Analysis Of Bar Fight, By Lucy Terry

African American Literature was a way to escape the reality of what was happening to African Americans all around the world. With slavery and the dividing between white people and African Americans the only way to escape their lives. The first person to be brave enough to put their opinion of their situation was Lucy Terry who wrote a poem in 1746 (YouTube). “Bar Fight” by Lucy Terry was about men dying in a fight with the Indians and one person taken captive. The first book written was “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Morals” by Phillis Wheatley published September 1, 1773 (Teaching African American Literature). It was about how slavery and the racism in the world they lived in had an effect in her life. Many people supported her in her publishing her books like: John Hancock, Thomas

The narrator is an algebra teacher who is afraid for his students to end up like Sonny because of the environment they live in. Sonny is a musician, who comes home to ghetto Harlem after being in prison for heroin. The narrator went against the odds of the stereotype by not following their footsteps and getting a good job. By helping the youth in his community and making them understand that they don't need to stay there’s more in this world beside what’s in your neighborhood. And Sonny fell into the stereotype of what a musician does by drinking and doing drugs. Sonny says, “I guess I was afraid of something or I was trying to escape from something and you know I have never been very strong in the head” (Baldwin 269). He explains how he tried to run from his problems but that he wasn't strong enough to do it on his own. They both choose different paths but they never got out of the ghetto Harlem. They couldn't leave because their past was holding them back no matter what they did they were stuck