Analysis of Hair by Malcolm X - Essay Example

 Hair by Malcolm X Lesson 2 Questions 1. In the autobiographical selections "Hair" and "It Can't Be Helped," the authors describe how racial prejudice affected their early lives. Identify the key event described in each of the selections. Then explain how each author responded to the event at the time it happened and how he or she viewed the same event later in life. The key event mentioned in ‘Hair’ by Malcolm X was the conking of his hair for the very first time. He narrates this experience in some detail, using a mixture of objective and subjective tones that let us both feel the experience and appreciate its worth. Of course, we understand the pain that he had to go through in the process of this scientific procedure as his friend had warned him beforehand. The writer says that in retrospect it was a humbling experience because he had sacrificed his individuality and originality to change his hairstyle and straighten it so that it looked like a white man’s. Yet Malcolm was pleased to have pulled off this experiment at the time and it undoubtedly contributed to his fame as ‘Big Red’ as well. In ‘It Can’t Be Helped’, Jeanne W. Houston and her husband James Houston write about the uprooting and relocation of the Japanese in America in the wake of the bombing on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. President Roosevelt had signed Executive Order 9066 giving the War Department authority in the western states to relocate anyone who posed a possible threat to US interests to be interned to secure locations- Japanese Americans were not surprisingly among the most likely suspects. Jeanne clearly recalls the times in which their father had disappeared and now they were suddenly being told to relocate to Terminal Island. The entire episode is explained through the eyes of a child (Jeanne was 7 at the time) and is a mixture of amusement and pity as she writes that she thought she has been sold to a Chinaman; her feelings and that of her family as they are being uprooted and her mother’s breaking of the china tea set rather than have it sold well below its worth as they were forced to leave their house in a hurry. Her family later found that her father had been imprisoned in North Dakota at a male camp for enemy aliens. Jeanne’s account is quite subjective (Houston, 2003, 359). 2. Writers sometimes try to persuade us to agree with their points of view. Choose two writers from Collection 7, and list at least two views or opinions of each writer. In Stephen King’s ‘Now you take Bambi or Snow White- That’s Scary’ he is of the opinion that parents should make their own choices as to the suitability of their kids viewing a scary movie such as his own ‘Carrie’ or ‘Salem’s Lot’. He has shown ‘Salem’s Lot’ to his kids with no adverse effects, it is hoped. Yet he is amused when sex and violence is condoned in cartoons and fairy tales such as Bambi (whose mother is killed) and Hansel and Gretel where (in a modernistic twist of the tale) he assumes that both children are left in the woods by their father due to bad economic circumstances and that they arrive upon the abode of a witch with cannibalistic tendencies (King, 2003, 482). On the other hand, the Courts have admitted as evidence studies that suggest that exposure to violence on television rubs off on children who either become desensitized to violence or are forever in tension fearing that they might be the next victims. In ‘The Man in the Water’ Roger Rosenblatt writes of an account of heroism and selflessness displayed by an unnamed man on a flight that clipped a bridge while landing near the Potomac River in Washington D.C in extremely cold weather in 1982. This man decided to take charge of the situation and help other people out of the plane and onto the safety of other rescuers who had put out ropes and other equipment to help people before the emergency services could arrive. He is quite rightly full of praise for this unsung hero who it appears lost his life eventually due to the extremely cold weather, but who nevertheless in his last moments, decided to act as the catalyst in helping others rather than seeking for his own safety and comfort, which was undoubtedly the easier and logical route to take (Rosenblatt, 2003, 474). 3. Write an essay comparing Baldwin's account of the Titanic with Rosenthal's account of his visit to Auschwitz. In your paragraph, explain how the tone and purpose of each essay is different. Support your argument with at least one example from each essay. Baldwin’s account of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and its aftermath is an instance of a superbly written piece of journalism. The writer very clearly and succinctly mixes facts with opinions, evoking our feelings. In fact the reader can imagine that he or she is really there, watching as the disaster unfolds and the sad facts occur. His repetition of the assertion that ‘the Titanic is unsinkable’ was a thought so much etched into the minds of the passengers that even when the lifeboats were being lowered, they assumed it was just a precautionary measure. Coupled with this, Baldwin also records the apparent nonchalance and disregard for warnings flashed by ships to the Titanic before the disaster occurred. For example the warning that the captain received at lunch was posted on the board at 7:15 pm in the evening and in another instance the radio operator even rudely interrupted the warning signal from the Californian. There had been no drill for the lifeboats- some were grossly underused while others filled to over-capacity as the realization of the inevitability of Titanic’s sinking became certain. It was asserted in the investigation report that over 500 people needlessly lost their lives due to mismanagement and a false sense of invincibility (Baldwin, 2003, 393). Rosenthal’s account of the concentration camp at Auschwitz is quite objective. Although he tries to evoke the sympathies of the reader, his piece clearly lacks the ethos and pathos of Baldwin’s writing. Rosenthal just reacts at the despicability of it all, as thousands of Jews were massacred at these camps where flowers still bloom, where the sun still shines brilliantly and where children still play at the gates (Rosenthal, 2003, 413). Although there are sad moments as when a visitor can imagine what went on behind the gas chambers or how men were suffocated in the walls, the writing is largely devoid of feeling. I would have imagined that Rosenthal could have written a more touching piece, given that he himself toured the location and saw the photographs of some of the victims, the buildings housing the gas chambers etc. Maybe he is just reacting as passively as the world did at that time, and so trying to prove a point that the world should have paid more attention to what was happening to the Jews at the time of the Holocaust. Or maybe he is shocked beyond what words can convey. 4. Write an essay that explores the use of logic or emotion as a persuasive method. Choose two of the selections, one relying more on logic and one more on emotion, and explain how each selection attempts to persuade the reader. Defend your choices by providing at least one example of a persuasive appeal from each selection. In this respect I would consider that ‘It Can’t Be Helped’ by Jeanne Houston is an example of using emotion as a persuasive method to carry the story along. Jeanne writes from the point of view of a 7 year old child and how she sees the world, going back from 1941 till the end of the Second World War. Her experiences of being uprooted from the home that she had shared with her parents and siblings- in fact even her grandmother- and placed in an abode at Terminal Island that was found by the American Friends Society made her feel used and abused- as if they were less than equal in American society, Indeed, even the teacher treated her like an outcast and did not want to help her in any way. Anyhow, she was still grateful that all the Japanese were together even at this new location. The grownups summarized the reality of the situation in two sentences: ‘It can’t be helped. It must be done’. Ultimately they were shifted to Mananzar. Using logic as an appeal is evident in Rosenthal’s piece on Auschwitz. Although he is appalled at the atrocities committed by Hitler’s Nazis on the Jewish population at Auschwitz, he still tries to remain subjective and is at a loss to understand how things are still so normal at this place after thousands of Jews met their end there. To him it seems incredulous that the sun still shines, that flowers still bloom and that children still play at the gates when only 12 years ago this was the scene of a Holocaust. Yet we do not see him using feelings and emotions as a means of persuasion, only cold hard logic. Works Cited Baldwin, H.W. R.M.S Titanic. In Elements of Literature, Fourth Course, 2003. Print. Houston, Jeanne & Houston, John. It Can’t Be Helped. From Farewell to Manzanar, 1974. In Elements of Literature, Fourth Course, 2003. Print. King, Stephen. Now You Take Bambi or Snow White- That’s Scary. In Beers, Prost, Anderson, Brinnnin & Leggitt. Elements of Literature, Fourth Course: With Readings in World Literature, 2003. Print. Rosenblatt, Roger. The Man in the Water. In Elements of Literature, Fourth Course, 2003. Print. Rosenthal, A. & Haley, A. Hair. From The Autobiography of Malcolm X. In Elements of Literature, Fourth Course, 2003. Print. Read More