George Elliot Clarke’s Execution Poems are originals poems that work to unearth beauty during a bleak and dark historical Canadian past. The poems seek to exemplify the ‘shades of grey’ illustrating to the complexity of such a crime committed by two struggling African American men who sought refuge in a heinous crime. “The Execution Poems”, by Clarke does not condone the crimes of these brothers; rather Clarke explores the various factors that may have perpetuated a murderous crime. Clarke utilizes imagery and diction to captivate the readers and illustrate the oppressive social structures throughout the mid 20th century that countless visual minorities, specifically African Americans/Canadian endured in Eastern Canada, New Brunswick. The
Anthropologist, and Harlem Renaissance writer and activist Zora Neale Hurston sought to share the “untouched, raw” characters of the South with her readers. Zora masterfully incorporates metaphors, imagery, idioms, and personification into her narratives as she shares her biography, folk tales, voodoo customs, and the social context of black life. Similar to Dust Tracks on a Road Zora Neale Hurston's autobiography, she uses metaphors and imagery to rise from her childhood poverty in the rural South to a leader taking over a captivating movement of her time, the Harlem Renaissance. In Mules and Men, a black America’s folklore who grew up hearing the songs and sermons, sayings and tall tales that have formed an oral history of the South since the time of slavery. Figurative language in Hurston’s work is used in order to convey its themes and messages and make the language richer and deeper.
Unlike the other Hughes’ novel, the protagonist in this text struggles with his racial identity and his place in both Black and white communities. However, because this novel includes female characters that impact the narrator’s life, the source is useful in demonstrating the impact characters have on
He provides the chilling image of children dancing around the “ghastly body” in “fiendish glee.” He emphasizes this image to make a point that the children are being desensitized to disturbing crimes, like lynching, which brings danger to future generations of America (diverse syntax). In addition, McKay uses the physical description of women in the crowd with “steely blue” eyes to highlight the superiority in physical depiction and the true meaning of such hatred towards African Americans. Similarly, McKay portrays an image of the dancer to cue a judgmental feeling from the audience, just as in The Lynching. He describes the dancer as “half-clothed” as her “body swayed.”
She uniquely explores gendered poverty and the pivotal role of African American women in Durham. In 1920, they constituted over half the population and later played a significant role in the suffrage movement during the 1950s and 60s transition from the old to the new middle class, this history is what Morris believes gives young black girls the confidence to enact everyday resistance, knowing they have a legacy of strong black women behind them which is misconstrued by educators as boisterous. Furthermore, her work acknowledges the legacy of slavery in shaping Black family structures. This legacy permeates into three primary concepts of Black femininity that emerged from the Southern slavery era, depicting Black women as overly sexualized, loud, assertive, and lacking in moral integrity. There is Sapphire, Jezebel, and Mammy personifying all those beliefs into unshakeable caricatures.
McKay, Claude, “Enslaved” https://poemanalysis.com/claude-mckay/enslaved/, 23 April, 2024. McKay uses this poem to talk about racism and how African Americans are judged by people because of stereotypes and that they are different. This poem sheds the light on racism, and how African Americans are treated on a normal daily basis. McKay, Claude, “If We Must Die” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44694/if-we-must-die, 23 April, 2024. McKay uses this poem to explain that he wants to die in a way that is honorable and respected.
After reading various poems about our nation, many can conclude that different people have different opinions and views on America. When people hear the word “America” some feel upset or gloomy. Some may feel warm or cheery inside. Some may feel indifferent or confused. There are a million and one ways that people express their emotions towards the land of the free and the brave.
McKay discusses the struggles of living in a country field with Kate. McKay have fun using the literary device personification. He almost use of personification in every line. He says " Although she feeds me bread of bitterness" .(line 1) In this line McKay uses words like "she" to refer to America.
In the short story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin there were characters whose dreams were stated, one of which were shattered by drugs and misfortune and others which would eventually come to be true. Harlem-life has been retold throughout many pieces of African-American literature, ranging from voices expressed in 1925 publication of “The New Negro” to James Baldwin’s fictional short story “Sonny’s Blues,” published in 1957. Echoing throughout different pieces are the words and visions of “a dream deferred,” challenging readers to place themselves into the harsh culture that African-Americans have to wake up to every morning. In “Sonny’s Blues,” a character offers this account of Harlem: “All that hatred down there… all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it
Being a black woman raised in a white world, Ann Petry was familiar with the contrast in lives of African Americans and whites (McKenzie 615). The Street, centered in 1940’s Harlem, details these differences. While Petry consistently portrays Harlem as dark and dirty, she portrays the all-white neighborhoods of Connecticut as light and clean. This contrast of dark vs light is used in the expected way to symbolize despair vs success.
In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Sethe describes the scorching weather on the day of the carnival, beginning with “The crickets were screaming…Could be” (56-57). Morrison’s diction manifests a harsh and curious tone to convey the long lasting horrors of slavery and Sethe’s wistful vision of her future, respectively. During the trip to the carnival Paul invited Sethe and her daughter to, the mother takes note of the way the three of them are dressed and is concerned by how others perceive them, luxuries that she did not have as a slave. Sethe also wonders if this family bonding time will improve her life as a fugitive slave, left with only Denver and a ghost.
The poem “Harlem” seems like a simple poem that talks about a dream that fades away. The poem is more symbolic than it seems though. The three sentences that have a huge impact on this poem’s symbolism are spread out through the poem. A reader needs to keep in mind that the speaker is talking about a dream in these sentences. “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”
In the second stanza we see that the girl is still walking around through the town even though it is probably cold and they are underdressed with the hope of finding money or someone who won’t push them away. In the last Stanza we see that McKay is expressing his distaste in the world of it pushing away the girls and know that if they were caucausian they wouldn’t be treated this way. McKay shows the tension that one race is more inferior than the other, but it also shows that there’s hope that it would change
This way of taking somebodies life occurred often in the South. Being in the Deep South was extremely dangerous and frightening for anyone with black colored skin, whites had such hatred and aggression. McKay’s poem reflects on American culture during the time by showing how people had
She was influenced by the ideologies of women’s liberation movements and she speaks as a Black woman in a world that still undervalues the voice of the Black woman. Her novels especially lend themselves to feminist readings because of the ways in which they challenge the cultural norms of gender, slavery, race, and class. In addition to that, Morrison novels discuss the experiences of the oppressed black minorities in isolated communities. The dominant white culture disables the development of healthy African-American women self image and also she pictures the harsh conditions of black women, without separating them from the oppressed situation of the whole minority. In fact, slavery is an ancient and heinous institution which had adverse effects on the sufferers at both the physical as well as psychological levels.
