Hooks: A Short Story

Tendrils of searing, agonising pain surged across the young woman's flesh, pervading into the layers of her skin as a curved, serrated–edged blade glided smoothly across the sensitive skin of her stomach. Hooks, scorching hot, were embedded deep into the ashen flesh of her shoulders. She sunk her teeth into the plump flesh of her bottom lip, sobs piling up at the hollow of her throat and threatening to spill as the twenty–one year old woman thrashed against the many hands holding her down. Her arms were numb, splayed away from her body at a perpendicular angle. Long, delicate and pale fingers –calloused by hard work and long hours– were attached to bony wrists, bound by thick, wrought–iron chains, barbed with sharp needles, blood oozing from

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Is Education Equal?

The United States provides our society with the undeniable right to learn. The right to higher education is not limited to the middle and upper classes; it allows the less privileged, minorities, as well as both sexes, to receive an equal education. Two arguments which present interesting views on higher education are bell hook’s “Keeping Close to Home'; and Adrienne Rich’s “What Does a Woman Need to Know?'; Hooks views higher education with a concern for the underprivileged, whereas Rich views it with a concern for women. Of the two works, I personally do not agree with Rich’s argument.

Bell hooks views...show more content...

Society, peers, and educators make assumptions that label the underprivileged and minorities as “‘lower class ’ people'; who have “no beliefs or values';(88). Professors expect these students to perform badly because of their past and their reputation in today’s society. The students are not given the fair chance other students receive. Knowing the way society portrays them, the students keep to themselves. Even after they prove to be serious and capable students, they are still looked down upon.

Hooks, at first, thought that in order to succeed in college, she must change who she was, to blend in with her peers. She said many “believe that assimilation is the only possible way to survive, to succeed.';(89). After going through the transition and facing these obstacles herself, hooks came to the conclusion that this was not the case. She has maintained close ties with her family, knows where she came from, and has succeeded in life. Hook’s essay tells us that you can maintain close relationships with home and still succeed. Not only are the underprivileged discriminated against, but women are too. One extreme feminist side, Adrienne Rich claims that women are not getting what they deserve when it comes to higher education. Rich states, “There is no woman’s college today which is providing young women with Get

Bone Black In the book Bone Black, Bell Hooks gives a vivid look into her childhood. She starts off by talking about a quilt that her mother gave her from her mother. She thinks that this is special because her mother gave it to her and not one of her other sisters. Then she goes into describing how the children in her family never knew that they were poor until they grew up. They liked the dolls that they played with and the food that they ate. They never wondered why they didn't have the things that their white neighbors did have. You would seldomly hear them complain because they had to walk to school and the white kids rode the school bus. She thought that they had a pretty normal family.

In the next few chapters...show more content...

As time went on she became more involved in church, and religious activities. She got baptized and saved at the church that she always attended. She grew to love the black church that she grew up mocking. The old lady that always sat in the front row made her realize how deep the roots of her church were.

She began to find herself wanting to stay in the house to read instead of going out to play. She first started reading to escape from the problems of her daily life. She would read books about black history, religion and love. When she becomes old enough to date boys she begins to read books about pornography, not knowing that these books were not fit for a girl her age. Then she begins to pleasure herself in private, but after her sisters catch her she begins to feel ashamed and never does it again.

When she goes away to college she joins the campus ministry. She thought that this would be a group that she would feel right at home in. Instead she feels more like an outcast she says, "Her soul is black like the inner would of a cave–bone black. Feeling so alone she tries to kill herself by jumping off a cliff, but one of the priest stops her. She begins to see someone about her problem of feeling lonely. He helped her see that her joy and acceptance was to express herself through stories and poems. Then Bell Hooks realizes that all her life she was meant to Get