Freedom Engw 1101

Freedom

            What is freedom?  Is it the ability to say what you want or be who you are?  People’s freedom is like their identity; it is defined by how they act, what they say and them being who they really are.  Is your freedom really free? It all depends on what you do and how you act.  If someone is always following what other people are doing and saying what other people want him or her to say, how is that free?  That person is basically society’s puppet.  In James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird, readers see difference in freedom through Sibonia and Pie.  Sibonia was a darker skinned slave who lives in something like a barn.  She sleeps on dirt and wears rags, has messy hair and has no power.  She tries to plan a rebellion and gets hanged for it.  Pie, on the other hand, is a light skinned person. She is a beautiful prostitute.  She is able to stay in the house, and she has her own room.  She wears the finest clothes and has her hair done.  And she has power.  On the outside, obviously Pie looks to be the freer person, but really  She is able to be and believe what she wants.  Sibonia is freer because Sibonia doesn’t have to hide how she feels about slavery or snitch on others just to maintain her status, like Pie did.

            Although Pie seems like she has everything, does she really?  She is so worried about maintaining her status, that she would do anything to keep her spot as the main prostitute.  She would snitch on friends and family; it didn’t matter.  As soon as she found out about Sibonia’s planned rebellion, the first thing she did was tell on Sibonia.  From the account of Onion he said “Someone from the pen must’ve told Pie that Sibonia was planning a breakout, and Pie told it to the judge for some kind of favor” (McBride 186).  Her telling on Sibonia ultimately led to the death of Sibonia and others.  How are free when you have to sell out your own people?  The answer to that is you aren’t. 

            Unlike Pie, Sibonia isn’t a snitch.  She is up front and honest.  When the judge came to her and asked her if she was planning a rebellion without hesitation she “I am the woman, and I am not ashamed or afraid to admit it” (McBride 175).  She knew that it would lead to her death but she took the punishment and said nothing about anyone else. “We all got to die," she said, "But dying as your true self is always better. God will take you however you come to Him. But it's easier on a soul to come to Him clean. You're forever free that way. From top to bottom.”  Unlike Pie, Sibonia is true to herself who makes her free, because Sibonia doesn’t have to hide that she doesn’t like what’s going on, she openly admits it.  She also doesn’t have a lie like Pie.    

            Also Pie also has to in a way, hide who she is and how she feels.  Like when it comes to the treatment of the other slaves, it bothers Pie that because they are treated poorly.  “They’ll pull the trigger and tell the hammer to hurry”.  The quote means the slaves will pull the trigger on the rebellion, so the court needs to hurry and arrest them and on sentencing them to death.  They’ll that Pie is referring to is the Sibonia and the rest of the slave planning the rebellion. But she doesn’t want to risk being thrown outside with them and losing what she has. She takes her feelings and bottles them up inside.  Like she does not like how the slaves are treated but instead saying something in fear of losing her status she keeps her mouth shut.  If you can’t express your feelings you are not free.             

In conclusion, McBride’s The Good Lord Bird tells an amazing story.  The book makes readers start to really question what freedom is.  What are the characteristics of freedom?  Is your freedom really free? You look at the characters in the book like Pie and Sibonia realize though each character is free in their own right, one is freer than the other.  Yes, Pie had freedoms; they are materialistic such as her clothes, her room, and status. Those materialistic freedoms are small for pie but they are freedoms.  Those freedoms come with the cost of her selling her body as a prostitute. That also led to pie being raped.  Sibonia has her freedoms in a way. Unlike Pie, Sibonia didn’t have to sell her body to get the mental and physical freedoms she had.  But the free thoughts and plans that Sibonia had led to her death, after being told on by Pie.  So, they both have their own different freedoms but everyone’s freedom comes with certain costs whether we realize it or not.  Overall even though Sibonia died she is still freer compared to Pie.      

Works Cited

McBride, James. The Good Lord Bird. New York: Riverhead Books, 2013. Print.

 

Essay 1 identity

Jamyl Bey

4 November, 2014

Engw_1100

Prof. Young

Identity

What is Identity?

             What is identity?  Is it what people make of themselves or what the world makes them into?  Before one can truly know what identity is they must have one. Some people find their identity as a child, while some others spend their entire lives trying to figure out the person they see in the mirror.  One thing is for sure.  No one is given an identity. It is one journey every person must take for themselves.  Even when one is given a situation to which they are bound by others, those people cannot form an identity for that person.  An identity is something one forms themselves, how one defines oneself.  This does not mean that the world, its experiences and trials do not influence an identity or how one views oneself.  It is merely the combination of natural-born traits, the struggle and the circumstances that the universe offers to us.

In the text, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, Anzaldua explains her troubles with learning English in the United States.  She explains that as a child, she was often disciplined for talking back to her teachers, who were trying to take away her identity and enslave her to a culture that would not allow her to be herself.  “I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for “talking back” To the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name.  “If you want to be ‘American’, speak ‘American’. If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.”... Their purpose: to get rid of our accents.”  (Anzaldua 2947) Anzaldua was forced to speak a language that was given to her, but she knew that being ‘American’ was not meant to be her identity.  Although she was placed in a system that was designed to steal away her true self, she would not allow herself to be robbed of her personality or character.  What is built solidly into a person can never be taken away.

Anzaldua also describes the struggle of being pulled by the different kinds of Spanish speaking people.  From Chicano Spanish to Pachuco, she realizes that her identity may not sit well with everyone.  Also, making the people speaking the Chicano language feel insecure about who they are and what they speak.  “Chicanas grew up speaking Chicano Spanish have internalized the belief that we speak poor Spanish.  It is illegitimate, a bastard language...We are afraid of what we’ll see there.  Pena. Shame. Low estimation of self.  In childhood we were told that our language is wrong.  Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self.” (Anzaldua 2950-2951) The world has a way of twisting one’s thoughts, wearing away at one’s pride, stripping people of their uniqueness, and altogether causing people to conform to monotony.  Some people with authority do this intentionally to make people feel ashamed enough of who they are that they desperately try to become something that no one is, normal.  Anzaldua explains the pain of being told that speaking her language was a disgrace and as people continued degrading her native tongue, they were taking a little piece of herself with them.

Identity is not only who one is. It is also what one is, how one is, why one is, what one becomes, what one speaks and how one speaks it.  People can take away the right of having any of those things, but they can never take away one’s identity.  The only way a person identity can be destroyed is if it is unclaimed and devalued by its creator.  Anzaldua declares that her ethnic identity is her twin skin to her linguistic identity and that the realest way to hurt her is to talk badly about her language.  She is her language as she is her soul or her mind.  She states “until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself”. Until one can claim and embrace the essence of one’s true self, one can never have peace within themselves.  The importance of an identity equates to the importance of having a good self-esteem. Identity cannot exist without the self-esteem.  One must accept who they are, what they are made of, and what they deserve to live a satisfying life.  Anzaldua understands that her identity will never change, not for anyone.  Many people must learn this and take the steps to accepting and defending who they really are.

Essay #2

Jamyl Bey

4 November, 2014

Engw_1100

Prof. Young

Essay #2

My Community

            Although I live in Pine Hill I consider my community to be Camden.  Because I spend more time there then I do my own house. So therefore in my community there is problems that have existed for a while, the problems are violence, and drugs. Now that has always been a problem. But it has gotten worse over the last couple of years.  It’s so bad now that Camden is ranked one of the most violent cities in America.  I know firsthand the danger that could happen, my friends and I were shot at one walking down the street for no reason.  Furthermore the issue with drugs is and has always been a problem, and I think it will continue to be a problem in not just my community but in the world. So the problems of violence and drugs needs to be fixed and the people that can help decrease the problem is the police by being more present and cracking down. 

            Violence and crime in my community is a major problem.  That needs to change, to make the community a better place.  More efforts need to be taken to make things from the people in a community, and from the law enforcement.  Law enforcement needs to be more present, and show people that they are present.  Also they need to stop being so corrupt, stop taking bribes from the criminals and start doing their damn job.  There is not enough honest people left in the world.  We as a community to can help this problem by not being scared of the people with guns making it a bad place and stand up to them.  Maybe form a neighborhood watch to police the community ourselves if the cops don’t want to do it.  Also all unnecessary shootings need to stop.  I’m tired of seeing the news that a innocent child was murdered by a stray bullet.  Because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Too many parents are having to bury their kids because of the senseless violence.  My sophomore year in high school I lost one of my friends he was shot in the head at point blank range all because the person wanted his bike.  That truly affected the community as a whole. 

            Drugs where do I even began to talk about this problem.    Dugs they are everywhere and I know it is hard to really pin point the source of it. But the fact of the matter is it’s a problem in my community and something needs to be done about it.  Some people I graduated with who had bright futures threw it all away because they started using and got addicted to different types of drugs.  People start using drugs for various reasons some use it to fit in, others feel like they look cool.  Which it doesn’t make you cool it makes you look dumb.  Drugs not only affect you but they affect the people around them.  A way we can start to fix this problem is by cracking down on drug traffic.  Drugs need to stopped and our community needs to be saved.

            In conclusion my community all though it is not the best place in the world it is my community.  I stand by it and support it.  We can’t change the world unless we change ourselves.  So the community can’t change until the people in it change, and stop doing the same old thing.              

Can beauty be constructed?

Jamyl Bey      

2 November, 2014

Engw_1100

Prof. Young

Can beauty be constructed?

Can Beauty Be Constructed?

            Can beauty be constructed?  According to Cameron Russell and Aimee Mullins, yes it can.  But not all beauty that is constructed is good.  Some of it is bad.   The beauty that Cameron Russell is talking about what would be classified as bad. Because she talks about how they dress models up and make them look like what they think is society’s image is.  Which is not what they really look like.  Aimee Mullins on the other hand is talking about what would be considered as good beauty.  Because taking your negatives and turning it into a positive.

            Cameron Russell compares her natural look to how she looks on the covers of magazines.  And her natural look is completely different.  Her looks on covers differs.  Aimee Mullins who has prostatic legs.  She uses her natural beauty and her disability to an advantage.  She shows the world that you don’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.         

Can honesty be beautiful?

Jamyl Bey

25 October 2014

Eng. 1100

Professor Young

Can honesty be beautiful?

            Can honesty be beautiful?  I believe honesty can and is beautiful.  With the liars and cheaters in the world, when meet an honest person in the world it’s nice.  When it comes to a woman I like a woman who is beautiful naturally, and doesn’t need a bunch of makeup.  But now a days it seems rare that someone is truly honest.

            What is honesty? Most people believe that the definition of honesty as don’t lie.  But it actually goes a lot deeper there than just telling truth. There is also being morally honest like doing things you shouldn’t do. So being honest and a good person can make you more beautiful than any supermodel.

            The people that aren’t afraid to be who they really are and show them true selves are the most beautiful people.  Cause now a days too many people conform to what society thinks they should be. Which is a lie compared to who they truly are.  Girls think that aren’t pretty unless they are skinny with long legs and a lot of hair, because that’s what society says they should be.  That’s the problem with our society the need to be perfect is to high.

            In conclusion can honesty be beautiful, the answer to that question is yes honesty can be beautiful and it is.  Being who are is much better than conforming to society.  And being a good and honest person makes you beautiful.  

How to tame a wild tounge question

Jamyl Bey

September 3, 2014     

English 1100_37

How to Tame a Wild Tongue

           

1)      When she is at the dentist and he is trying to work on her teeth, and he can’t cause her tongue is in the way.  And the author thinks how do you train a tongue?  This scene is important because it shows you can’t tame a wild tongue the only way to do it is to cut it out.

2)      Anzaldua’s use of Spanish throughout her writing does make sense cause that it is her native language.  Her purpose is show how people tried to get her to stop speaking Spanish saying you live in America speak English.

3)      Yes academic English be defined as Spanish standard because if you live in a place where English is the main language you learn it same as if it was opposite.  Chicano Spanish is a nonstandard cause in a way it is made up version of Spanish. 

4)      The identity of writing and speaking in academic English comes from being taught a certain way in school of this is the proper way talk and this how you write.

5)      The different types of Spanish that Anzaldua list are standard Spanish, standard Mexican Spanish, north Mexican Spanish dialect, Chicano Spanish( Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California all have different variations).

6)      My friends and I sometimes have a code that we talk in that only we understand and it is hard to explain.  I am a man of many different identities all known by different people. 

7)      The way I talk when I’m with my friends is completely different then how I talk to my parents, professor or in a professional setting.  With my friends I’ll use slang cause I am not trying to be proper.  But with my parents, professor and in professional setting I use a more proper way of talking and don’t curse.

8)      “I am my language” means that the way a person talks and the language the speak is apart of what makes them the person they are.

9)      The intro and conclusion connect cause the intro says that you can’t tame a wild tongue or change the way a person talks its impossible. The conclusion states although other races have given up on their language and conformed they have not and they will continue to keep their language around. 

10)   Yes the language you speak is part of your identity it represents where you come from, your background, your heritage and culture

11) Identity is important to me because it is mine it’s what separates me from everyone else.  Anzaldua believes it is important, that is why she continues to speak Spanish throughout here story.  

What defines me

Jamyl Bey
September 6, 2014  
English 1100_37
What defines me
            If I had to pick anything that defined me was I would pick sports.  Sports have always been something I’m good at. Sports are why I’m in college. All my life I’ve been labeled as an athlete its a lot of pressure.  But I loved it is what gave me the motivation to keep fighting for what I wanted, to get to the top of the depth chart. I am an athlete I live and breathe sports
            I love the adrenaline rush that comes with playing a sport and being a competitor.  The ability to go out and prove I’m the best at what I do.  Also sports is my way where I we’ll be able to help my family. Cause if I make it to the pros I’ll have enough money to help my mom out, and my dad. Also my little sister would never want for anything.
    In conclusion that is why sports define me. They are my way to make a better life for my family.  Also I love to do them.  I am the best in the world at what I do.  And every time I step on the field or in the ring or whatever I’m doing my goal is to prove that I’m the best.