an example of good theatre put together. ...

• Word Count: 673
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The author then introduces the antagonists of the poem, the 'KKK', describing them as pure evil beings with 'hooded sheets, riding black cats'. ... My mother taught me well". ... I have not been with anyone else's husband...I want to squeeze my baby's legs, see her turn into a woman like me" This woman just wants to live her life just like anyone else she dreams of watching her child grow and live carefree, but that never happens. ... The moon hangs from the sky like a swollen fruitMy feet betray me, dance anyway from this killing tree". ... One...

• Word Count: 1038
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

I couldn't do any after school activities like everyone else"." ... I found it also interesting that at that time white students were permitted to attend "black " colleges and universities under what she referred to as, "the other race grant"". ... Like a true love story, Johnson was able to find love and married her childhood sweetheart with her second marriage. When asked why she didn't marry him to start with she responded emphatically, " My mother did not like him ". ... She laughs when she admits to me that her now fifty year old son said recently, "You didn't beat me enoug...

• Word Count: 1263
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

To make her feel like she is in fact an individual and that she was not like everyone else. ... This was especially true for black women such as Janie. ... Brother Logan Killicks, he's a good man.......You answer me when Ah speak. Don't you set dere poutin" wid me after all Ah done went through for you!" ... This book is very relevant to the course in that it shows and explains the hardships of a woman, in this case a black woman, in the real world. ...

• Word Count: 1450
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Behn states his skin color to be of "perfect ebony, " unlike the common "rusty black " of his nation, but still regards it as an obstacle to the consummation of his beauty. ... Trefry recounts of his attempts that "she disarms me with that modesty and weeping, so tender and so moving that I retire, and thank my stars she overcame me " (33). ... Much like Oroonoko, Inkle is set apart from her countrymen in her European resonances and her insistence on protecting an Englishman. ... There is no such compassion for Inkle, who has forfeited his masculinity both by lacking Christ-like compassion...

• Word Count: 876
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

She was clearly exhausted from the arduous walk, her legs shaking like the ones of a newborn trying to stand. ... I took notes of her each movement, which was not at all new to me; I have observed, learned, and mimicked her movements and idiosyncrasies many times, her powerful loving persona never becoming monotonous to me. ... My grandmother had always loved and protected me, guiding me through every possible difficulty in life, making sure I passed through each complication with ease. ... The woman with the pastel blue eyes was not off to the best start with me, and proceeded with many more...

• Word Count: 913
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

He refers to it as, "that time when me and Suzie was doing it on a semi-regular basis." ... Men simply can't enjoy some of the simple pleasures in life, like shopping. ... There's another man wearing a black tuxedo." ... A man will drive in a circle for hours, all the while saying things like, "Looks like I've found a new way," and, "I know I'm in the neighborhood. ... It is amazing to me that men and women can tolerate each other on a daily basis. ...

• Word Count: 1333
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

She wears "a man's black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clodhopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron- (paragraph 5). ... When Elisa's husband asks her if she would like to go to dinner her feminine side comes out. ... When he persists in asking her she reply's "I tell you I have nothing like that for you to do" (paragraph 46). ... He tells her he knows a lady who said to him "if you ever come across some nice chrysanthemums I wish you"d try to get me a few seeds" (paragraph 56). ... When the drifter leaves Elisa seems like a trans...

• Word Count: 797
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The black and white photograph of a beautiful woman in a seductive pose deserves at least a glance from both men and women alike. ... Magazines like Playboy that use women's bodies as entertainment go against gender equality. ... Also, teaching adolescent male's to expect women to act like the women in advertisements and magazines like playboy causes the level of moral responsibility and values of our culture to change because young girls that do not know any better feel that by and taking my top off at a party and disrespecting myself boys will like and accept me. ...

• Word Count: 886
• Approx Pages: 4

Her appearance and clothes are unkempt as her "little sailor hat of black straw" had "long been exposed to the soot of London" and "her hair needed washing badly". This portrays her as having very little wealth and a low socio-economic status as she is not able to dress like or look like a lady. ... She keeps her boots black by using a black permanent marker to erase any wear and tear on them, instead of, perhaps, buying a new pair. ... Vivian retorts " Well I"ll meet you in the lobby but only because you"re paying me to". ... You don't own me. ...

• Word Count: 3802
• Approx Pages: 15

The lady in front of me was arguing with the cashier about a price. ... She had her hair clipped up in a bun, and she was wearing a long denim skirt that looked like she borrowed it from her five-year-old daughter and a halter-top. ... His hair was jet black and shiny, so shiny that I could see my reflection in it. ... She replied to him and said, "No, you cannot leave me, I need you." ... She just stood there smacking on her gum and looking at me. ...

• Word Count: 996
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

A women or wife's job was to do all the housework, like cleaning, cooking and basically doing all the jobs around the house. "It seemed now that none knew how to light the grass and keep it burning in the oven, and none knew how to turn fish in the cauldron without breaking it or burning one side black before the other side was cooked." ... (Footbinding, P. 2) If a woman did not have her feet bound they would be considered ugly and barbaric, Just like Wang Lung could not love O-lan in The Good Earth. "And my mother said I was not to weep aloud because you are too kind and weak for pain an...

• Word Count: 1155
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

He goes so far as to say, "Stars, hide your fires, / Let not light see my black and deep desires"" (1.4.50-51). ... Macbeth says in the play, "He hath honored me of late"" (1.7.32). ... In a soliloquy, Lady Macbeth says, "Come, you spirits/That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/And fill me, from the crown to the toe, topfull/Of direst cruelty!"" ... Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting I dare not" wait upon I would, " Like the poor cat i' the adage? ...

• Word Count: 940
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Mustafa was always attending school, which seemed like a very sterile environment. ... Mustafa never seemed to feel bad about what he did to the women, and it almost seemed like Mustafa blamed them for what happened. ... It seems like the narrator fears the secret room in Mustafa's house. ... "(142) "How marvelous your black color is, the color of magic and mystery and obscenities".(145) The women he encounters are captivated by their own curiosities. ... I think it could be described as something like a very dysfunctional relationship, codependence if you will. ...

• Word Count: 2060
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School