Alcoholism Essay -- Persuasive Argumentative Essays

Alcoholism Alcohol consumption was initiated on reservations when traders in the nineteenth century started to offer it to oppressed and depressed Native Americans. Natives represent, in fact, the ethnic group with the highest degree of alcohol consumption in the United States. Confinement on reservations after displacement brought for Native Americans identity conflicts and assimilation problems. This situation promoted the abuse of liquor to mitigate the psychological pain inflicted by the dispossession of the land and enclosure in a limited and controlled space. Both the stereotype of the â€Å"Noble Savage† and the â€Å"drunken Indian† are recurrent figures in mainstream literature of the US. Native American Literature of the 70s and 80s (American Indian Literary Renaissance) focused on restoring the tribal inheritance of mixed blood Indians who had been alienated both by whites and fellow Indians. Serving in the army during World War II or in the VIETNAM WAR, some tried to gain the respect of their fellow soldiers only to collapse completely and dive into an ocean of solitude after the conflicts ended. Partial consolation seemed to be found in drinking. Assimilation to white culture often times means drinking as whites, thus, CEREMONY, HOUSE MADE OF DAWN, WINTER IN THE BLOOD and LOVE MEDICINE, among others, introduced the topic of the alienated Indian destroyed by liquor. James WELCH, Louise ERDRICH, Leslie Marmon SILKO, and Scott MOMADAY deal with the issue of alcohol abuse in most of their novels; they express a true concern about the situation of their tribes due to alcoholism and propose the return to the ancient ceremonies and traditions to cure tribal members addi cted to liquor and restore their link with the earth. ... ...n Blues. New York: Warner Books, 1996 Brave Bird, Mary E.& Erdoes, R. Ohikita Woman. New York: Grove Press, 1993. Crow Dog, Mary E. & Erdoes, R. Lakota Woman.New York: Harper Perennial, 1990. Dorris, Michael. The Broken Cord Erdrich, L. Love Medicine (New and Expanded Edition). New York: Harper Perennial, 1984. Gunn Allen, Paula. The Sacred Hoop, Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Tradition. Boston: Beacon Press books, 1986. Mc. Farland, R. James Welch. Lewinston (IH): Confluence Press Inc., 1986. Momaday, N. Scott. House Made of Dawn. New York: Harper and Row, 1968. Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin, 1977. Stookey, Lorena Laura. Louise Erdrich : a critical companion. Westport (Connecticut): Greenwood Press, 1999 Welch, James. Winter in the Blood. New York, Harper & Row 1974 Imelda Martà ­n-Junquera

The Kiss: Brancusi and Rodin

Auguste Rodin was a French artist most famous for his sculpting. He was born in 1840 and survived into the Twentieth century, dying in November of 1917.   He possessed and innate ability to sculpt in clay, creating dynamic movement in roughly pock marked human figures with a high degree of realism. His work was not well received initially though he came into vogue rather quickly.He was schooled in a traditional manner on the Ecole de Beaux Arte in Paris but in his work he was in the vanguard of the movement toward modern sculpture (Wikipedia.org Rodin).   Constantin Brancusi was born in Romania in 1876 and died in 1957. His sculptures were simple, reflecting his background as a stonemason in his native land. Having run away from home at an early age to escape the abuse of his father and brothers, he impressed an employer with his carving ability and the man financed his secondary education at a crafts school where he graduated with honors. He then attended the Bucharest School of Fine Arts (Wikipedia.org Brancusi).Brancusi made his way to Paris, the center of the world of art at that time, and made the acquaintance of fellow artists and intellectuals (Franck & Liebow). For two years he labored in the workshop of   Antonin Mercie of the Paris Ecole des Beaux Arte. At that point he was invited to work with the master, Auguste Rodin. Brancusi recognized the genius of Rodin but apparently felt smothered by the essence of the great sculptor and left after a few months. He was quoted as saying that, â€Å"Nothing can grow under big trees,† (Wikipedia.org Brancusi) Rodin was, at his core, a naturalist, and as consumed with the emotion and character he found in the model as he was in faithfully rendering an exact likeness.He also, it was said, believed, more so than other sculptors, that a human’s character is revealed in his physical features. His theory was that every portion of the sculpted work had a part to play in communicating the feeling, po wer and inner strength of the work. The grip of the toes, for instance, in his Thinker, is depicted to show the intensity with which the subject is going about his task. â€Å"What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes† (quoted in Wikipedia.org Rodin)   he said.While most of Paris’ sculptors were working in clay and having their work cast in bronze, Brancusi most often labored as a carver and utilized the direct method of creating his sculpture. He removed the superfluous material and was left with his creation. In the case of his original The Kiss, (there are several versions), as the old saw goes, he simple cut off everything that did not look like a pair of kissers. Carved in limestone, it measures 23† x 13  ¾ â€Å" x 10  ¾Ã¢â‚¬ . It is a highly stylized depiction of a man and woman face to face, their arms entwined, their lips pressed together and their bodies touching.The work gives the impression that the two are so engrossed and joined in love and sensuality that they have become one. Rodin’s   version of the same subject is likewise carved directly into stone, in this case, marble, though there exist many replicas of the work in bronze, cast from Rodin’s original carving. The original title was Francesca da Rimini and depicted a scene from Dante’s Inferno. It represents an Italian noblewoman who falls in love with her husband’s younger brother. The couple are nude and embracing, with their lips close, each to the other, but not actually touching, so the kiss is not consummated.Both works by these two contemporary masters, working in the same city, are of the same subject and both are carved directly into stone. Here the similarity between the two ends. Rodin’s powerful style is seen in the work and   t here is no question as to what he means to say. The sensuality of the Rodin work is manifest in the texture of the piece and the rendition of muscle and bone. There is a tension in the work that is palpable. Brancusi’s Kiss is simple and direct. It is highly stylized and cubistic in its conception.There is more than a hint of the primitive in the statue. The two artists chose to handle form in a drastically different manner while addressing the same theme. Rodin’s work and even its original title suggest sensuality, passion and perhaps even outright sin. Brancusi’s Kiss is more suggestive of love than of passion (Art 101). It is static and has no movement to it.   The two humans depicted in Brancusi’s work are bonded as if they are one unit, suggesting a stability and deeper emotional unity than that conveyed by RodinThe two artists have, as would have likely pleased Robert Frost, taken different roads. It is not certain which of the two men chose the o ne less traveled but there are differences that make it obvious that they diverge. As to which is the better work, that is not possible to determine, for art, like much of life, is subjective and largely up to individual taste.But Rodin’s work is more academic and conventional where Brancusi’s work is more primal and addresses a basic emotion in the heart and soul of humanity in perhaps a more direct manner. It is possible to dismiss Brancusi’s work at first glance, saying that a child could have done it, while Rodin’s piece has a realism that would belie such a thought.There are those critics who suggest that the Emperor is indeed nude and the Brancusi work is a joke foisted on the art public much like the attitude many take toward the works of Picasso. Rodin’s work became acceptable after a period of adjustment and the public began to understand what he meant to convey. Brancusi’s work is similar in that aspect, and more acceptable as the public gets past their original assessment. Still, both pieces are from the hand of a master who has chosen his own method of bringing his vision to the world.Works Cited.Franck, D. and Liebow, C. Bohemian Paris: Picasso, Modigliani, MatisseAnd the Birth of Modern Art   New York: Grove Press 2001Wikipedia.org   Auguste Rodin 2007 Retrieved 6-7-07 from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Rodin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Brancusi#_note-brainjuice               

A Raisin Of The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry - 1581 Words

Lorraine Hansberry, a female playwright and black activist, spent almost all of her life dealing with American racism, poverty, and lack of social mobility. As a person who witnessed the daily struggles of African Americans, Hansberry wanted to expose the hypocrisy in the idea that America was the land of equal opportunity. As a result, in 1959, Hansberry wrote the play, A Raisin in the Sun, which details the Youngers, an African American family, who experienced racism, poverty, and the lack of social mobility during the 1950s in Chicago’s Southside. Throughout the play, the Younger family members try to make their respective dreams come true and try to deal with the problems that surround them. However, the process of one family member achieving his or her own dream stifles another family member’s respective dream. Hansberry uses the Younger family characters to argue that America is not a land of equal opportunity due to racism, poverty, and the lack of social mobilit y and to make American society aware of the disadvantages that African Americans are faced with. Hansberry uses Walter Younger, an African American male character who aspires to have a better socioeconomic position in the United States, to reveal the economic and social inequities African Americans face. During the play, Walter Younger states that he is â€Å"tired of everything [†¦] [and] the way [they] live† (Hansberry 32) because he doesn’t have a career to help him move up in society and all he can give â€Å"isShow MoreRelatedA Raisin Of The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry894 Words   |  4 PagesA Raisin in the sun by Lorraine Hansberry there are three major female characters represent three different spectrums of their lives. A Raisin in the Sun a number of social issues are both explicitly and subtly exemplified through out the characters experiences and relationships. First, Hansberry introduce Beneatha who is twenty year old college student with dreams of becoming a doctor in her life. Second, the author mention Ruth as a soft character in the story tha t wants to become wealthy andRead MoreA Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry802 Words   |  3 Pagespositively to the actions of the White Americans. This leads to African Americans conforming and giving society what they want by changing their style of speech and appearance, this is called cultural assimilation. In Act II, Scene I of A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry interprets the concept of cultural assimilation with the actions of George as he arrives and unintentionally interrupts Beneatha and Walter’s â€Å"African† performance. This scene signifies the struggle between trying to assimilate intoRead MoreA Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry2035 Words   |  8 PagesLorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is a remarkable play written in 1959 by an African American author about an African American family. This time period was in the early days of the modern awakening of civil rights awareness. It was a timely play challenging the then curr ent stereotypical view of a black family by depicting a realistic portrayal of a specific black family with aspirations, hopes, dreams, dignity, and ambition as would be expected from all families regardless of race. TheRead MoreA Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry1199 Words   |  5 Pagesas a person. Walter Lee Younger is a man that goes through many different character changes, which cause conflict amongst the other characters. Once he goes through his rite of passage, he is able to fix his flaws and mature. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, characterization is used to portray that one must experience a rite of passage in order to mature. Walter Lee Younger starts off the play as a man who is selfish and immature, willing to put money before family. He is characterizedRead MoreA Raisin Of A Sun By Lorraine Hansberry2114 Words   |  9 Pages July 26, 2015 A Raisin in a Sun A dream is what a person strive for to achieve success in their lives. Langston Hughes, ask in Montage of a Dream Deferred, â€Å"What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the Sun?† A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry is mainly about a family dream to do better for themselves. All the characters in this story has hopes and dreams. The problem with that is that everyone has their own individual dream which cause conflict within the familyRead MoreA Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry987 Words   |  4 PagesA Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, which debuted on broad way in 1959. They play takes place sometime in the 1950’s, a time period wrought with social issues which were ignored by the general public. The play concentrates on the Younger family; Ruth, Travis, Walter Lee, Beneatha, and Lena, the family head. The events of the play take place over the course of only a few weeks, where-in the Younger family is to receive a largeRead MoreA Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry544 Words   |  2 Pages A raisin in the sun is a book that explains the life of a family that is in hard times but some how gets through it. The Younger family is at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to economic status this affects the whole family and dreams and values, but the one thing they are good at are arguing and keeping their dreams alive by being a family and loving and caring for one another when nobody else does. The book a raisin in the sun written by Lorraine Hansberry is about a family that areRead MoreA Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry?605 Words   |  2 PagesLorraine Hansberry, the author of â€Å"A Raisin in The Sun†, was born in Chicago, Illinois. Hansberry was the youngest of four children. Her father Carl Augustus Hansberry was a prominent real estate broker and her mother Louise Perry was a stay home mother. She grew up on the south side of Chicago in the Woodlawn neighborhood. Later the family moved into an all-white neighborhood, where they experienced racial d iscrimination. Hansberry attended a predominantly white public school while her parentsRead MoreA Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry774 Words   |  3 PagesMany can see the appeal of the play† A Raisin in the Sun† by Lorraine Hansberry because it is telling how much the Younger family wants the American dream, the better life that each character wants are different from each other. The family wants the insurance money to start their dreams, the money that would not have been available if not for the death of the head of the family. Walter Lee Younger American dream is all about materialism and what he can get right now. He has the notion of a self-madeRead MoreLorraine Hansberry s A Raisin Of The Sun1527 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† is about the Younger Family who live in a small apartment in Chicago. The family is torn apart as every member has different dreams and goals, yet Mama and her daughter-in-law Ruth desperately attempt to hold the family all together. In both the movie and the play, the family’s dreams remain the same. Mama wants her family to get along and she wants to purchase a house. Her son, Walter, wants the life insurance money from his father to invest in a liquor store to achieve his