Starting from the late 1700’s until the mid 1900’s was a difficult time for the African American community. People were dying for no specific reason, there were no jobs’ and the life conditions were very harsh. The Analyzing of two different poems A Black Man Talks of Reaping by Arna Bontemps and A Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes helps us better understand the difficulties in Harlem during the 19th century. The comparison of the similarities and differences between both creates a solid and experienced idea for the reader to understand. The fact that in one poem the author ‘speaks’ and the other one the author ‘talks’ can prove different experiences that these authors have lived trough. Both poems use specific examples and comparisons to give a global image of Harlem in the 1900’s.…
How does the poetry of Langston Hughes, “I, Too,” “Harlem,” and “A Song to a Negro…
As I read the poem Theme for English B, I couldn’t help but notice this was a personal narrative about a young black man life, where he was born, where he attended school. He was born in Winston Salem, North Carolina during the time of the Jim Crew era when there were only few blacks’ men who were educated. He started his education in Winston Salem North Carolina and some in Durham North Carolina. Later moved on to New York City where he attended college where there were only a few blacks who could afford to attend the colleges. He was the only colored in his class, he realized that even though his skin was different the other students like some of the same things, eat, sleep understand life and listen to music.…
Analyzing three different African American writers, I have become aware of three viewpoints in which African American artists should express themselves. Each writer made there points clear in there respectable articles. Langston Hughes expresses his views in “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” W.E.B Dubois in ”Criteria Of Negro Art,” and Richard Wright in “Blueprint for Negro Writing”. After comparing the three writers, one can find many similarities in each writers messages for the African American writer, and see which writer had the strongest and most persuasive stand.…
At the age of eight a young women by the name of Phillis Wheatley, who would eventually become one of America’s most controversial African-American poets, was brought to America from Africa. She was born in Senegal sometime in 1753 and once she was finally brought to Boston, Massachusetts, on a slave ship, she was bought by a white family. The father of that white family, John Wheatley, bought Philis so she could serve as a personal servant to his wife. Luckily for her, this white family educated her and soon afterwards she was fluent in both Latin and Greek, and was moving on to writing advanced poetry, which was due to the support from her white owners. Wheatley did not write about cruel experiences or create racial poetry based on black culture, but instead wrote about being against slavery, faith, and tolerance, which people enjoyed. By this time, having spent most of her lifetime in America and white society, she had learned to accept their…
In “I, Too Sing America” and “Still I Rise,” the speakers are the authors, but the authors act as a voice for all African Americans who are exhausted with inequality and injustice. The audience of both poems is mainly directed…
“The challenge isn’t to read white or read black; it is to read. If Phillis Wheatley stood for anything, it was the creed that culture was, could be, the equal possession of all humanity.” In this quote Henry Gates explains that people criticizing the work of Wheatley are missing the whole point of her work. The bias critics only see a black slave who should not be writing the way she is writing. Her critics overlook the beauty and the amount that her poems inspire people of all color. Throughout Phillis Wheatley’s works she expresses herself and in doing so she writes her way to freedom and becomes the first African American to publish a book of poems in English. Henry Gates is on point when saying that Phillis Wheatley believed in the equality of all people. Wheatley shows her desire for equality by her word choices, faith, and personality.…
The works of Child of the America’s by Aurora Levins Morales and What It’s Like to be a Black Girl (For Those of You Who Aren’t) by Patricia Smith was because of the direct contrast of the statements “I am whole” in Morales poem verses “…and feeling like you’re not finished” in Smith’s poem. Both statements in these poems are strong, stating a completion of a human soul and both poems are in agreement that race is a part of the completion to the human soul. Levins Morales’ poem explains what it is really like to be of mixed race in America. Smith’s poem gives a deep, more individual approach of what it is like to be a black girl. Race is a background for both poems.…
James Weldon Johnson was an American writer and a civil rights activist, during the Harlem Renaissance. Poetry served as a powerful way for African Americans to express their experiences, struggles, and aspirations during a period of racial discrimination. In James Weldon Johnson’s “Sonnet”, the poet encourages his heart to stay strong through his brave, encouraging, and guiding attitude, suggesting that despite the challenges of life, his heart needs to resist despair and reach for hope. The speaker’s direct appeal to his heart in the opening lines of the poem shows his resilience in the face of adversity, emphasizing the importance of maintaining courage. He begins his conversation by asking his heart to be courageous and to not lose hope,…
“Things could change, Gabe. Things could be different. I don’t know how, but there must be some way for things to be different. ”-Jonas (Lowry 128).…
In this critical essay, the author Leon Lewis illustrates an overview of Langston Hughes overall work and what he represents as a literary writer. Hughes is known as the “Laureate of Black America”, he has the desire to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America. His work usually consists of rhymes and poems, and the language of the black community. Even though some of his work is appeal more towards young adult readers, his work is written to reach a wide spread of audience not just the literary privileged. Some of his influences include: Sandburg, Vachel Lindsay, and Edgar Lee Masters whose work is also directed at a broad spectrum of readers. His work addresses concerns and issues surrounding African-Americans and effects of racial hatred. Hughes always possesses an optimistic mood which reflects in his writing, he depicts racial issues in a way where he has hope in humanity and is illustrated positively. Even though,…
Hautzinger and, Scandlyn’s “Decentering PTSD: A War Outgrows a Diagnosis” is about post traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) and how it's an invisible wound among soldiers .Many soldiers believed that in order to come out of the war those that are claiming to have PTSD are lying. PTSD is socially or culturally constructed. American physicians said many soldiers came to them about physical abnormalities who actually had none. And that is a sign of PTSD. There is a difference of PTSD in today’s soldiers and soldiers from the Civil War. Soldiers from the Civil War showed disturbance of the heart and today’s soldiers show disturbance of their behavior. During World War I PTSD was known as shell shock which many believed happened due to exposure to blasts. They were blamed for malingering or escaping the war and the punishment is severe for not showing ‘enough’ patriotism, such as electric shock so that they will be back into service. However in 1980, PTSD was considered to be normal. Those who engage in wars suffers from PTSD only they can understand and feel what it is or how it is therefore their pain is often ignored by the rests around them. Those in charge instead of being suspicious of those who suffers from it should provide treatment and compensation.…
The Harlem Renaissance was a complex, diverse movement driven by African Americans who introduced their unique heritage into American culture through a flourishing of art, literature, theater, and music (Hutchinson, Encyclopedia Britannica). It was an epochal era in which for the first time in history, African American artists attained critical acclaim (Jackson, Yale New Haven Institute). Furthermore, the hotbed of ideas was connected to the emerging civil rights movement which followed from this Renaissance (Hutchinson, Encyclopedia Britannica). While the precise date of the Harlem Renaissance’s genesis is disputed, it is generally thought to have emerged in the 1920’s. (Jackson, Yale New Haven Institute).…
The Harlem Renaissance introduced a sense of cultural freedom that allowed the new African Americans from the Great Migration to express their feelings and emotions through literature, as well as, a variety of other mediums. Poets who expressed such sentiments had many styles of addressing their viewpoints. Some wrote with encrypted messages whilst some wrote with immediately conceivable messages. Also, some poems are complex with evident ardor whilst some poems appear to be short journal entries about a minor issue. This led to a creation of elements that distinctively reflect the issues at the time. For instance, the African American pride from their contributions to society and the desire to ascertain rights to self-definition and…
Countee Cullen is a modernist writer with a very interesting poem about a summer and fall in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. He writes about being eight years old and smiling at a white boy about his age but he sticks his tongue out and calls him a very derogatory name. Such is the way of the world today still. Even the reverse of the situation is true. He goes on to mention that even though he was there for about seven months, that is the only thing he can remember because it was traumatic at his young age and the gateway or doorway to the way he would be treated for the rest of his life by the other, major race in the country where he lives. Times in this country were hard for everyone, but especially hard for those people of the minority races.…