What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith Essay Example for Free

What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith Essay Comparison of â€Å"What it’s like to be a black girl† and Country Lovers Many people don’t realize just how far back African American Literature dates back to, it really started back in the 18th century. These types of scripts have a tendency to concentrate on topics of racism, inner struggles, slavery, prejudice, and the quest of sovereignty as well as equality. The two well-known writers on this subject matter are Nadine Gordimer and Patricia Smith. During the course of this paper, actualities of the short story Country Lovers, by Nadine Gordimer and the poem, â€Å"What it’s Like to Be a Black Girl,† by Patricia Smith, will be associated and compared to each other in respects to form, style, and content. When reading this short story and poem, the reader will come to realize that both of the main characters are the protagonist black females, only because they both have to deal with judgement from others because of who they are based on their race or the color of their skin. In the short story entitled â€Å"Country Lovers† which was written by Nadine Gordimer in 1975† (Clugston, 2010), is about a prohibited love amongst a young black girl named Thebedi and a young white boy named Paulus Eysendyck. The two leading characters Paulus and Thebedi were raised up together since they were little children. The two of them frolicked together and consumed much of their juvenile days with one another. Time passed, they begin to mature, and they became detached from each other. As the two children became older, they realized that could not be seen in public together, for the reason of race and their family status in the community. During the course of this short story there are numerous dramaturgical effects. The first takes place when the narrator talks about Paulus going away to school â€Å"This usefully coincides with the age of twelve or thirteen; so that by the time early adolescence is reached, the black children are making along with the bodily changes common to all, an easy transition to adult forms of address, beginning to call their old playmates missus and baasie little master† (Clugston, 2010). Though, the connection formed among them as youngsters was still present, n either Paulus’ or Thebedi’s parents not once banned them from hanging out with one another, but there was constantly this silent awareness that they both recognized it to be immoral, since they constantly seemed to be disguise or fabricate the fact that they did spend a lot of time together. A sample of this is when Paulus arrived home from school and gave Thebedi a gift. â€Å"She told her father the missus had given them to her as a reward for some works she had done-it was true she sometimes was called to help out in the farmhouse. She told the girls in the kraal that she had a sweetheart nobody knew about, tat away, away on another farm, and they giggled, and teased, and admired her. There was a boy in the kraal called Njabulo who said he wished he could have brought her a belt and ear–rings† (Clugston, 2010). As the story continues the reader will see the damage of the loss of purity and prohibited love, as expressed here when Paulus takes notice of Thebedi as she splash in the water â€Å"The schoolgirls he went swimming with at dams or pools on neighboring farms wore bikinis but the sight of their dazzling bellies and thighs in the sunlight had never made him feel what he felt now when the girl came up the bank and sat beside him, the drops of water beading off her dark legs the only points of light in the earth–smelling deep shade. They were not afraid of one another, they had known one another always; he did with her what he had done that time in the storeroom at the wedding, and this time it was so lovely, so lovely, he was surprised . . . and she was surprised by it, too—he could see in her dark face that was part of the shade, with her big dark eyes, shiny as soft water, watching him attentively: as she had when they used to huddle over their teams of mud oxen, as she had when he told her about detention weekends at school.† (Clugston, 2010). The reader gets a taste of how bad discrimination can be just before the end of this short story, when Paulus Eysendyck comes home from the veterinary college for the holiday season. This is when he discovers Thebedi had a baby. When he discovers information about the baby, he goes to Thebedi’s shed to see for himself if the information was true he was hearing. When he gets to the shed he gets a glimpse of the baby first hand â€Å"He struggled for a moment with a grimace of tears, anger, and self–pity. He said, You havent been near the house with it?’ (Clugston, 2010). By his antiphon after the discovery that the two of them produced a life for the period of their prohibited affair, demonstrates just how much he recognized, the fact that such thing would not be accepted within his society. As the story goes on Paulus comes back to the shed where Thebedi and the newborn lived; and it stated â€Å"She thought she heard small grunts from the hut, the kind of infant grunt that indicates a full stomach, a deep sleep. After a time, long or short she did not know, he came out and walked away with plodding stride (his fathers gait) out of sight, towards his fathers house† (Clugston, 2010). As the reader reads on the reader develops the understanding that Paulus murdered the newborn that day when he went back to Thebedi’s shed. â€Å"The baby was not fed during the night and although she kept telling Njabulo it was sleeping, he saw for himself in the morning that it wa s dead. He comforted her with words and caresses. She did not cry but simply sat, staring at the door† (Clugston, 2010). After interpretating this part of the story conveys to me that Paulus was actually fearful that the public would find out about the relationship between the two and tries to cover it up as if nothing ever happened between the two of them. Which show’s you how difficult life must have been back then with the racial discriminations. At the very end of this story the police had dug up the baby and brought charges against Paulus for murder. Thebedi up on the stand said â€Å"She cried hysterically in the witness box, saying yes, yes (the gilt hoop ear–rings swung in her ears), she saw the accused pouring liquid into the babys mouth. She said he had threatened to shoot her if she told anyone† (Clugston, 2010). Over a year had gone by when Thebedi returned to the court house; but this time she told the court that â€Å"she said she had not seen what t he white man did in the house† (Clugston, 2010). Because of her testimony â€Å"The verdict on the accused was not guilty(Clugston, 2010).

Essay --

As many people know, Kurt Cobain was lead singer and guitar player for the grunge band, Nirvana (Russomanno, Tony). There is truth behind the lyrics and tone of Cobain’s music. It takes people into the depths of what was really occurring behind closed doors. Cobain struggled with many adversities such as heroin, chronic stomach pains, drinking, and pills (Cobain, Kurt). Cobain, however; he did not deal with his adversities well. He was actually unable to ever overcome them. As a child, Cobain was involved in positive activities. â€Å"He participated in Little League Baseball when he was young. Cobain also spent a majority of his time with his only full-blooded sister, Kim, who was born in 1971† (Cobain, Kurt). During his childhood, Cobain often had to listen to his parents consistently fight and argue. He knew they were unhappy with each other, but he did not want them to divorce. â€Å"When Cobain turned nine, his parents finally divorced.† The divorce ultimately devoured Cobain and changed his outlook on life (Goldman, David). â€Å"After the divorce, Cobain’s father got remarried to a woman named Jenny. Cobain really felt a hatred and despise towards his step mother† (Cobain, Kurt). â€Å"He had felt that his father had always taken sides with her, and barely paid attention to him or his sister.† These issues with Cobain and his step mother also raised issues between Cobain and his father† (Cobain, Kurt). Cobain was not interested in school during his childhood. In fact, he hated going to school because he felt lonely and lost in the world. While Cobain attended high school, he participated in events such as art and music (Russomanno, Tony). He enjoyed painting and singing. During Cobain’s Jr. High and High school career he did not have to... ... still carries in her possession ( Grant, Tom). Cobain was a very famous rockstar who struggled greatly in life. He had many adversities such as heroin, alcohol, and chronic stomach pains. He dealt with his adversity of chronic stomach pain by doing drugs and drinking heavily. He did use his fame to positively advocate for those who were considered minorities. He married Courtney Love and had a daughter named Frances Bean. Cobain made many great hits during his career and soared music charts with songs known as â€Å"Lithium†, â€Å"Smells Like Teen Spirit†, â€Å"Heart Shaped Box†, and â€Å"All Apologies†. Even after death, Cobain's life carried on in his fans, clothing companies, movie companies and more. Sadly, Cobain was unable to overcome his adversities and committed suicide in April of 1994. Speaking his last words to the world, â€Å"It’s better to burn out, than to fade away..†

Latest Coral Disease

Coral disease is a disease found in coral that caused by an algae that grown in the reef tank. There are many identified coral diseases and its causes. One of which is white plague type II. White Plague Type II disease in corals is triggered by the direct contact of coral with macroalgae halimeda puntia. Nugues, claims that this disease causes the widespread death of corals that occur with heavy growth of macroalgae. Cited in Nugues. Et al; www.practicalfishing.co.uk. Macroalgae is said to be the responsible for many coral diseases that if not controlled, it will also lead to coral death. Other identified cause of coral disease is coral bleaching or white syndrome. With this disease, coral looked bleached which caused by the high sea temperature that led coral to eject the symbiotic algae that produce food for the coral. Coral bleaching makes the coral weaker and more prone from attack of diseases. Extreme heat, due to global warming caused this coral bleaching because heat can trigger the virus in zooxanthellae, which is known for food production of corals. As the sea temperature becomes more heaters, more severe coral diseases are also expected to arise. This syndrome can treat and prevented if the sea temperature gets colder. Aside from warm temperature, overcrowding of corals also brings white syndrome. Researchers found out that the syndrome increases its rate from 1998, increased 20-fold in 2002, not just due to warm temperature but also because of overcrowding of corals. Researchers found out that corals can not breath and grow properly if they are closely tight with each other, and they are more prone to diseases. Widespread of disease easily occur if they are too close with each other. There are also other five identified coral diseases and their causes aside from the diseases mention earlier. One is brown band. Dense population of single-celled organism called ciliates causes brown band. These ciliates are hairy organisms that eat the food of coral known as zooxanthellae, it appears as brown jelly that cause disease to corals. Second is black necrosing syndrome. Coral appears to be dead with this kind of disease. Black patches eat away the tissues of corals that leave in white skeleton. It is actually found out in many gorgonian corals in Northern Great Barrier Reef. Third known disease is the pink spot. Pink spot is caused by the larval stage of the parasitic flatworm; which has three life stages that is parasitic on a mollusk, and affects the tissues of corals, which makes sensitive to predation by butterfly fish. However, healthy polyps regenerate from coral once the butterfly fish eats affected polyp. Fourth is Coral Tumor. These Tumors are formed by groups of polyps with increased growth rates. Corals affected with this disease appear to have spherical lumps raised about 4.5 cm from the surface of the coral. This tumor affects the reduction of function and growth of corals. There is a little known spread of numbers of this tumor and it is only monitored in Heron Island. The fifth known disease of corals is black band disease. This disease is associated with cyanobacteria. Coral with black band disease looks healthy in front but dead and look white behind. This band can move across coral colony at rate of 44mm a day. Scientist first coral disease observed this disease last 1973. The sixth and last identified coral disease is the Skeletal Eroding Band. It is similar to black band disease. However, this disease produces a white skeleton speckled with empty black shells of the ciliate, which causes diseases that disrupt the process of secreting protective shells or loricae. Work Cited: Coral Diseases. www.altavista.com/coraldiseases Latest Coral diseases. www.google.com . .

Buddhism, Christianity, And The Prospects For World Religion

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