Audre Lorde's Analysis

The irony in the challenges of life is that it helps us build character. But the irony in truth is that often times its right in front of us. Can we all subconsciously be capable of carrying ourselves within a barrier of “truths”? As a poet, writer, and political activist, Audre Lorde’s “The Fourth of July” describes an image of how much her mother rationalizes with certain truths: “As usual, whatever my mother did not like and could not change, she ignored” (222). Growing up in an era of segregation, and coming to terms with the realities of how cruel the world could be; as a result, sharing less than the truth was used as a barrier of protection. Nonetheless, in times of social injustice and racism, some truths come to light surrounded with

Williams' work contains constant narratives of her own personal struggle against breast cancer and its effects on those dear to her, enveloping readers emotionally while, through abrupt statements, simultaneously redirecting them towards future solutions. Her account commences immediately with a declaration of the author's horrific family history: "I belong to a Clan of One-breasted

“They killed my son in cold blood,” lamented Eloise Armstead. Her husband, Add Armstead, was traveling to work with a companion on Saturday evening in the early 1970s. Thomas Shea and Walter Scott, responding to a call about a cabby that was robbed earlier that day, used this opportunity to rid the world of the wicked and gain a victory for the righteous. Walking along New York Blvd. in South Jamaica, Queens, Shea and his partner pulled alongside the two. Armstead says, as he recalls the incident, “We were walking, not saying anything to each other, and this car pulls up, and this white fella opens the door with a gun.” To him and his companion it looked like they were going to be robbed, so they ran. As the gunshots

There are some images and events that stick with a person forever and can change their entire outlook on life. Sometimes these events are experienced indirectly, through the media, but that does not mean that it impacts the person any less. Audre Lorde is one of those people who is indirectly affected by a tragedy that she witnesses through the eyes of the media and her society. For Audre Lorde, the brutal murder of a young African American boy sticks with her and inspires her to write an emotional poem entitled “Afterimages.” The image of the boy, Emmett till, is forever engraved in Audre Lorde’s brain (Lorde 48). Her poem clearly expresses how distraught she is, not only with what happens to Emmett Till, but also with the views of society as a whole. The theme for Audre Lorde’s “Afterimages” is traumatic events can reflect the attitudes of members of a society and can also significantly impact the lives of young people.

There is a double-consciousness, according to W.E Burghardt Du Bois, in which we view ourselves through a veil. Underneath of this veil is the true self. The person that we are in our purest state. The veil itself, however, is how society sees us and our realization of that projection. Looking in a mirror, both layers can be seen. However, the true self is still covered, muddled, unclear beneath the sheer outer shell of expectation. In her poem “Coal”, Audre Lorde alludes to this concept through the dual image of a piece of coal and a diamond. As a black woman, Lorde only transforms from coal to diamond when she embraces her blackness as coal and, ironically, rejects the societal pressure

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a common mental disorder associated with excessive unnecessary worrying. There are many causes, symptoms, and treatments associated with it. While Generalized Anxiety Disorder can be paralyzing to an individual, with proper treatment a person can still function and live a normal life.

In her essay “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”, Audre Lorde details multiple groups of people and their actions and attitudes. She focuses on and criticizes different demographics’ actions and how they impede the achievement of equality for people like herself. She portrays the disenfranchisement and underappreciation she receives multilaterally because of her race, social class, sexual orientation, age, gender. Lorde’s prevailing goal of the essay is to demonstrate that the marginalized should not nullify, ignore, suppress, or attack the expression of differences between themselves. Rather, she asserts that they should recognize and celebrate those differences to unite across demographic boundaries so they may together

Audre Lorde’s poem, Coal, explores the idea of repression and the freedom of speech. On first reading of the text, the poem seems to be built around an idea of anger towards repressing one’s individual thoughts and not voicing personal opinion. However, through a deconstructive reading, there are inconsistencies within the text’s language that question whether the speaker is referring to the forceful repression of spoken words or other motifs like femininity, power and self worth within an individual’s voice. By examining the verbal, textual, and linguistic stages of Coal, one can see the contradictions, discontinuities, and unreliability in relation to one another within the poem.

In the essay “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”, Audre Lorde described the cause and meaningful that why we need to break the silence. Lorde believes silences will not protect ours, so people need to make contact to build a communication in order to bridge our difference. People exist difference due to the different race, gender, and sexual orientation. Then, keeping silence also a kind of fear that people afraid to face contempt, censure, judgment, re cognition, challenge, or annihilation. Lorde wrote this essay due to her was told by two doctors that she might have to have breast surgery because her tumor might malignant. Then, there was a three-week period between the telling and the actual breast surgery, so she started to reorganization her entire life. She realized that death is the final silence, and she needs to speak herself because silence cannot protect her as a Black lesbian poet. Honestly, I am curious about that the

In presenting herself as a child on the verge of adulthood, Lorde indicated to the reader that the things she learned at this time would be pivotal and important for the rest of her life. For example, at the beginning of her essay, Lorde wrote that her trip to Washington D.C. was “on the edge of the summer when I was supposed to stop being a child” (221). In this way, Lorde’s trip to the nation’s capital and her experiences of discrimination there provided an intellectual

In our class discussions and reading, I learned that women were once in charge of the human race, women were a part of a community, no race was inferior or superior, there was peace and harmony in the world until the patriarchal era came, planning to embed itself in the ground for a long time. Women were raped of their identity, their race and their status in society. Men ruled the biblical stories, leaving Mary out. Hence, the war started between the races, women fought to gain their identity back and to do so, they started with writing. One of those women was Audre Lorde. Audre Lorde was raised in a very sheltered family. She was protected by her mother who believed that white people should not be trusted. Seeing her mother

The poem, “A Woman Speaks” by Audre Lorde is a both a confessional and identity poem. She is not only addressing her internal battle and self-suffering, but also discussing the societal inequities African American women were suffering in the United States. The poem’s diction, on the surface, produces a tranquil tone to the poem. This facet of tranquility in the poem is used to express how her battle against inequity will not be fought with violence or hatred, and how she is not blaming any specific party or institution for her personal suffering. She instead plans to use the power and beauty of words to communicate the flaws of the image of women, fight against injustice and racism, and alleviate her internal despair. “A Woman Speaks” by Audre Lorde is an anthem for African American women and uses vivid imagery, ancestral references, and a call to action to connect to the reader and enact a fight against the underrepresentation of African American women.

A. Attention Grabber: I’m sure many of you know of or have heard of Giuliana Rancic. Well if not, she is a news anchor for the tv channel E! and often co-hosts red carpet events such as the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. Giuliana is a very busy and successful woman and on top of everything that she juggles, last October she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Soon after finding out that Giuliana had cancer, she underwent a lumpectomy, which was unsuccessful in getting rid of all the cancer cells. Following that she was faced with a very painful surgery called a double mastectomy along

Audre Lorde, a well-known poet, utilized her poetry to call attention over the political issues of class, feminism, sexism and racism for decades. These political issues are the symbols that transformed her into someone who is not just a woman, but a person whom clarifies these issues using poetry as a voice to define herself as a Black lesbian woman and an individual. The poem “Coal” is a poem that represents her ideals and her feelings towards being a voice among other feminists. It also shows her struggle as an individual that is caught between the issues of feminism coinciding with race, class, and sexism, which is also known as Intersectionality. Because of the attention being called from Lorde’s poetry, people should continue to recognize this political issue and utilize it to spread awareness of the prejudice and marginalization of today’s society.

Our patriarchal society frequently defines a woman by what is on her chest—breasts. Rejecting her mind, feelings, and emotions, patriarchy reduces womanhood to a single body part—one that has come to represent the “naturalized” inferiority of women. Moreover, breasts have become objects for men to feast upon, for small children to suckle, and they have come to symbolize the totality of femininity. What happens to the breastless woman in our society? Historically, she has been marginalized—along with her breasted sisters. However, her situation is unique in nature, most frequently a result of cancer and a surgeon’s knife. The breastless woman has no space in our society. She is expected to fill her amputated “void” with plastic and silicone, repress her insecurities and fears, and continue on like a good girl. But, women are rejecting this model. They are choosing—for themselves—to continue on without breasts. In her 2016 New York Times article, journalist Roni Rabin documents a phenomenon called Going Flat. In it, she remarks that “while plastic surgeons and oncologists aggressively promote breast reconstruction as a way for women to ‘feel whole again,’ some doctors say they are beginning to see resistance to the surgery” (Rabin, para. 3). Women are taking a stand against the breasted narrative—breasts are not what make them women. This relatively new yet promising movement challenges age-old conventions of femininity and redefines breast cancer recovery. In