An Individual Confronting Oppression

1. An Individual Confronting Oppression • What is individuality? • Lauren Sean Kevin Rebecca

2. OutcastBy Claude McKay

3. McKay’s Life • Born in Jamaica • Youngest of 11 children • Sent at early age to live with brother to receive best education possible • Enrolled at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to study agronomy • Experienced racism in America between the whites and that blacks that became main subject (with belonging) that he wrote about

4. Outcast • Arrived in the United States in 1912. • In America, and during 12-year trip to Europe in 1922, never felt that he found a place to belong in western culture • 4eferred to Africa as almost a mystical place where • his “soul would sing forgotten jungle sounds” and • as a place of “darkness” and “peace.” • In lines 6-8, acknowledges that he is forever a part of the western world, and even though he would like to be removed from it, he “may never hope for full release” and will forever bend his knee to these “alien gods” of the western culture

5. Outcast, cont. • Feels that because he has conformed to the western world, an innocence in him is lost that he cannot regain • Feels as though “something vital has gone out of my heart” • Ends poem by expressing feeling that because he is not living in native land that he is forever a “middle-man” trapped in massive gap between white man and black man in western world

6. Lost SisterBy Cathy Song

7. Cathy Song • Hawaiian born of Chinese and Korean descent in 1955 to an airline pilot and a seamstress • Wrote Picture Bride in 1983 and won Yale Younger Poets Award and National Book Critics Circle Award Nomination • Drew inspiration for book from her parents’ own arranged marriage, which greatly influenced her concepts of male-female relationships • Wrote volumes of poetry concerning oppression against women in oriental culture and tradition

8. “Lost Sister” • Poem is divided into two sections describing the role women in China take by choosing their culture or choosing to be free and independent • First selection describes how Chinese culture treats and thinks of its women and also praises these women for ability to endure • “And the daughters were grateful: they never left home. To move freely was a luxury stolen from them at birth.” • “...they gathered patience; Learning to walk in shoes the size of teacups, without breaking-” • “As silent as the rooted willow, as redundant as the farmyard hens.”

9. “Lost Sister” • Second section explains how some women break tradition and leave their homes for America • “...relinquished her name, diluting jade green with the blue of the Pacific.” • “In America, there are many roads and women can stride along with men.” • “She swarmed the others to inundate another shore.” • Poem shows that even though America allows these women who escape a chance to be individuals above men, it’s not easy -- they still have to work hard for respect because they are Chinese women

10. “Lost Sister” • In the end, Song expresses appreciation for both women because they show great strength because they choose their own way of life and even though this makes them different they are still amazing Chinese women • All women can learn from their examples and become strong as well • “You find you need China.” • “You remember your mother who walked for centuries, footless--and like her you have left no footprints. But only because there is an ocean in between the unremitting space of your rebellion.”

11. The Train From HateBy John Hope Franklin

12. John Hope Franklin • Born January 2, 1915 in Rentiesville, Oklahoma • Received PhD in history from Harvard • Taught at several universities including NC Central University and Howard University

13. “The Train From Hate” • Story takes place about 1922 in heart of Oklahoma • Public places (trains) were heavily segregated

14. “The Train From Hate” • Learns about oppression for first time when family forced to get off train because they boarded on coach reserved for white people • Even though laws require racial separation, Franklin was in no way an inferior individual

15. Letter From Birmingham JailBy Martin Luther King, Jr.

16. Martin Luther King, Jr. • Born January 15, 1929 • Married former Coretta Scott • Had 4 children with wife • Skipped ninth and twelfth grades and entered college at the age of fifteen • Has phenomenal lists of honorary degrees and awards • Killed on April 4, 1968

17. “Letter From Birmingham Jail” • “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” • “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” • “Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘wait.’”

18. “Letter From Birmingham Jail” • “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.” • “Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep for of misunderstanding will be lifted from out fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over out great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”

19. Conclusion • Each individual faces oppression due to prejudices against physical traits that cannot be controlled • Each individual finds ways to cope with trouble • “Outcast”: Author decides that he has no choice but to conform and must live with that choice to be accepted in a society that looks down upon him as an individual • “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: Author calls for change in society by using passive-aggressive means, not taking failure as option • “The Train From Hate”: Although author realizes that he is oppressed by his own ethnic background, it does not make him less of a person • “Lost Sister”: Some women choose to accept the role their cultures tell them to take whether it is fair to them or eats away at their individuality.; other women fight against unreasonable expectations of women and leave everything familiar to them to be independent and express their individuality