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Realism In James Baldwin's The Living Is Easy

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Realism is a way of thinking that allows people to express themselves using a real life approach this became very popular among African Americans. After embracing the new Negro approach. Being able to express one’s self without restraint of consequences and to give the truth of their circumstances with unrated reality. Some authors who demonstrated realism in their works would be Dorothy West. In her excerpt “The Living is Easy” creates a story of a woman who can’t escape the circumstance of which she was raised while struggling with her self-identity. The main Character Cleo represents the middle class of African American society but she wants more for herself and her family. She wants the Boston American dream. She is not one to indulge in the ways of her southern brothers. Instead one either “black or white, should consider himself a special species of fish.”(West 116) Using the word …show more content…

Authors such as James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry had a unique way of using realism in their works that had a way of setting the tone. In going to meet the man by James Baldwin. The author uses his characters to express how animalistic society has become “They were animals, they were no better than animals, what could be done with people like that” (Baldwin 454). Using very blunt imagery to depict the sexual provocativeness of African Americans to whites. He managed to illustrate a basic human instinct such as lust and portray how it was so deeply wrapped in hatred. Much like Baldwin Lorraine Hansberry also takes a unique approach in her play “A Raisin in the Sun” she manages to show another human instinct; Fight or Flight. She uses her character pushing their case of violence and threats all the way to the Supreme Court. But also she shows love. “MAMA: There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing.”(Hansberry

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