Multicultural backgrounds Essay Example for Free

Multicultural backgrounds Essay Both of these poets John Agard and Sujata Bhatt write poems about their multicultural backgrounds. In John Agards poem half-caste he starts off with Standard English. But as he goes on through out the poem he uses Caribbean dialect. His poem is about his feelings towards being multicultural. He feels angry, sad and is questioning his audience. In Sujata Bhatts poem search for my tongue she has many feelings about her mother tongue and how she doesnt want to lose her first language. She is feeling sad because she thinks she is loosing her mother tongue but it comes back in her dream and she feels happy again. John Agard was born in Guyana but moved to England in 1977 so he has lived in England for 30 years. John Agard finds the term half-caste insulting and wants people to know how he feels about being mixed raced. Sujata Bhatt is like John Agard because she was born in India but moved when she was young. Sujata Bhatt moved to the United States. This is where she learned her English. She married a person from Germany, where she later then moved to. She wrote this poem search for my tongue because she was afraid of loosing her mother tongue Gujarati. In half-caste John Agard demonstrates a lot of emotions. He is angry in his poem he says ah rass this is a term of discust. John Agard is being ironic when he says I offer you half a hand you would expect him to offer you a whole hand. How can you offer half a hand? John Agard is also trying to be humours, when he refers to things as half. Like the English weather yu mean when light on shadow mix in de sky is a half-case weather John Agard is trying to put across that the English sky is never one colour its a mixture of colours like blue, white, grey. This links in with his multicoloured background because they are different colours just like he is. Sujata Bhatt also uses a lot of emotions in her poem. Sujata Bhatt feels sad when she says If you had two tongues in your mouth, and lost the first one, the mother tongue she feels like she didnt get to know her mother tongue and feels sad that she dont know her first language. Sujata Bhatt thinks that her mother tongue would not come back to her in the first part of the poem. So the first two stanzas of her poem are about her sadness. However when she realises her mother tongue is back she feels happy it grows back, a stomp of a shoot she is feeling pleased that she can remember Gujarati again. Sujata Bhatt felt that she had lost her mother tongue forever but when she realised that it came back she was relieved that she still knows Gujarati. No one would want to there mother tongue. The tone in John Agards poem half-caste is said in an angry tone. John Agard is warning those people who call him half-caste, as John Agard finds the word half-caste offensive. John Agard says explain yuself wha yu mean its as if someone as called John Agard half-caste and he wants to know the reason why they have called him half-caste. John Agard is thinking that being half-caste doesnt mean he should be called something different. Through out the poem John Agards tone does change. He starts being perplexed. He has given the audience reasons in which being half-caste is such a beautiful thing. Like Picassos paintings when yu say half-caste yu mean Picasso Picassos paintings are colourful and bright. In Sujata Bhatts poem search for my tongue her tone is sad. As he thinks her mother tongue has gone. Through a long period of time her tone is sadness. However after the Gujarati Sujata Bhatts tone changes. Her tone becomes happier as her mother tongue comes back to life the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth her tone becomes a happier. This style of tone carries on. Sujata Bhatts tone changes just like John Agards tone. They both start off in a sad way but as the poem progresses the tone changes to a more happier tone.

The Caribbean Identity Essay -- Culture Caribbean History Cultural Ess

The Caribbean Identity The way in which Benà ­tez-Rojo and Mintz tackle the question of Caribbean identity in their articles, is a removed, objective ideal, in contrast to Michelle Cliff’s portrayal of Jamaican identity. Cliff’s portrayal touches the heart and soul of Caribbean identity. While Mintz and Benà ­tez-Rojo are investigating trends in the Caribbean as a whole, from an outside perspective, Cliff offers the personal, tactile imagery of what it is to live in the Caribbean, utilizing the objective account of history as a background. Furthermore, Cliff deals with Jamaica, one island in the Caribbean, while Mintz and Benà ­tez-Rojo are dealing with the Caribbean on a grand scaled overview. The fact is neither article can be taken as complete truth. In fact, although Cliff uses history in her novel, I believe the account of history from someone who has completely accessed the interior of a place, is always going to be biased. Likewise, Mintz and Benà ­tez-Rojo in making their hypothes es, are lacking an insider’s view. It is the difference between a Caribbean person and Caribbeanist, respectively. Therefore, while on a logical level, an analytical level, Benà ­tez-Rojo and Mintz’s, conclusions as to Caribbean identity could rightly be accepted, these two authors do not possess the experience and intensity to make me as a reader, convinced of their conclusions. Benà ­tez-Rojo and Mintz do utilize imagery in their texts. For example, Benà ­tez-Rojo quotes E. Dovergier as a manner of displaying with images what he has attempted to explain regarding rhythm as being the unifying factor of Caribbean culture. Part of this description reads, "the buyers buzz around like a swarm of flies; they haggle, they gesticulate, they laugh, they babble ... ...er, it seems to be in Jamaica specifically, the elite and ruling class are never going to understand what it was like to be a slave or possibly never admit that it was wrong to encourage slavery. Those who were slaves or relatives of slaves, understand the horrors associated with slavery and will not be able to forgive completely the naivity and self involvement on the part of elite in continuing slavery. For as Clare says, although emancipation eventually came, as well as official freedom of Jamaica from Britain, there is no essence of complete freedom. Bibliography Antonio Benà ­tez-Rojo, The Repeating Island (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1992) Michelle Cliff, Abeng (New York: Penguin, 1995; orig. 1984). Sindney W. Mintz, â€Å"The Caribbean as a Socio-Cultural Area,† in M. Horowitz, Peoples & Cultures of the Caribbean (Garden City, N.J., 1971).

Mark Twain’s work, Life on the Mississippi River

Literary critics admittedly point out that there are many themes which run along Mark Twain’s work, Life on the Mississippi River. However, there is always schism as some critics point out that Twain’s works were rife with thematic undertones which were mainly bereft of human ideals such as justice, equality, suffering and tragedy. These critics maintain that given Twain’s leanings towards atheism, he possesses more compunction to delve on moralist ideals. On the other hand, there are critics who point out that Mark Twain’s themes straddle both moralist and non moralist matters, irrespective of his leanings on religious matters. Nevertheless, it is lucid that humanitarian and moralist themes run along his work, Life on the Mississippi River. This paper therefore seeks to establish the veracity of this standpoint. Introduction The book entitled, Life on the Mississippi River is Mark Twain’s memoir that detailed the days he spent as a Mississippi River steamboat pilot in a period anteceding and succeeding the American Civil War. Mark Twain opens the book by giving a short description of the Mississippi River from its point of discovery by Hernando De Soto in 1542. The book continues with Mark Twain’s anecdotes relatable to Twain’s training as a steamboat pilot, according to his own words, the â€Å"cub† of an expert pilot. This book that greatly describes his affections and the science behind navigating the dynamic Mississippi River was initially published in 1876 under the title, the Old Times on the Mississippi. The fact that there are sundry and ominous themes that run deep in this book is portrayed in the fact that the second part, does not constrain itself to describing Twain’s return to travel from St. Louis to New Orleans on a steamboat after many years; but on the contrary, thematic and emotive topics akin to greed, tragedy, gullibility and bad architecture run deep in this work piece. This paper therefore takes to dwell on the themes of tragedy and greed as they run along dominantly in this book, Life in the Mississippi. First off, the theme of tragedy appears in the book’s sample of the authorâ€⠄¢s missive to his sister- in- law, Orion. The book, mentions that five days prior to the composition of this letter, an explosion occurred in a steamboat which had carried Mark Twain’s younger brother, Henry. This development that took place in Pennsylvania left Henry heavily injured. Mark Twain who would have been piloting with his brother, save for some circumstances, was in Memphis, reunited with his brother Henry two days after this explosion, and for six more days, nursed him when he succumbed, being one among the hundreds who perished in the exploitation. According to Fishkin (1998, 121), the theme of tragedy plays strongly, being depicted by the author as that which is inevitable, and as such, no effort can be concocted to avoid it. The inevitable nature of tragedy is clearly brought out by the fact that Mark Twain had a month earlier, already foreseen his brother’s death in a well detailed dream. In almost the same wavelength, the book through the author advises the readers on the way tragedy should be met. The above reality is clearly depicted by the fact that despite the pain of bereavement and guilt that bore heavily on Mark Twain’s mind, he put on a brave face, and continued to work in the river as the river pilot- a feat that was extirpated in 1861 when the American Civil War broke out. This is because the traffic within and along the Mississippi was severed. Similarly, the author depicts the normal nature by which the pain of tragedy is met. Herein, Mark Twain is left subject to intense feeling of guilt and pain, due to the feel that he did not do enough to nip his brother’s death in the bud. It is while in the midst of this emotional turmoil that Mark Twain ventures into the field of parapsychology, deviating from his former involvement in the Society for Physical Research. Kruse (1991, 75) maintains that as the author, Mark Twain does not make a dereliction of the concept and practice slavery. This book presents Missouri as a historical slave state for the South, being represented by in the Federal and Confederate governments at the time of civil war. In a sketchy depiction, Twain intimates of he and his comrades having been volunteers for the Confederacy up to closely two weeks. At the same time, it is this issue of slavery which acts as the hotbed from which the American Civil War springs. Likewise, relatable tragic concepts such as the suffering and the exploitation of the slaves who are mainly blacks comes to the attention of Union, though the South warms up to it as it remains very lucrative; as it is tantamount to free labor. Tragic it is that scarcely did many farmers and small scale industrialists see the need to accord slaves, the African Americans whom they regarded as their mere chattels, with decent domicile, sufficient victuals and proper vestments, leaving alone a pay for any work done. It is by this depiction of the contradictive lifestyle between the slave owners in Missouri and their slaves that Twain presents the tragedy of human avarice that would have human beings exploit their fellows without any remorse. In a cleverly calculated artifice to show his disdain for this exploitation through slavery and his depiction of it as a practice doomed for failure, Twain depicts this as the crux of the antithetical stance that the Unionists and Southerners had towards each other; with a war christened, The American Civil War being the culmination of this affair; the South greatly loosing and the door for the total proscription of slavery being opened (Twain, 2004, 99). Again, in a cleverly packaged stylistic approach, Twain revisits the theme of tragedy and suffering as being caused by war, even the American Civil War. It is no secret that Twain speaks of himself generatively so that in his sufferings, he has the ability to represent the painful experiences of many others. A case in point is Mark Twain’s self depiction of a youthful individual who had grown up along the precincts of the Mississippi River where he also earned his livelihood. Nevertheless, Twain’s life and means of livelihood is interfered with by the war as he is one of the many who are forced to abandon the steamboat pilot career with the advent of the war. It is only after two decades that Twain returns to the Mississippi River, only to be met with wide scale changes that have materialized in the area. At this juncture, apart from the socio- cultural changes that have taken place, the tributaries of the Mississippi River have undergone transformation too. Similarly, Mark Twain like many others returns to find remarkable persons who have all become an integral part of the nation’s forgotten history. The above situation means that forever; lives along the Mississippi River had undergone an irrevocable transformation as families remained severed from their members; while others had their professions and means of earning a living extirpated as the tributaries of the Mississippi totally changed. All these occurrences are attempts by Mark Twain to depict the tragedies that the American Civil War bequeathed the Americans- tragedies which were so pervasive, cutting across all the spheres of life: social, economic and cultural spectra (Pettit 2004, 161). In almost the same vein, the theme of avarice tampered with concepts of tragedy remains rampant in this piece of literature, with the former being seen to be the causative agent of the latter. Watkins (2004) maintains that in a picturesque manner, Twain mentions of the technological developments which were materializing in the US at the time, such as the development of the steamboat, which spurned the boat construction industry. Running concomitant with this development was the radical changes and efforts to ameliorate the railway system. Although all these developments sparked off industrial developments, the unfortunate development that came alongside this was the dingy, shoddy and substandard constrictions which Mark Twain recounts as having caused massive numbers of deaths. Twain depicts the poor and pronto constructions which were hurried through with the need to rake in quick lucre as being the prime reason behind the sad situation. Again, tragedy plays along here, as these poor constructions which were greedily hurried through, collapsed, claiming the lives of many innocent. Conclusion It is therefore clear that the theme of tragedy plays along in Twain’s book with matters akin to anthropocentricity taking the center stage. This is because, beyond the reporting of the practices which directly compromised human rights, the real need behind the writing of the novel was meant at mirroring the society so that ameliorative socio- cultural and economic practices could be welcome. At this juncture, it is therefore easy to see that core matters which are relatable to human ideals such as equality for all claim center stage in Twain’s writings.

Where Do New Words in English Come From

Have you ever experienced textpectation? According to the Urban Dictionary, thats the anticipation one feels when waiting for a response to a text message. This new word, textpectation, is an example of a blend or (in Lewis Carrolls more fanciful phrase) a portmanteau word. Blending is just one of the many ways that new words enter the English language, and more new words are being invented constantly! The English language has developed over centuries, and many of the words we use today have come about from one of two overarching sources: evolving words from English or English-adjacent languages themselves, or deriving from loan words from other languages. Some of those adapted words, called cognates, still sound similar to the words in other languages that theyre related to, but this isnt always the case - false cognates, or words that sounds like they should be related in meaning but actually arent, can trip up even expert writers. In fact, most new words are actually old words in different forms or with fresh functions. We often think about word formation as something that happened centuries ago, but in fact, its something that continues to this day. Language is constantly evolving and expanding! As some words fall out of fashion and into obscurity, others come into being, often because of highly specific contexts of time and place. This process of fashioning new words out of old ones is called derivation  Ã¢â‚¬â€ and here are six of the most common types of word formation: Affix​ation: Over half of the words in our language have been formed by adding prefixes and suffixes to root words. Recent coinages of this type include semi-celebrity, subprime, awesomeness, and Facebookable. From a logical perspective, affixation is probably the type of new work formation that is easiest to figure out or to use to create new words in casual speech. It relies on the fact that these suffixes or prefixes have known, stable definitions, so they can be attached to any existing word to layer their meaning. Affixation may create official, formal words as well as slang. Back Formation: Reversing the process of affixation, a back-formation creates a new word by removing an affix from an already existing word, for example liaise from liaison and enthuse from enthusiasm. The logic of forming these words often follows established patterns of grammar and word structure, making them fairly predictable in their creation. Blending: A blend or a portmanteau word is formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two or more other words. Examples might include Frankenfood (a combination of Frankenstein and food), pixel (picture and element), staycation (stay and vacation), and Viagravation (Viagra and aggravation). In many (though not all) cases, words that are created via blending are slang words with a certain element of tongue-in-cheek playfulness. In the case of words like staycation, they may even combine two words with seemingly opposing meanings. They may also involve puns or other wordplay (for instance, Frankenfood makes play on words by stitching two words together, just like Frankensteins monster is stitched together from separate parts). Clipping: Clippings are shortened forms of words, such as blog (short for web log), zoo (from zoological garden), and flu (from influenza). In many instances, these clipped words will overtake their words of origin in popular usage, to the point where the original words or phrases become obsolete. No one calls a blog a web log anymore, and although influenza is still a valid medical term, common parlance is to simply call that particular family of viruses the flu. Compounding: A compound is a fresh word or expression made up of two or more independent words: office ghost, tramp stamp, breakup buddy, backseat driver. Phrases like these will create a new, specific image separate from their individual parts, often with highly specific connotations or figurative language. A backseat driver, for instance, refers to a person who tries to direct or advise the driver of a vehicle, often to an annoying degree, figuratively driving from the back seat. Conversion: By this process (also known as functional shift), new words are formed by changing the grammatical functions of old words, such as turning nouns into verbs (or verbing): accessorize, party, gaslight. Much like back formation, the formation of these words tends to emphasize known grammatical conventions.