Notion/ Myths and heroes
Cours gratuits > Forum > Forum anglais: Questions sur l'anglais || En basMessage de fonfon posté le 27-04-2016 à 11:14:50 (S | E | F)
Bonjour à tous,
je suis une élève de Terminale L, et je dois rédiger une des notion du Bac en anglais, à savoir :"myths and heroes". La problématique est la suivante: Is the black American Dream
Merci d'avance !
I'm going to speak about the notion Myths and heroes.
A myth is a popular story. It originally explains the origins of humanity. They are generally characterized by the image of hero. A hero is a real person or not, having carried out an extraordinary act, as to save a life for example. To illustrate this notion I chose the American segregation. The black American Dream is it a myth or a reality? We will see first the progress of situation of the black people in America since 1619, then, who are the heroes who made this progres possible.
In 1619, Slavery in America began: European in North America turned to African slaves as a cheaper, more plentiful labor source than servants. Black slaves worked mainly on the tobacco, rice and indigo plantations.
Abraham Lincoln was elected as president and issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation, he declared « that all persons held as slaves » whithin the Confederate state « are, and henceforward shall be free ». Then, in 1865 the civil war ended. Furthermore, Lincoln is assassinated, and the thirteenth amendment abolishes slavery throughout the United States. On june 19, slavery in United States effectively ended. But a group of ex-Confederate soldiers in Tennessee met to form a secret society of white men, dedicated to resisting laws giving black the same rights as white; called Ku Klux Klan. Members wore white robes with hoods to hide their faces. The Klan, used terrorist tactics, as coming out at night in their white robes, Klan members beat and murdered people whom they opposed, hanging by the neck from a tree was a common method of lynching opponents. This method inspired the poem Strange Fruit by Abel Meeropol in 1937, which is transformed into song by Billie Holliday in 1939, that we studied in class. In this poem we see clearly the opposition between the positive images of the South, with words as: “gallant south or scent of magnolias; and negative images bound to the segregation in the North like: blood, suck, or strange... They are bound to the hanging the black.
It is true that today the situation of the blacks evolved, the torture does not exist anymore, and the equality of the black and the white progresses, we speak about affirmative action.
This affirmative action was organized to allow each to have the same chances to work or to join a middle college . This affirmative action persuaded that the black americain dream was possible, but in reality he is not, there are inverse effects in this affirmative action. In fact,, differences still persist, especially in schools, we see it thanks to the document “The resegregation of America's school's”. In fact, in poor neighborhoods, schools have a high number of black students and are underfunded, because they lack teacher or books... Whereas in affluent areas, the number of black students is very low and schools have a lot of money.
The American dream seems to us then more a dream than a reality. Even if nowadays the racial segregation does not exist any more, the differences persist.
Secondarily, we go to see that certain people had worked so that the Black American dream becomes true.
First, there is Rosa Parks. She refuses to obey the bus driver who asks her to leave her seat to a White and to go to sit down at the back of the bus. At that time, the first four rows are reserved for the Whites. The Black, who represent three quarters of the users, have to sit down in the back. They can nevertheless use the central zone, until Whites need it. After this opposition, Rosa Parks was arrested and put in jail. To support her, the Black people boycotted the bus during one year. The song, “Rosa Parks Equality song”, that we studied sums up story. She's an heroin, an iconic figure of the fight against the racial segregation in the United States.
Furthermore, we know Malcom X. We studied an extract of his autobiography which is called “Black Nightmare”. This document is about black slavery and about his family. This extract is in 4 parts: first political ideas, then, the situation, next the fire, and the end, the father's murder.
Malcom X was one of the most important black personalities. He was beaten against the segregation with violence. Contrary has MLK who wanted the peace, Malcom X wanted to take revenge for whites, because indeed, his house had burned and his father had been murdered by whites.
Conversely, Martin Luther King was for peace. He too is a symbolic character of the fight of the blacks. He wanted the blacks to reach the same rights as the whites, and fought thanks to his eloquence in speeches. One of his speeches will stay in memory, " I have a dream ". He pronounces his speech at the Lincoln Memorial, which is very symbolic because hundred years earlier, Lincoln had abolished the slavery. His speech is in two parts, in the first one he explains the situation of the blacks in the 60s. Then, in second part, he said how he wanted that America is, that is: the white and the black can live together, be equal.
These three characters are thus heroes, indeed they allowed the blacks to evolve in the course of years, to become the equals of the whites. All the world knows their names, their actions are taught the school: they are heroes.
To conclude, a few years ago, the american dream for the black people was completely a myth. But, today thanks to certain people, certain heroes, this myth it turns into may become a reality. It's true that, for the black people, It's complicated always today to evolve in the society as a white can make do. Indeed, there are always many more whites who have access to the high studies than of blacks in America. But, if in a few years their situation continues to evolve, the American dream will become possible.
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Modifié par lucile83 le 27-04-2016 12:32
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