How can reading "Black Power" by Stokely Carmichael and "The Necklace" by Guy Maupassant show the desire for power in the world throughout time? Power has been desired by all since the dawn of man no matter the region or time period. Man has always wanted to have some type of control over each other, be that control only in status or in slavery. In "Black Power" the idea of power is shown as the black community of America no longer being looked down upon due to the color of their skin and the desire for themselves to rise in status of American society. In "The Necklace" by Guy Maupassant the idea of power is shown as a middle class wife feeling lower on the social chain than her friends due to wealth and the plot to be looked upon by everyone for one night, that eventual fails sending their family down the social latter even more. The pieces  "Black Power" and "The Necklace" both use satire, diction, and imagery to portray the basic human desire for power no matter the time period. 

Satire is defined as the use of humor to show that someone or something is foolish, weak, bad, etc.: humor that shows the weaknesses or bad qualities of a person, government, society, etc. In "Black Power" Carmichael begins his speech with humor by referring to the University of California Berkley as "the white intellectual ghetto of the west"(Carmichael, 248). His appeal to the audience's sense of humor, or pathos draws the students in by highlighting his personality and knowledge. He proceeds to refer to news reporters as "advertisers" who engage in "intellectual masturbation on the question of Black Power"(Carmichael, 248). He continues to use satire on a level of sarcastic remarks and starts to call out all white people to a predominately all white crowd. All these sarcastic remarks that are being used by Carmichael are being used to take away power from other and try to focus it on himself by attempting to increase his status in society over others. In "the Necklace" satire is being used in a more subtle way. The satire here is noticed easier with the context of what is happening, the main character borrowed a very expensive necklace from a friend and lost it. She replaced it with a perfect match but it put her into deep debt. Once she finally gets out of the debt she tells her friends and her friend's remark is "Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs"(Maupassant, 39). This remark is meant in a the way of her friend feeling sorry for her but not really at all because she just got a lot richer. Money has always been a symbol of power and can correlate directly to when someone gains more money they gain more power. Satire is used several more times in both of these pieces to show the struggles from power throughout time. 

Diction is a key device in any piece of literature. Strong diction has the ability to completely change the mood of a literary piece. Too strong of diction the audience thinks the speaker is an extremist. Too loose of diction the audience feels like the speaker does not care. There is a balance that needs to be reached. In "Black Power" Carmichael is trying to walk that thin line. He uses questions meant to make the audience think such as 

"And the question, then, is how can black people inside of this country move? And then how can white people who say they're not a part of those institutions begin to move? And how then do we begin to clear away the obstacles that we have in this society, that make us live like human beings? How can we begin to build institutions that will allow people to relate with each other as human beings"(Carmichael, 248-249)? 

The diction he uses here pushes emotion on the people listening making them feel empathetic to his cause and question the ideals of white American society. This places the focus and power onto Carmichael, which is an attempt by him to increase his status in society. A similar attempt to gain power in society can be seen in "the Necklace". "He threw over her shoulders the wraps which he had brought, modest wraps of common life, whose poverty contrasted with the elegance of the ball dress. She felt this and wanted to escape so as not to be remarked by the other women, who were enveloping themselves in costly fur"(Maupassant, 36). She runs down the stairs to get away from the others trying not to show her unhappiness.  The diction here shows how when the wraps of her actual life were thrown onto her and the image of this rich figure disappears she runs away and loses the necklace in the process. She felt like she was losing power at her "high society" moment and she tries to avoid this at all costs. The use of imagery in both of these pieces has a profound effect on the idea of power.

Imagery sets up vastly different images in the minds of the audience to push across a main viewpoint that the author is trying to achieve. Carmichael says, "It's a privilege and an honor to be in the white intellectual ghetto of the West"(Carmichael, 248). He uses the term ghetto to show that the white students are apart of his cause and that the University of California Berkley is one of the elite schools in the nation but is located in one of the worst parts of the west. All of this is used to draw power towards Carmichael and his ideals. Another example of the imagery in the speech is when Carmichael says "And the needs of Oakland, California, is not 1,000 policemen with submachine guns"(Carmichael, 252). This line gives a strong sense of imagery by drawing the image of the city of Oakland lined with a thousand police officers while the city is on fire in the background. This is an attempt to take away power from police and the government so they could become weaker and his group could rise in society. The same types of power struggle can be seen in "the Necklace". "All of a sudden she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb necklace of diamonds, and her heart began to beat with an immoderate desire. Her hands trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat, outside her high-necked dress, and remained lost in ecstasy at the sight of herself"(Maupassant, 35). The necklace is beautiful but worthless, representing the power of perception between appearance and reality. Throughout the story the main character places the necklace on a pedestal, which is false recognition of worth, seeing as the necklace was costume jewelry. The necklace is perceived to be an object with power, just as she expected, but when the truth comes out, it turns out the necklace is as fake as the wealth that the main character portrays to seem to have.

Reading "Black Power" by Stokely Carmichael and "the Necklace" by Guy Maupassant show the desire for power in the world throughout time. Power has been desired by all since the dawn of man no matter the region or time period. Man has always wanted to have some type of control over each other, be that control only in status or in slavery. In "Black Power" the idea of power is shown as the black community of America no longer being looked down upon due to the color of their skin and the desire for their selves to rise in status of American society. In "the Necklace" by Guy Maupassant the idea of power is shown as a middle class wife feeling lower on the social chain than her friends due to wealth and the plot to be looked upon by everyone for one night, that eventual fails sending their family down the social latter even more.  The pieces  "Black Power" and "the Necklace" both use satire, diction, and imagery to show the basic human desire for power no matter the time period. 

