The Injustice: The Role Of Oppression In American Literature

Oppression is a factor that those under it wish to eliminate as oppression destroys all types of happiness and satisfaction in an oppressed persons life. Works by numerous authors going as far back as Patrick Henry and as present as Langston Hughes demonstrate the oppressed as constantly battling their oppressors. These writers allow the audience see the mistreatment men, women, and children have gone through, which ultimately exposes the harsh realities of the lives ' of the oppressed. The injustice society has caused on many has brought upon destruction and disintegration not only to the families of the oppressed, but also to others living in fear of what could happen. This injustice is wide ranging, anywhere from the British tyranny on American

The settlers felt as though they were being mistreated by unfair taxes and laws put in place. Thomas Paine, an American colonist, spoke out about British oppression of the American people. In Paine’s The Crisis he described a strong America being enslaved by the British by arguing “I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery” (Paine). In this snippet of Paine’s writing, his interpretation of the injustice served as an antithesis for a rhetorical effect where two complete opposite results are the only solutions. Paine portrays the terrible iron-fist of the British king on the American colonists. King George treated these colonists with no respect through his policies such as the Tea Act and the Quartering Act, a law that stated that American colonists had to hold English soldiers if asked to. The men and women were so unwilling to let the tiny island of Britain rule over them and scare an entire nation. This fright caused Patrick Henry, a writer and advocate for the revolution, to revolt and unite many colonists against the British. In one of Henry’s writings is the idea that a nation should not have to try to win back the love of the colonist by force. In Patrick Henry’s Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech, Henry claims America was so out of British control that the British had to start trying to conquer

Racial oppression can be seen all over history including up to present day. Racism is a leading problem all over the world as equality laws have just been set in place in the United States, known to most as the land of the free. Langston Hughes recreated a poem originally by Walt Whitman for the cause of segregation and mistreatment of African-Americans in the United States. In Langston Hughes’s poem I, Too, Sing America, Hughes states, “I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen” (Hughes). In this section of Hughes’s poem, Hughes describes in detail the mistreated he has endured on the basis of the color of his skin rather than on his character. Hughes feels as though he shouldn’t be mistreated since he is a brother to other human beings. He speaks for many African-Americans who feel they shouldn’t be denied constitutional rights just because of the color of their