week 5 paper.edited

docx

School

Ashford University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

PTD1739L

Subject

English

Date

Apr 3, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by AmbassadorEnergyNightingale26

Running Head: CRITICAL RESPONSE ESSAY 1 Critical Response Essay Amity Baldwin ENG 121 Aimee Ford October 8, 2019

2 CRITICAL RESPONSE ESSAY Critical Response Essay Wildness equates with freedom. In the article, “Free Spirits: A Legacy of Wildness," Bell Hooks is describing the place where she grew up, the wilderness of the backwoods of Kentucky and the freedom that came with living in a remote location. Black and white people live among each other in this area, but not in complete harmony. Even though there is diversity, everyone pretty much lives in the same way, and that is off the land, using what they must to get by. The people of the backwoods of Kentucky do not conform to the standards of civilization. They have their own set of rules. The author describes the time she left the area and went to the West Coast to attend college. She minimally describes the differences in culture and what it was like returning to her home after being away. Through analysis of the situations that Bell Hooks describes in “Free Spirits: A Legacy of Wildness”, we learn that living in the hills of Kentucky, away from civilization, there is freedom for all people, black or white, to live the way they choose, and after experiencing life in other locations, they can still return to their roots. Place is the concept in Bell Hooks' essay. She describes the area in which she lived as a child and an adult as being a remote location in Kentucky, where people were free to make up their minds about how they wanted to live. She describes her childhood as "growing up in a world of wild things" (Hooks, 2008, pg. 37). I could relate very much to the author being allowed by her mother to roam free through the backwoods with her brother when they were kids. I grew up in a country setting, where there was much freedom to be had. Although it was not as remote as the backwoods of Kentucky, I could roam free on the land my family owns. My extended family lived together in separate houses built on this land. Living among family provided the luxury of having a close relationship with all my family members; however, there

3 CRITICAL RESPONSE ESSAY was not any diversity in the area that I grew up. People of different races lived in the city about thirty miles away from where I lived. Segregation played a part in the backwoods of Kentucky when Bell Hooks was growing up. Black and white people mostly did not mix; however, they were able to cohabitate, and most everyone lived a mediocre life. No matter what their race, these people fished, hunted, and grew their food to survive. They even made their alcoholic beverages (Hooks, 2008, pg. 38). My interpretation of Ms. Hooks' description of the segregation was that most folks got along even though they separated themselves according to their race. I did not get the impression that there was any hatred among the people of the backwoods. They chose to keep apart from each other. According to Hooks, these are people who just wanted to live free from the laws and rules of civilization (Hooks, 2008, pg.38). Neither race chose to identify themselves as "hillbillies." In my opinion, "hillbillies" is more of a stereotype conjured up by people who adhere to civilization. Diversity is not something I ever had much experience with when I was growing up. I lived in a predominately white area and never experienced any interaction with other races until I was about ten years old. My brother and I would go to the city to visit our mother on the weekends. We had many friends in our mother's neighborhood, and some of these friends were black. As children, we did not know about segregation or racism, so it was never an issue among our group of friends. It was not until I was a teenager and had moved to live with my mother in the city, that I learned what racism and segregation meant. An experience of diversity occurred for Hooks once she left the backwoods of Kentucky and went to the West Coast to attend college. I imagine, for most backwoods' people, college is something of a dream. Hooks does not go into much detail regarding her college experience, except to mention that she "came to associate the passion for freedom she experienced as a child

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

4 CRITICAL RESPONSE ESSAY with anarchy" (Hooks, 2008, pg. 37). I am positive that Hooks would have had to endure some amount of culture shock during this time of her life. I feel she could have gone more into detail about how she dealt with the culture change and how it affected her while away at school and upon returning home. If Hooks found it challenging to fit in when she was away at college, she did not elaborate on it in her article. I wanted to know more about the experience that she had on the West Coast. I wanted to know if she had a difficult time fitting in with groups of people, and if she was able to influence anyone by sharing the values, she was taught growing up. I have never felt like I fit in most situations in life, and I was eager to hear about the author’s experiences with changing cultures. I found it unfortunate that she did not share what she endured. Returning to her roots, Hooks talks about life after college. She states, "While I do not claim an identity as Appalachian, I do claim a solidarity, a sense of belonging, that makes me one with the Appalachian past of my ancestors, black, Native American, white, all "people of one blood" who made homeplace in isolated landscapes where they could invent themselves, where they could savor a taste of freedom" (Hooks, 2008, pg. 39). I enjoyed the fact that the author described her life after college and what it meant to her to be from a remote area of Kentucky. People of this area pride themselves on their values, and I was happy to learn through the end of the essay that Ms. Hooks did not lose sight of the values she learned growing up. I grew up with the luxury of being able to spend much time with my grandparents. My grandmother was a great woman with old fashioned values, and she passed those on to me. I look back on our time together and I can greatly appreciate all the things that she taught me. Place, as well as values, was described very well by the author her essay. The people of the Kentucky backwoods share the freedom to live their lifestyle without the rules and

5 CRITICAL RESPONSE ESSAY regulations of civilization. They find ways to get by, even though they do not have much in the way of material things. Even though there are differences among them, and some have experienced diversity by living outside this area, the Appalachian people live on the values that matter the most to them, and that value is integrity.

6 CRITICAL RESPONSE ESSAY References Hooks, B. (2008) Free Spirits: A Legacy of Wildness. Appalachian Heritage, Vol. 36 , (No. 3 ), 37-39. DOI: 10.1353/aph0.0087

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

week 5 paper.edited

Related Documents