English Connections
Connections Essay
The theme that I have selected is racism and discrimination. The texts I have selected are the poem Still I Rise written by Maya Angelou, the poem Nothing’s Changed written by Tatamkhulu Afrika, the film The Hurricane directed by Norman Jewison, and the film Mississippi Burning directed by Alan Parker. The connections between the texts I will discuss are how black people are not treated equally, how the texts are based on real life, the texts are set in the 1960’s, and the positive outcomes of the texts.
Racism in the four texts:
In the poem Still I Rise written by Maya Angelou, Maya is an African American who endured racism in the past. Maya has written the poem about her past experiences of racism and discrimination and how she overcame it. Maya’s message from the poem is that no matter what people do to her, she will ‘rise’ above and not allow herself to be ‘beaten’ or ‘broken’. The word ‘trod’ in the section “you may trod me in the very dirt” suggests that Maya was beaten down on by the white people of society and literally treated like ‘dirt’, as if she was nothing. This shows the racism that Maya had faced but she still stood tall and rose above. In the poem, when Maya says ‘you’, she is referring to the white people. In the poem Nothing’s Changed written by Tatamkhulu Afrika, Tatamkhulu returns to District 6 which was once his home and again experiences the anger he felt when District Six was first destroyed. Tatamkhulu endures racism when the government declared District 6 as a ‘white only’ zone and being African, he had to leave. When District 6 was destroyed, and there had been a change in politics, Tatamkhulu returned, expecting the racism to be over but, discovered that ‘nothing had changed’. From the section “No sign says it is, but we know where we belong” we see how Tatamkhulu and the others still feel as if the racism is still lurking around and that the white people and black people are separated. This shows that
The theme that I have selected is racism and discrimination. The texts I have selected are the poem Still I Rise written by Maya Angelou, the poem Nothing’s Changed written by Tatamkhulu Afrika, the film The Hurricane directed by Norman Jewison, and the film Mississippi Burning directed by Alan Parker. The connections between the texts I will discuss are how black people are not treated equally, how the texts are based on real life, the texts are set in the 1960’s, and the positive outcomes of the texts.
Racism in the four texts:
In the poem Still I Rise written by Maya Angelou, Maya is an African American who endured racism in the past. Maya has written the poem about her past experiences of racism and discrimination and how she overcame it. Maya’s message from the poem is that no matter what people do to her, she will ‘rise’ above and not allow herself to be ‘beaten’ or ‘broken’. The word ‘trod’ in the section “you may trod me in the very dirt” suggests that Maya was beaten down on by the white people of society and literally treated like ‘dirt’, as if she was nothing. This shows the racism that Maya had faced but she still stood tall and rose above. In the poem, when Maya says ‘you’, she is referring to the white people. In the poem Nothing’s Changed written by Tatamkhulu Afrika, Tatamkhulu returns to District 6 which was once his home and again experiences the anger he felt when District Six was first destroyed. Tatamkhulu endures racism when the government declared District 6 as a ‘white only’ zone and being African, he had to leave. When District 6 was destroyed, and there had been a change in politics, Tatamkhulu returned, expecting the racism to be over but, discovered that ‘nothing had changed’. From the section “No sign says it is, but we know where we belong” we see how Tatamkhulu and the others still feel as if the racism is still lurking around and that the white people and black people are separated. This shows that