Where I Come from free essay sample

The main idea in the poem is that a person’s character is always formed, at least in part, by the place where he or she is born: â€Å"People are made of places. † Wherever you go in life you will carry with you memories and echoes of your birthplace, whether it is a city, as in the first stanza, or the quiet Canadian countryside where Elizabeth Brewster herself was born in 1922. We are, however, also influenced by the places we have visited. Imagery. Many of the images in this poem are sensory in that they refer to things that we can touch or smell as well as what we can see. The poet begins with images of nature that suggest some of the places that ‘people’ may have visited; ‘hints of jungles or mountains’, ‘sea-gazers’, ‘tropic grace’. The places she describes here are also strongly associated with smells. She quickly introduces images that are associated with cities; ‘smell of smog’, ‘chromium plated offices’, ‘subways crowded at rush hours. We will write a custom essay sample on Where I Come from or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page These images are interspersed with images of nature that is controlled or influenced by man; ‘the almost not smell of tulips’ is drowned by the aforementioned ‘smog’. Nature in the city is ‘tidily plotted’ It is restrained and does not have the freedom to grow wildly behind old buildings like the violets in the second stanza. ‘Guidebooks’ may be a metaphor for the way that we live our lives indicating the amount of instruction and guidance that we require. By contrast, life in a natural environment is simple, instinctive and dependant only on the seasons ‘ice and the breaking of ice. Even art; man’s expression of beauty and truth, is; ‘also tidily plotted. ’ Through her use of imagery, the poet suggests that nature can remain a part of our identity: ‘Where I come from, people carry woods in their minds. ’ The second stanza gives us images of nature in its wild and natural state; ‘acres of pine woods’, ‘chickens†¦clucking aimlessly’, ‘violets grow’, ‘ice’ Although there is evidence of mankind in this stanza; ‘battered schoolhouses,’ it does not inhibit the natural environment; ‘behind which violets grow. The final lines provide a link between nature and the mind (just as Summer Farm does) giving us an image of nature that is refreshing yet possibly suggests that the place in the mind that she is referring to is ‘frosty’ and that perhaps she does not want to go there. ‘Ice and the breaking of ice’ may suggest that something is broken when we move from the city to the country. Diction in the first stanza is mostly negative â₠¬Ëœsmell’ is repeated several times to emphasise her disapproval of the city and the way that it suffocates nature. However, her use of the word ‘grace’ suggests beauty and has religious and sacred connotations. The word ‘cool’ suggests a peacefulness associated with the sea gazers. The words ‘old’ and ‘battered’ in the second stanza provide a direct contrast with the ‘chromium plated’ buildings in stanza one; chromium being the epitome of modern buildings and mankind’s desire for control over the environment. The ‘door’ that the poet refers to in her final lines may symbolise a nostalgic return to childhood and the ‘frosty’ wind may indicate that our memories are not always as idyllic as we remember them to be. There is a duality in tone in this poem; the first stanza is fast paced, busy, the lines are list like and description is sparse – just as nature is sparse in the city. This fast pace suggests organisation and control. In the second stanzas, repetition creates a peaceful, soothing rhythm. The tone is positive when the poet speaks about nature and distinctly negative when she speaks about the city. The poem is structured in three irregular stanzas (11, 8, and 2) with irregular line lengths. The poet often uses enjambment when she refers to nature – perhaps to suggest nature’s freedom and continuous cycles. It also indicates the continuous, seemingly abstract way that thoughts and memories occur; they are not structured or strictly ordered. At other times enjambment allows the reader to focus on one idea before introducing another; ‘smell of subways’ precedes ‘crowded at rush hours’ which falls onto the next line. When she talks about aspects of the city the line ends with punctuation of some sort- suggesting that nature is restricted. Longer lines seem to be used when she talks about nature – there is more description here and again, the line length may indicate the freedom that nature has in the countryside. In absence of a rhyme scheme, alliterative phrase contribute to rhythm; ‘people are made of places’ ‘blueberry bushes ‘and ‘burned out bush’ are given a strong emphatic sound whilst sibilant phrases; ‘carry woods in their minds, †¦ pine woods †¦patches’ contribute to a slow soothing rhythm. The main themes are identity; people being made of places, nature and man; the impact that man has on nature and nature in its natural state.

Every AP English Language and Composition Practice Exam

Every AP English Language and Composition Practice Exam SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips With the AP English Language and Composition exam coming up, it’s important to find the best practice resources, and that includes practice tests!The AP Language and Composition exam has two sections: a multiple-choice section with 52-55 multiple questions, and a free-response section with three essay questions- one synthesis prompt, one analysis prompt, and one argument prompt. But not all AP Lang practice tests are like the real exam, and they aren’t all of equal quality. In this guide, I’ll break down where you can find official College Board AP Language and Composition practice test resources, other free resources out there, and paid practice tests and questions. I’ll also break down which resources are high-quality and how to best incorporate AP English practice tests into your exam preparation. Official Practice Resources The best practice test resources come from the College Board. This is because they are the ones who create and administer all AP exams, including AP Lang and Comp, so their materials are the closest to the real, actual questions you will be seeing on test day! If you practice with material that’s close to the actual exam, you’ll feel more comfortable when you are actually taking the test. Therefore, when possible, it’s best to use College Board materials. However, it’s worth noting that official resources for AP Language and Composition are a little bit sparse, especially when compared to the AP Literature exam. There are, in general, three resources that the College Board offers for any given AP exam: complete released exams, released free-response questions from previous years, and sample questions from the â€Å"AP Course and Exam Description.† Complete Released Exams Unfortunately, the College Board doesn’t appear to have released any official complete AP English Language and Composition practice exams, so I have nothing to link to here. However, you can probably find at least one entire past exam by Googling â€Å"AP Language complete released exam† or similar variations on that. Make sure any AP Language and Composition released exams you get this way have answer keys, though! You might also ask your AP teacher if she has any copies of old AP exams you can use for practice. AP teachers can purchase past exams from the College Board that students don’t have access to. Shemay not be able to let you take them home, but even then you could be allowed to use them in a supervised setting. Released Free-Response Questions The College Board has posted years and years worth of past AP Language and Composition free-response questions that are at your disposal for practice purposes. However, only the tests from 2007-onward include the same three question types that are on the test currently. Earlier tests include two rhetorical analysis questions instead of a synthesis question. Sample Questions From the â€Å"AP Course and Exam Description† The AP Course and Exam description for AP Language and composition includes 50 multiple-choice questions (so, just two questions short of a complete multiple-choice section) and three free-response prompts: one synthesis prompt, one analysis prompt, and one argument prompt. This means that the sample questions from the Course and Exam Description are just two multiple-choice questions shy of being a complete AP English Language and Composition practice exam, so if you want to use it as one you definitely can. In fact, if you can’t find any official tests either from Google or your teacher, I advise it. Otherwise, you can add these College-Board approved questions to your practice bank! Put them in the bank! Free Unofficial Resources Outside of the College Board, there are lots of sites offering free practice questions for the AP Language and Comp exam. But which ones will actually help you? Since anyone can slap together a few questions and call it an â€Å"AP Language and Composition Practice Test,† how do you sort the wheat from the chaff? I’ve combed through tons of free resources so you don’t have to! Presented in order of quality, from best to worst, here’s my list of all the free AP Language practice tests and quizzes I could find out there. College Countdown Complete AP Language Practice Test College Countdown offers a complete unofficial practice test, essays and all. While the exact wording of the multiple-choice questions isn’t exactly the same as on a real AP exam, the tasks are very similar and the passages are well-selected. The essays are solid examples of the AP essay prompt style, although you could also substitute the unofficial free-response section for an official past free-response question if you wanted to make the experience even closer to a real AP. Also, there are robust answer explanations. This is an especially good resource given that there isn’t an official College Board-released exam for this test. McGraw-Hill AP Practice Quiz The academic publisher McGraw-Hill offers a 25-question multiple-choice diagnostic quiz for the AP English Language exam. The quiz is nominally 25 questions, but you might actually be able to get more than 25 questions’ worth of practice out of it because every time you open a new test window you get a subset of questions that are randomly selected from a question pool. This quiz has pretty difficult, well-written multiple-choice questions that actually resemble real AP questions, so it’s a particularly good resource. The passages do open in another window, though, which is a small annoyance. Albert iO AP English Language Practice Albert offers a huge number of mini-quizzes on analyzing the rhetoric of various notable nonfiction passages. The questions don’t exactly sound like genuine AP questions- the style is a little more informal and to the point- but they are decent practice for answering questions about rhetorical techniques as applied in a given passage. You can’t access the most difficult questions if you don’t pay, but all of the other question levels are free. High School Test Prep AP Language Practice Tests High School Test Prep offers four short practice tests, each offering questions about a given nonfiction passage. The question style is definitely different from that of true AP questions; like the Albert questions, they are written in a more stylistically simplistic way. Additionally, the ratio of questions about the passage overall versus specific moments in the passage is weighted much more heavily towards overall passage questions than the real AP exam. However, these are still decent rhetorical analysis practice questions, and this resource isan especially good choice if you find yourself struggling with identifying the major themes and arguments of passages overall. Varsity Tutors AP English Practice Tests Varsity Tutors offers very short, skill-specific quizzes. The questions don’t sound all that much like AP questions, and every question asks about a different short passage, which is a little bit bizarre and inefficient. Additionally, not all of the specific skills they offer quizzes in are super-relevant to AP Language (e.g. â€Å"Motives and goals of characters†). However, if you feel like there are very specific rhetorical techniques you are confused about, taking some of the quizzes here could be a good study strategy.If you want to track your scores, you can make a free account with Varsity Tutors, but it’s not necessary to be able to access the quizzes. 4tests.com AP English Language Exam This site offers a 35-question AP English Language and Composition practice exam. The questions are somewhat overly basic and passages are not particularly similar in style or content to actual AP Language passages, though. Additionally, the interface is a little bit clunky. I would only use these if you desperately need some additional, very basic rhetorical analysis practice. Clunky like a retro calculator. Paid Unofficial Resources If you need even more practice, there are also paid unofficial practice test resources available. Review Books Review books usually contain one or more complete practice tests and are a great resource when you run out of free resources. Not all review books are equally high-quality, though- be sure to look at reviews (and check out the questions by flipping through the book at the bookstore if you can, to see how similar they are to actual AP questions). As a starting place, Barron’s and the Princeton Review both generally offer high-quality AP review books. Shmoop - Paid Subscription Shmoop is a test prep subscription service that offers material for a variety of standardized tests, including AP Language and Composition. I can’t advise as to the quality of the material or the questions, though, because the service has an access cost of a dollar a day. Peterson’s AP Practice Tests A bundle of two AP Lang and Comp practice tests from this site costs twenty dollars. I couldn’t find much information or reviews as to the quality of the material, though, so this is a bit of a gamble. You’d likely be better off buying a well-reviewed review book with practice tests. How to Use Practice Resources in Your Exam Prep How to best use practice resources as you study depends a lot on what kind of practice material you are using. I’ll review how to make the most of different types of resources here. Complete Practice Exams (Official and Maybe Unofficial) The best way to use complete practice tests is to do full timed practice-runs for exam day. Bring a clock, a timer, and a hefty supply of pencils into a quiet room and have at it! A practice-run will help you to feel more comfortable when it’s time to take the exam for real in May. If you have access to multiple practice tests, you can even take complete tests at different times in the studying process to see how you’ve improved and what you still need to work on. When you do take practice tests, it can be helpful to get someone else to help grade your free-response essays based on the rubric. You should aim to take your first full-length practice test around the beginning of your second semester. Normally I advise to only use official College Board practice tests for this, but since easily accessible complete official exams for the AP Language and Composition exam are sparse, you may want to supplement with the practice test from College Countdown linked to above. Official College Board Practice Free-Response and Sample Questions Released free-response questions from past years are best for practicing specifically for the free-response section in a targeted way. You can work on the prompt types that you find the most difficult or practice outlining essays in a certain amount of time, or writing all three essays in 120 minutes. If you don’t use the Course and Exam Description as a practice test, the multiple choice questions are great targeted practice for the first section of the text. It will help you get familiar with the College Board’s question style and work on your rhetorical close-reading. Unofficial Practice Quizzes and Questions Unofficial practice quizzes and questions just aren’t going to be as much like the real AP exam as College Board materials. However, while they aren’t as helpful for prepping for the exam format or question styles, they are still good practice for building your rhetorical analysis skills, which is critical for the exam. High-quality unofficial resources are definitely worth your time. Building rhetorical analysis skills: more complicated than building with blocks. Key Takeaways Practice tests are a key AP prep resource. The best resources come from the College Board, but unfortunately, official College Board resources for AP Language and Composition are a little bit sparse as compared to some other AP exams.However, there are also tons of unofficial resources, and some are high-quality. Most are free, but a few are paid. Once you have your resources assembled, you might not be sure how to use them. Complete practice tests are best for mimicking the experience of the actual exam, sample Official questions are best for targeted section practice, and unofficial practice tests are best for rhetorical analysis skill-building. You’re ready to practice your way to AP success! What's Next? We also have complete practice test lists for AP Literature,AP US History, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Psychology, and AP World History. Or see our guide to finding the best AP practice tests for any exam. Taking the AP Literature exam? See our ultimate guide to AP Literature. Wondering if you should be trying for an AP test perfect score? Or maybe you just need more guidance on how to study for AP exams. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

5 Creative Ideas for Martin Luther King Essay

5 Creative Ideas for Martin Luther King Essay Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most revolutionary influences of the 20th Century. His passion and determination for race equality not only changed history, but paved the way for many other activists seeking rights and representation. During his lifetime, he inspired millions to fight for freedoms they never dreamed possible, and his death remains a testament to his dedication to peace. It’s no wonder that professors love to assign essays about this controversial American hero. While it can seem a daunting task to undertake, writing a powerful essay about Martin Luther King, Jr. is actually much easier than it seems. With the right approach and a little personal investment, your professor will be blown away by the quality and depth of your Martin Luther King essay submission. Maximum Quotability In many high schools and colleges, Martin Luther King Day is celebrated with essay contests that revolve around many of his incredible quotes. To start your essay off right, try looking up some of these well-known (or little-known) snippets to get the mental juices flowing: Everyone has the power for greatness, not for fame, but greatness, because greatness is determined by service. †Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.† â€Å"Lifes most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?† â€Å"War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.† â€Å"Faith is taking the first step even when you dont see the whole staircase.† Connect It to Your Life Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about so many important concepts that it is virtually impossible not to be personally affected by at least one. Review some of the main ideas that he fought and died for. Which ideas have your life (or the lives of those you love) been touched by? Tell those stories and then reflect on how Dr. King’s actions have helped you to be where you are today. Some of Dr. King’s ideas to consider are: People should not be judged based on their outward appearance, but by the â€Å"content of their character.† Fear is the ultimate cause for hatred and violence. Not standing up for what is right is just as bad as doing wrong. Nonviolence is a powerful weapon. Quality of life, not length of life, is what is important. The creative and dedicated minority are the ones who change the world. Living History Another great way to get into your essay is by looking at the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. from a historical perspective. Pick out a few events that were pivotal in the life of Dr. King, or turn the last few days of his life into a narrative essay. In fact, you could get creative by writing a short story from the perspective of a close assistant or even the gunman who assassinated Dr. King. Just make sure that you use primary sources and good research skills to build your narrative upon. What If? It’s been almost 50 years since the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In that time, we’ve seen racial integration and equality on an unprecedented scale. And yet, is there more work that needs to be done? In this essay style, you need to take a look around and see the world through Dr. King’s eyes. What would he think of today’s music? Our current president? Current social and political activism efforts? Peruse the headlines and imagine what Dr. King would think about the Ferguson riots or the push for gay marriage rights equality. Then, write your essay from his perspective, using his own quotes to support your theories of how he would respond. Put It Into Action Instead of starting your essay on a piece of paper, why not begin something with your hands? For example, instead of just writing about Dr. King’s ideology, consider putting those ideas into action for a week. Take notes about how serving others made you feel. Explain the difficulties and benefits of reacting peacefully to people who don’t like you. When all the other students in your class are turning in the same rehashed information and opinions, you can be sharing your real-life experiences of putting Dr. King’s famous concepts into action – and completely blow your teacher away. Are you assigned with Martin Luther King essay? Have some interesting ideas? Share anything with us in the comments below

CULTURAL AND ETHICAL VALUES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

CULTURAL AND ETHICAL VALUES - Essay Example 28). He uses this as the basic framework from which he developed the idea of virtue as mean – the golden mean – where ethical virtue remains "located on a map that places the virtues between states of excess and deficiency" (Kraut, 2007). In The Politics, Aristotle expands this idea by asserting that a "government is good when it aims at the good of the whole community, bad when it cares only for itself" (Russell, 2005, p. 183). Therefore, the ethical virtue of governments lies in the common good. Aristotle engaged in an extensive comparison of the governments of Greek city-states, and concluded that there were three "pure" forms of government: monarchy, aristocracy (rule by a few), and polity (rule by many). Each had a corresponding "perverted" form: tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy (Aristotle, Sinclair, & Saunders, 1992, pp. 238-240). Within the framework of virtue as mean, the pure forms signify excess and the perverted forms expound deficiency. So, if ethical virtue entailed good governance, the doctrine of the mean would demand that the ideal form of government should be located between the pure and perverted ones. For Aristotle, the ethical qualities of sovereigns, not the nature of constitution, determine the virtue of governments: "it is impossible for those who do not do good actions to do well, and there is no such thing as a man’s or a states good action without virtue and practical wisdom" (Aristotle, Sinclair, & Saunders, 1992, p. 393). Hence, moderate competence in performing the functions of government is identified with virtue, and virtue with the pure forms of government. Aristotle says that the "correct conception of justice is aristocratic, assigning political rights to those who make a full contribution to the political community, that is, to those with virtue as well as property and freedom" (Miller 2002). To

Paul and Wives Submission Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Paul and Wives Submission - Essay Example Paul. Will a realised soul like him compromise the revelations of the gospel? The real problem with all revelations, including the present issue under discussion related to the inferior status of women, is elsewhere. These revelations are not made at the mind level, but transcending the mind. At that level what is revealed is perfect and no one can imagine duality there. All realised souls reveal the same truth from their levels. Just as the sun and the moon are one and the same for all individuals practicing different faiths, the ultimate truth is the same for all men and women and for the entire humankind. But the mind-level preachers, mullah, pundits and the so-called intellectuals interpret it from the level of their spiritual progression and hence the differences crop up. Interpretations about the truth vary, but truth in in itself is Immutable. A common individual who thinks from the mind-level is unable to comprehend the profound and deep meaning of a particular word or a phra se uttered by the realised soul. Various interpretations crop which result in arguments and counter arguments. In the heat of such arguments the real issue is lost sight off. The context in which the revelation is made has some bearing, but truth is beyond all limitations of time as well. Go through the arguments of John Temple Bristow on Paul and Wives submission. He writes, â€Å"Perhaps Paul was torn between the ideal and realities of his time. Perhaps he compromised the gospel in order not to upset the social structures of his age. Perhaps Paul could not escape his own background and culture or perhaps Paul gave a good line in public, but in private revealed his own disdain regarding women.†(Preface, x) Bristow make the careful and repeated use of the word ‘perhaps’ and I give full credit to him for treading carefully while trying to comment on the revelations of Paul on this sensitive subject. This viewpoint is one that of an intellectual and has been elucid ated here just to restate the position of mind-level interpretations and the pitfalls involved in such procedure. Mr. Bristow has erred in his judgment about the stand of St. Paul, relating to the status of women. Whatever are the realities of time, a Realized Soul will not employ shortcuts to gain followers for his viewpoints. He will stand by truth on his assertions on any topic, irrespective of the consequences. I believe that women are equal to men and yet I’m wrong. Let’s assume for a while, from the secular point of view that men and women are equal. From the spiritual standpoint, women are more equal as compared to men. How can one treat women as equal to men? God has created her, given her the status of more equal. Nobody can take that right away. It is the woman who gives protection for the initial nine months to the divine creative force of the future of humanity, male or female. St. Paul is aware of this position and one cannot expect a divine personality to make mistakes in divine interpretations about man-woman status. Expressing his dilemma about the stand of St. Paul on this issue, Bristow admits his confusion and writes, â€Å"We were also taught that women, according to Paul, are to obey their husbands and to be subject to male leadership.

Essay on Search for Identity in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club

Search for Identity in Joy Luck Club      Ã‚   Each person reaches a point in their life when they begin to search for their own, unique identity. In her novel, Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan follows Jing Mei on her search for her Chinese identity – an identity long neglected.    Four Chinese mothers have migrated to America. Each hope for their daughter’s success and pray that they will not experience the hardships faced in China. One mother, Suyuan, imparts her knowledge on her daughter through stories. The American culture influences her daughter, Jing Mei, to such a degree that it is hard for Jing Mei to understand her mother's culture and life lessons. Yet it is not until Jing Mei realizes that the key to understanding who her mother was and who she is lies in understanding her mother's life.    Jing Mei spends her American life trying to pull away from her Chinese heritage, and therefore also ends up pulling away from her mother. Jing Mei does not understand the culture and does not feel it is necessary to her life. When she grows up it is not "fashionable" to be called by your Chinese name (Tan 26). She doesn't use, understand, or remember the Chinese expressions her mother did, claiming she "can never remember things [she] didn't understand in the first place" (Tan 6). Jing Mei "begs" her mother "to buy [her] a transistor radio", but her mother refuses when she remembers something from her past, asking her daughter "Why do you think you are missing something you never had?" (Tan 13) Instead of viewing the situation from her mother's Chinese-influenced side, Jing Mei takes the juvenile American approach and "sulks in silence for an hour" (Tan 13). By ignoring her mom and her mom's advice, Jing Mei is also ignoring... ...Jing Mei realizes the part of her that is Chinese is her family. She must embrace the memory of her dead mother to grasp that part of her identity.    Works Cited and Consulted: Gates, David. Critical Extract. Asian-American Women Writers. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1997. 83-4. Heung, Marina. "Daughter-Text/Mother-Text: Matrilineage in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club." Feminist Studies (Fall 1993): 597-616. Huntley, E. D. Amy Tan: A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood P, 1998. Shear, Walter. "Generational differences and the diaspora in The Joy Luck Club." Women Writers. 34.3 (Spring 1993): 193 Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Vintage Contemporaries. New York: A Division of Random House, Inc., 1991.. Wong, Sau-ling Cynthia. Reading Asian American Literature: From Necessity to Extravagance. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993

Alice Walker’s the Welcome Table Essay

Alice Walker’s The Welcome Table is a short story that gives a historical and cultural look at how segregation in the south influenced people’s lives. The story portrays an old black woman as the main character. It has plot, setting, characters, symbolism, theme, tone and imagery that the author skillfully narrated in the third person omniscient point of view to create the story. The reader experiences an insight into behavior that was caused by segregation in the State of Georgia in the south. â€Å"The reverend of the church stopped her pleasantly as she stepped into the vestibule†¦..†Aunty, you know this is not your church?†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.Inside the church she sat on the very first bench from the back.† (Clugston, 2010) Head of the congregation the reverend instigates the act of religious segregation and without further prompting; his congregants willingly follows. The story also portrays the church people’s mindset to maintain religious segre gation even in the act of worship. â€Å"They looked with contempt †¦.at the old woman†¦could their husbands expect them to sit up in church with that? No, no†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Clugston, 2010) The narrator uses strong descriptions to recreate the era and to pull the reader into the story. It really shows how segregation influences people in their everyday life. Black slaves were freed. However, black and white people remained segregated because segregation was the way of life for the people during that period in Georgia. The system of segregation demanded that black people had to sit in the back of public busses and the old woman in the story knew her place because she freely sat at the back of the church. â€Å"Inside the church she sat on the very first bench from the back,† (Clugston, 2010). Religious segregation is the main theme. The song at the beginning of the story sets the tone and pulls the reader into the south where ex-slaves sang Negro spirituals for comfort. â€Å"I’m going to sit at the Welcome table; Shout my troubles over; Walk and talk with Jesus; Tell God how you treat me; One of these days!†(Clugston, 2010) Religious segregation was a major part of the culture in Georgia and it is the theme of this story; in that the author details the harsh cold manner in which it affects people. The spiritual at the beginning points to hope to one day experience welcome (acceptance), to sit and talk with Jesus who both the blacks and whites are worshipping but cannot do so under the same roof. In other words, the song is an expression of hope that segregation will end. The black old woman braves freezing temperature, without warm enough clothing to go to the house of worship. Winter represents death, stagnation and sleep (Clugston, 2010) and the old black woman represents slavery. The black old woman, symbolizing slavery is almost blind and almost dead. Yet she is determined to struggle through the freezing cold to push past the reverend, and ignore the young usher to seat herself in the whites only church. â€Å"She brushed past him anyway, as if she had been brushing past him all her life, except this time she was in a hurry. Inside the church she sat†¦It was cold, even inside the church†¦.† This act by the dying old black woman is symbolic of the ex-slaves’ struggle to conquer the final frontier of segregation more so religious segregation. The author uses symbolism in this case to represent the people’s behavior towards the old woman and her determination to have her way. The Author skillfully uses imagery to tell a powerful story The Welcome Table. The very beginning paints a picture of the main character. â€Å"In her Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes:†¦.head rag stained with grease from the many oily pigtails underneath,† What seems like a simple description of her clothes contained words that contributed to the painting of the picture. Then on the other hand the ladies of the church required a different set of adjectives. â€Å"Leather bagged and shoed, with calfskin gloves to keep out the cold†¦.This done, the wives folded their healthy arms across their trim middles†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This vivid contrast also represents the religious disparity between the black people and the white people even though they are both worshipping the same god. â€Å"The reverend of the church stopped her pleasantly as she stepped into the vestibule†¦..†Aunty, you know this is not your church?†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.Inside the church she sat on the very first bench from the back.† (Clugston, 2010) The black old woman, symbolizing slavery is almost blind and almost dead. Yet she is determined to struggle through the freezing cold to push past the reverend, and ignore the young usher to seat herself in the whites only church. Alice Walker’s The Welcome Table gives a historical and cultural look at how segregation in the south influenced people’s lives. The author skillfully narrated in the third person omniscient point of view to create the story. The reader experiences an insight into behavior that was caused by segregation in the State of Georgia in the south. The spiritual at the beginning points to hope to one day experience welcome (acceptance), to sit and talk with Jesus who both the blacks and whites are worshipping but cannot do so under the same roof. In other words, the song is an expression of hope that segregation will end. REFERENCE Clugston, W. R., (2010). Journey Into Literature, San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education Inc. Barnet, S., Berman, M., Burto, W., (1967) An Introduction to Literature 3rd Edition Toronto, CAN:Little, Brown and Company Inc.