African American Lit Formal Paper
November 25, 2012
African American Literature Ref# 108565
Formal Paper
“I am invisible; understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” -Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (africanamericanquotes.com)
Every African American writer has their own way of personalizing their writing to make it unique. One thing that many African American writers have in common is that their writing, in some way, shape or form focused their piece on slavery. They are always saying in their work how the “white man” was mistreating the black man. They also talked about the way we were not equal to the common white man; especially during the chapter in our book on the Literature of Slavery and Freedom. The work was mainly focused on how African American men and women were treated ever after slavery was supposed to be abolished.
African American literature is an African American author’s escape to express the way they feel about the things that are going on around them and the things that are pertaining to their race. African American literature is often controversial in that some people feel as though the content is too strong when it comes to writing about the experiences they had as slaves. It is also very evident that when these authors write, it is not just for leisure or for the fun of it. Their writing is to express a point and to share the feeling they once had; especially towards things like slavery and the equality of blacks. There is still clear tension between the white man and the African American writer (Houston, 2012). Writers like Maya Angelou, Sojourner Truth and Olaudah Equiano all do an exceptional job when it comes to writing about the experiences of an African American slave.
Maya Angelou is a very renowned poet and all of her poems come from the heart. Although she is not an African American writer from way back when, her poems still apply heavily to the situation at hand. Her poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is a prime example. In the poem she compares a
African American Literature Ref# 108565
Formal Paper
“I am invisible; understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” -Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (africanamericanquotes.com)
Every African American writer has their own way of personalizing their writing to make it unique. One thing that many African American writers have in common is that their writing, in some way, shape or form focused their piece on slavery. They are always saying in their work how the “white man” was mistreating the black man. They also talked about the way we were not equal to the common white man; especially during the chapter in our book on the Literature of Slavery and Freedom. The work was mainly focused on how African American men and women were treated ever after slavery was supposed to be abolished.
African American literature is an African American author’s escape to express the way they feel about the things that are going on around them and the things that are pertaining to their race. African American literature is often controversial in that some people feel as though the content is too strong when it comes to writing about the experiences they had as slaves. It is also very evident that when these authors write, it is not just for leisure or for the fun of it. Their writing is to express a point and to share the feeling they once had; especially towards things like slavery and the equality of blacks. There is still clear tension between the white man and the African American writer (Houston, 2012). Writers like Maya Angelou, Sojourner Truth and Olaudah Equiano all do an exceptional job when it comes to writing about the experiences of an African American slave.
Maya Angelou is a very renowned poet and all of her poems come from the heart. Although she is not an African American writer from way back when, her poems still apply heavily to the situation at hand. Her poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is a prime example. In the poem she compares a