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all posts from now on will be for african-american lit

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Ephemerality

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In the Mezzanine, the passage Howie reads from his Penguin classic describes life as trivial or ephemeral. The word ephemeral in French is “éphémère”. In the book Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince), this word is used to describe flowers. The Little Prince visits the planet of a geographer. The geographer asks the Little Prince to describe his planet for his geography book. When the Little Prince describes his home, he mentions his rose. The geographer says that he doesn’t write about flowers because they are ephemeral. The Little Prince asks what this means, and the geography says it means that his flower is won’t last forever, that his flower is going to disappear. This upsets the Little Prince because he realizes that his flower is going to disappear, and he left her all alone. Later on, he is on Earth and comes upon a garden of roses. He realizes that his rose isn't unique. This makes him sad because he thought his rose was important, but because she’s just an ordinary rose, t...
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Milkman and the Past

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           Song of Solomon puts a lot of focus on the past. Most of Milkman’s story is about his parents and Pilate’s past. Most of part one is learning about his family’s history and it sets the stage for part two where Milkman goes on a “quest for gold”. One theme in the book is how Milkman doesn’t really look to the future and how he is really passive. He doesn’t really plan for the future and only can see the past, as shown by the car ride in chapter 2, “But riding backward made him uneasy. It was like flying blind, and not knowing where he was going – just where he had been – troubled him” (32). This shows how he can’t really see the whole picture, only the past. Milkman’s “quest for gold” is him trying to look to the future and start being more active. He wants to be able to get away from his family but to get to his future he needs to learn more about his family’s past. Milkman’s future is very much influenced by his family’s past and heritage....
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