Share your literary essay with the rest of the students that chose this short story. Take some time to read 2 or 3 other essays. Comment on them. Your comment should be about something you noticed them doing well from our lessons. For example, "You did a really good job explaining your evidence
The short story,”One Voice” describes events that had happened and also showed that the students on the Stanford campus were racist as well as being judgmental on people's differences. I believe that the theme of the story is about respecting others opinions, personality, and physical differences. I will be showing this with figurative language, character’s actions, dialogue, and changes to show this theme.
ReplyDeleteWhen Jasmine went to college that day she thought she wouldn't be judged by many people. However, it happened anyway. They disrespected her by her race and sex. Also some of her peers were judged as well. There is some figurative language to explain that the theme is that it is important to respect others opinions, personality, and physical differences. First and foremost, there is imagery. Some imagery in the story is when the author described exactly how someone’s car looked. In the text it stated, “”They spray-painted her entire care with racial slurs” one girl said.” This shows imagery because it said exactly was on the car and what was to be seen. This also shows the theme because the student who had spray-painted those racist slurs and other things on her car was not respecting her race or physical differences. Another form of imagery that shows that the theme is about respecting others is when she was talking about all the events and things that had happened that made Jasmine think about what was bothering her. The text said, “I found myself fuming every time I thought about the graffiti' the Snapchats' and those gym meatheads.” This is a flashback of all the hate and racism she was receiving throughout the story. This also shows the theme because she was nicknaming those guys at the gym although they were being rude to her first two wrongs don’t make a right.
Also, there are idioms in the text that explain that the theme is, it is important to respect others opinions, personality, and physical differences. Some of the idioms are when the story explains how Jasmine is trying to explain to Royce that it is difficult to play second banana to the pretty white girl standard. This is an idiom because she’s not actually playing second banana like an instrument or game. She’s playing it by doing it or being the person who has to do it. This also shows the theme by saying she has to act a certain way or be inferior to people because of her personality or physical traits. Another idiom in the text to explain my theory of the theme is when she calls the guys at the gym “meatheads''. This is an idiom because their head is not actually made out of hamburger meat or something like that. This also explains the theme because they were not respecting the gym guys acting like they had no feelings.
A separate way that the theme could be explained is by the characters actions, conversations, and other dialogue in the text. One action by a student on campus at Stanford University is when a student sprayed graffiti on a wall of racist things and other disrespectful statements. This shows the theme because the college student was not respecting others and their physical differences by calling them certain things because of their skin color. Another example of character actions, conversations or other dialogue to explain the theme is Jasmine was thinking to herself about going to the culture group meetings. Although she chose not to because she didn’t want to draw attention to herself because they were more than likely planning a march against racism. Also she imagined her father standing there and telling her what would happen if she did go to those marchs. You could also argue that the theme could be racism for the same exact reason but it is about respecting others because it’s not just others being racist towards each other they also don’t respect others opinions.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the setting also has a minimal effect on the theme of the story. The setting is in a high level college in the modern era and thought to be a very good school. However the people at the school aren’t showing the school values by judging people of their race, sex, and culture. The school administrator had to apologise for this and was very disappointed in the students actions. What I am getting at is this is a top academic school and this stuff is happening when racism is thought to be over.
Overall, I believe the theme of the story is about respecting others opinions, personality, and physical differences.. This is shown through figurative language, characters actions, dialogue, and changes; as well as the setting.
Part 1
ReplyDelete“One Voice” is a short story by Melissa de la Cruz that takes place at Stanford University. The setting is different than most people think because Stanford has many racist things that are happening. The short story is about racist things that are happening at Stanford and how it is affecting the main character and many other people. The story tries to help you understand how minorities feel and how they try to deal with it. The author uses figurative language to help you learn the theme of the short story as while as the character’s dialogue and the setting. The author uses these techniques to teach us that it’s important to respect other people’s opinions, personality, and their physical traits.
The author used quite a bit of figurative language, but one of the bigger ones was imagery. Imagery was used to help us readers understand the theme and setting of the story. One example of imagery is in the paragraph where they were talking about the racist things on the athletes car. “They spray-painted her entire car with racial slurs."' That is one of the sentences that used imagery. It described what the car looked like from what happened, so you can visuals a picture in your head. Sometimes imagery like this can show a theme by making you imagine a visual picture that helps you understand what it would be like if you were there. For instance, this sentence that contains imagery has you think or imagining of racial slurs spray-painted on a car, which could lead you think of all the racist things that could happen, how bad it is, and why we need to respect one another.
Another big literary element the author uses is idiom. Idiom is a literary element that uses sentences like ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’ to mean something different than its actual meaning. One example in the short story was “...his eyes burned with having dealt with this kind of hate his whole life.” This sentence uses idiom because his eyes can’t actually burn from hate. It’s just means that he has experienced a lot of this hate before and you can tell by the way he is acting or looking. Authors usually use idioms to help them describe someone, something, or an event that’s happening instead of just saying it literally as it is. A few times using idioms can help you find and understand the theme, but sometime it’s just there to help you imagine or understand something. In this idiom it provides a thought of what the theme is by describing what he looks like or acting. You could think that since he has dealt with so much hate and its really bringing him down, that you need to be nicer and respect him and who he is, so he can be happy and not worried about who he is and what he looks like.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of character changes, interactions and dialogue in this short story. The main character, Jasmine, had many interactions or thoughts that could show the theme. One example is in the At The Gym section where she is talking to Royce. “Do you even' know what it’s like to be a minority?”, “... so you don't know how sometimes you just want to hide, blend in, be one of the crowd because you already are in the crowd.”, “....maybe you should consider what it’s like to be me when stupid, shallow guys talk about how they only want to date Asian girls. Or how I feel when someone tells me we all look the same, or how frustrating it is because we're all born to lose. Try playing second banana to the pretty white girl standard." She really speaks how she feels and how most other people like her feel. Her speaking to Royce and what she said really shows how mean people can be witch leads in to the theme of the story. The theme shows in this conversation because she speaks about how she is feeling and how bad it is, so you could assume that most people aren’t nice and disrespect her for who she is. This could be seen as people just being racist and that you shouldn’t be racist, but it is more a general thing that you should respect people for who they are, their opinions and personality. The author makes sure to put many more interactions that show theme because it is an important part that helps you understand the theme.
The setting of the short story plays a pretty big role in the short story. It’s current time Stanford University, on a normal school day, but one big thing messes up what normal Stanford is thought to be. The graffiti that is spray-painted on the Jordan Hall shows that racist things can happen anywhere, even in Stanford where there is thought to be no racial or judgemental things that happen. The setting that is very unusual for most people shows the theme of the short story because the racist graffiti is told right away with the setting and you can predict that people aren’t being nice or respecting one another because of the thrown off setting.
At the end of the story, Jasmine decides she needs to go to the rally, so her anger about all the racist things can be put into a positive way. The reason she wants to go to the rally is because she wants people to understand her story and why the world needs to change. The author ends the story with the sentence, “We’re one voice when we want to be.” This sentence shows that when people come together to support a cause and respect one another, they can make a difference.