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What Is A Reoccurring Theme In One Friday Morning Essay

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Being black and having pride for a country that doesn’t care about your life is a reoccurring theme throughout “One Friday Morning” written by Langston Hughes. “One Friday Morning” tells the story of a seventeen year old black girl named Nancy Lee Johnson, who has a lot of pride in her country. Nancy is an artistically gifted student who won a scholarship to an art school, but was later rejected because of her race. Even though she is faced with adversity, Nancy Lee Johnson refuses to let it stop her from achieving her dreams. Nancy Lee shows traits of her American identity through multiculturalism, immigration, and the conflict between her values and America’s values.

Nancy expresses her American identity through immigration. Nancy Lee’s ancestors came from Africa and she’s completely aware of the oppression she faces for being black, yet she still has pride in her country. As stated in “One Friday Morning,” “Nancy Lee was proud of being American, a Negro American with blood out of a long time ago, too many generations back to count.” This quote explains Nancy Lee’s American identity because; you can’t be an American without having ancestors that immigrated to America. Also, Nancy Lee is a black woman, which is obvious evidence of immigration. …show more content…

Nancy is a middle class black woman living in the South with her family. While this may seem problematic, Nancy, like very few black Americans, is proud of her country. In the story, it states, “Nancy Lee Johnson was a colored girl, a few years out of the South.” She takes great pride in being not only black, but a black woman in America. However, she doesn’t let her obvious disadvantage halt her success. She’s been primarily accepted by her white peers so she assumes everyone will treat her the same way. This quote represents traits of American identity because it’s factual evidence of multiculturalism; which is a trait of American

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