What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith Essay

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When comparing and contrasting the verse form What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith with the short narrative Country Lovers by Nadine Gordimer. The verse form and the short narrative are both great illustrations of the trouble of life between different cultural backgrounds. The Poem What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith is more recent than the short narrative Country Lovers by Nadine Gordimer they are written during different clip frames and their narratives are alone within their clip frame.

Both the verse form and the short narrative discus love or the feeling of love the short narrative provinces. “One summer afternoon when there was H2O fluxing at that place and it was really hot she waded in as they used to make when they were kids. her frock bunched modestly and tucked into the legs of her bloomerss. The schoolgirls he went swimming with at dikes or pools on neighboring farms wore Bikini but the sight of their dazzling abdomens and thighs in the sunshine had ne’er made him experience what he felt now when the miss came up the bank and sat beside him. the beads of H2O beading off her dark legs the lone points of visible radiation in the earth–smelling deep shadiness. They were non afraid of one another. they had known one another ever ; he did with her what he had done that clip in the storage room at the nuptials. and this clip it was so lovely. so lovely. he was surprised. . . and she was surprised by it. too—he could see in her dark face that was portion of the shadiness. with her large dark eyes. shiny as soft H2O. watching him attentively: as she had when they used to huddle over their squads of clay cattle. as she had when he told her about detainment weekends at school.

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They went to the river–bed frequently through those summer vacations. They met merely before the light went. as it does rather rapidly. and each returned place with the dark—she to her mother’s hut. he to the farmhouse—in clip for the eventide repast. He did non state her about school or town any more. She did non inquire inquiries any longer. He told her. each clip. when they would run into once more. Once or twice it was really early in the forenoon ; the lowing of the cattles being driven to crop came to them where they lay. spliting them with mute acknowledgment of the sound read in their two braces of eyes. opening so near to each other. ” ( pg 45 Clugston )

The verse form What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith provinces. “it’s eventually holding a adult male reach out for you so undermining in around his fingers. ” ( pg 267 Clugston ) These statements show that both of these literary plants talk about love and the feeling of what love is like or what sort of love is wanted. Even though both these pieces are speaking about ethnicity any individual wants to hold these experiencing no affair what the race or ethnicity a individual is. Both statements are stating that the feelings of being wanted and cared about are strong and of import during a woman’s life non merely a black woman’s life.

The short narrative Country Lovers by Nadine Gordimer says. “It was in one of these that she and the farmer’s boy stayed together whole darks about: she had to acquire away before the house retainers. who knew her. came in at morning. There was a hazard person would detect her or hints of her presence if he took her to his ain sleeping room. ( pg 46 Clugston ) this transition of the short narrative is speaking about doing love and or holding sex. What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith says. “it’s larning to state screw with grace but larning to sleep together without it” ( pg 267 Clugston ) . Once once more this statement is speaking about holding sex and perchance doing love.

The verse form is a much broader illustration by utilizing the work screw has many different significances. “to have sexual intercourse with. To handle below the belt or harshly. to move doltishly or heedlessly ; cause problem ; mess up. The word screw and some of its derived functions have progressively crept into insouciant usage. non merely as curses of daze. horror. or anger—or even pleasant surprise—but as verbal tics. indices of mere irritation or restlessness: Where are my sleep togethering keys? What the screw do you desire now? Yet for many people. the word remains coarse. improper. and utterly tabu. ” Dictionary. com

State Lovers by Nadine Gordimer speaks of the differences of the black kids. “The farm kids play together when they are little. but one time the white kids travel off to school they shortly don’t play together any more. even in the vacations. Although most of the black kids get some kind of schooling. they drop every twelvemonth further behind the classs passed by the white kids ; the infantile vocabulary. the child’s geographic expedition of the adventuresome possibilities of dike. kopjes. mealie lands. and veld—there comes a clip when the white kids have surpassed these with the vocabulary of boarding–school and the possibilities of inter–school athleticss lucifers and the sort of escapades seen at the film.

This usefully coincides with the age of 12 or 13 ; so that by the clip early adolescence is reached. the black kids are doing along with the bodily changes common to all. an easy passage to adult signifiers of reference. get downing to name their old playfellows missis and baasie small maestro. ” ( pg 44 Clugston ) What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith besides speaks of the differences of being a individual of colour and wanting to be more like a Caucasic individual. “like there’s something. everything. incorrect. it’s dropping nutrient colourising in your eyes to do them blue and enduring their burn in silence. It’s starting a faded white mophead over the cricks of your hair” ( pg 267 Clugston ) . The feeling of non belonging. the feeling of being different. and alone is best stated by Patricia Smith What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl. “first of all. it’s being 9 old ages old and experiencing like you’re non finished. like your borders are wild. like there’s something. everything. wrong” ( pg 267 Clugston ) .

When comparing and contrasting the verse form Patricia Smith What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl to the short narrative Country Lovers by Nadine Gordimer you see that the these two immature black adult females want to be accepted in the universe around them. The miss in the verse form is seeking to alter her image by one time once more citing “like there’s something. everything. incorrect. it’s dropping nutrient colourising in your eyes to do them blue and enduring their burn in silence. It’s starting a faded white mophead over the cricks of your hair” ( pg 267 Clugston ) . Where as the short narrative provinces that nobelprize. org provinces that Nadine Gordimer “Born in Springs. South Africa. 20/11/1923. Daughter of Isidore and Nan Gordimer. Has lived all her life. and continues to populate. in South Africa. Principal works: 10 novels. including A Guest of Honour. The Conservationist. Burger’s Daughter. July’s People. A Sport of Nature. My Son’s Story and her most recent. None to Attach to Me. 10 short narrative aggregations. the most recent Jump. published 1991. and Why Haven’t You Written: Selected Narratives 1950-1972. published 1992.

Non-fiction: The Essential Gesture ; On the Mines ; The Black Interpreters. Among honorary grades: from Yale. Harvard. Columbia. New School for Social Research. USA ; University of Leuven. Belgium. University of York ( England ) . Universities of Cape Town and the Witwatersrand ( South Africa ) . Cambridge University ( England ) . Commandeur de l’Ordre diethylstilbestrols Arts et diethylstilbestrols Lettres ( France ) . Vice-President of International PEN. From Nobel Lectures. Literature 1991-1995. Editor Sture Allen. World Scientific Publishing Co. . Singapore. 1997” . Per nobelprize. org “Nadine Gordimer was The Nobel Prize in Literature 1991 “14 novels. including A Guest of Honour. The Conservationist. Burger’s Daughter. July’s People. The Pickup. and her most recent Get A Life. published 2005. 11 short narrative aggregations. the most recent Loot. published 2003. and Jump 1992.

Honorary Member American Academy of Arts & A ; Sciences. Honorary Member. American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Goodwill Ambassador UNDP. Order of The Southers Cross. South Africa. Order of Friendship. Republic of Cuba. Presidential Medal of Honour of the Republic of Chile. ”poets. org provinces that. “Patricia Smith. a poet. instructor. public presentation creative person and writer. was born in 1955. She is the writer of four books of poesy: Teashop of the Almighty. ( Coffee House Press. 2006 ) . a 2005 National Poetry Series choice ; Close to Death ( 1993 ) ; Large Towns. Large Talk ( 1992 ) . which won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award ; and Life Harmonizing to Motown ( 1991 ) .

Her verse forms have been published in many anthologies. including American Voices ( 2005 ) . The Spoken Word Revolution ( 2003 ) . and Bum Rush the Page ( 2003. ) She is besides the writer of a history book. Africans in America ( 1998 ) . along with a children’s book. Janna and the Kings ( 2003 ) . She is presently working on Fixed on a Ferocious Star. a life of Harriet Tubman. A four-time single title-holder on the National Poetry Slam. Smith has besides been a featured poet on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and has performed her work around the universe.

She has written and performed two one-man dramas. one of which was produced by Derek Walcott’s Trinidad Theater Workshop. She is a Cave Canem module member and has served as the Bruce McEver Chair in Writing at Georgia Tech University. ” Both are astonishing writers with many composing techniques and manners. The short narrative and the verse form are closely related due to the fact that two immature black adult females seeking to last in a preponderantly white universe covering with race and seeking to suit in a universe that is non where they are comfy with their ain supports.

Mention:
Clugston. R. W. ( 2010 ) . Journey into literature. San Diego. California: Bridgepoint Education. Inc. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //content. ashford. edu/books hypertext transfer protocol: //www. Dictionary. com. LLC. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. nobelprize. org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1991/gordimer-bio. html hypertext transfer protocol: //www. poets. org/poet. php/prmPID/299

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