Nayeli Naranjo-Robles Motivation and Techniques of Realist Writers
American literature during the Civil War to 1914 was the rise of realism. Writers such as Kate Chopin and Paul Laurence Dunbar both faced struggles such as death of family and the oppression for being apart of a marginalized group in an era of major disparity. Because of their experiences, Chopin and Dunbar are able to use their thoughts and feelings to create realist literature. They used their writing as way to express the struggles of an ordinary person living in America, a country with unfathomable poverty and unfair treatment due to war, the rise of industrialisation, and systematic oppression. The common goal and hope for individualism and equity was portrayed
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He uses his experiences to fuel his writings and to speak out on the treatment of African Americans that have been planted into our conscience as a normal way of living. In his poem “Douglass”, he writes “We ride amid a tempest of dispraise”(Dunbar 598). With this line, Dunbar emphasizes how intense the suffering of African American people is in America. He describes the backlash and oppression as a storm,dispraise, and although one would not dare to be out in a storm Dunbar explains the willingness of his community to confront the problem. In another poem ‘We Wear the Mask”, Dunbar says “Why should the world be overwise, in counting all our tears and sighs?”(Dunbar 599). Again Dunbar points out their demise by including the words tears and sighs, but in these two lines he also criticizes the world's(white america) actions towards the suffering they are facing. This is great social commentary, it shows the readers that we should question the way authority or the majority ignores the issues and despair people receive in this era. Dunbar expresses with emotional ties why it’s important to inform the public of the struggles oppressed groups …show more content…
Both stories deal the issue of death differently; in We Wear the Mask is about the death of one's spirit, motivation, sense of self and community(the African American community). In the poem, the line “We sing, but oh the clay is vile” shows the way they choose to show the world their reaction to their seemingly never ending suffering. Singing is positive a connotation, but that does not connect with all the negative that they experience; it's a disillusionment, but they keep putting on the mask to not let sorrow overcome them. In The Story of an hour, there is an actual death, and when Mrs. Mallard is left with the news, “She did hear the story the as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance“(Chopin 594). We are given two perspectives of how to deal with actual death at the time, some refuse to accept the inevitable suffering or put it off so as not to be affected by it, since it is such a horrid fact of life. Mrs.Mallard chose to accept the truth, weep and become haunted by the news and yet later the story takes an unexpected turn.She later becomes fine with the outcome for it lead her to freedom. The views of death and its significance with both writers is written with a strong aura of suffering and
Paul Laurence Dunbar is one of the most influential African American poets to gain a nationwide reputation. Dunbar the son of two former slaves; was born in 1872 in Dayton, Ohio. His work is truly one of a kind, known for its rich, colorful language, encompassed by the use of dialect, a conversational tune, and a brilliant rhetorical structure. The style of Dunbar’s poetry includes two distinct voices; the standard English of the classical poet and the evocative dialect of the turn of the century black community in America. His works include a large body of dialect poems, standard English poems, essays, novels, and short stories. The hardships encountered by members of is race along with the efforts of African Americans to achieve equality in America were often the focus of his writings. http://www.dunbarsite.org/
Many writers begin writing and showing literary talent when they are young. Paul Laurence Dunbar, born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, was already editor of a newspaper and had had two of his poems published in the local newspaper before he’d graduated from high school. His classmate, Orville Wright, printed The Tattler which Dunbar edited and published for the local African American community. After graduating from high school, he was forced to get a job as an elevator operator which allowed him spare time for writing. He finally gained recognition outside of Dayton when, in 1892, he was invited to address the Western Association of Writers and met James Newton Matthews who praised his work in a letter to an Illinois newspaper. In 1892, he decided to publish his first book of poems entitled Oak and Ivy and four years later his second book of poems Majors and Minors was published. People began to see him as a symbol for his race, and he was thought of artistically as “a happy-go-lucky, singing, shuffling, banjo-picking being… in a log cabin amid fields of cotton” (Dunbar, AAW 2). Dunbar’s poems, written alternately in literary and dialect English, are about love, death, music, laughter, human frailty, and though Dunbar tried to mute themes of social protest, social commentary on racial themes is present in his poetry.
The poem, "We Wear the Mask”, by Paul Laurence Dunbar is about separating Blacks people from the masks they wear. When Blacks wear their masks they are not simply hiding from their oppressor they are also hiding from themselves. This type of deceit cannot be repaid with material things. This debt can only be repaid through repentance and self-realization. The second stanza of “We Wear the Mask” tells Blacks whites should not know about their troubles. It would only give them leverage over Blacks. Black peoples’ pain and insecurities ought to be kept amongst themselves. There is no need for anyone outside the black race to know what lies beneath their masks. The third stanza turns to a divine being. Blacks look to god because he made them and is the only one that can understand them. They must wear their mask proudly. The world should stay in the dark about who they are. This poem is about Blacks knowing their place and staying in it. This is the only way they could be safe.
Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in a northern town near Dayton, Ohio on June 27, 1872 (Brawley 12). His parents instilled in him the value of an education, and he excelled at the all-white Dayton Central High-school where he held the titles of class president, the president of the school literary society, and the editor of the school's newspaper (15). Dunbar was extremely well learned; he spoke and wrote in Standard English, but just as often his poetry was written in black dialect. As one of the first professional African American literary figures (Baym 1038), Paul Laurence Dunbar's poetry consists of two distinct styles: his dialect pieces with the simple rhyme schemes of the ballad lyrical form, such as his 1897 poem When Malindy Sings, and his classical poetry that has more complex rhyme and form, and is written in Standard English like his 1897 poem, We Wear the Mask. The dialect poem, When Malindy Sings, is a result of what Dunbar called the mask, and what W.E.B. Dubois would later call double-consciousness. It portrays black society through the eyes of white America and how they wish to see it, while the poem written in classical form, We Wear the Mask, displays Dunbar’s true thoughts concerning his identity and the identity of his race.
African American’s have faced a great deal of harsh and cruel treatment throughout our society. From being stripped from their homeland of Africa and being brought to America as slaves, African Americans have seen and been through it all. Author and renowned poet Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks discusses and describes many of the cruel and unfair treatment that African Americans have faced throughout our civilization. Brooks’ not only speaks on the racial prejudice of African Americans, but she also discusses the heartaches, the life, and the growth of African Americans as a people. Brooks’ poetry and stories are very similar to her own experience growing up as an African American woman.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, an African-American poet, describes the suffering that blacks were subjected to in his 1913 poem, “We Wear the Mask”. In his poem, Dunbar asserts that blacks are partially responsible for the suffering of African Americans due to their belief that a deceptive “mask” was necessary for their survival.
On the surface, "life" is a late 19th century poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The poem illustrates the amount of comfort and somber there is in life. Unfortunately, according to Paul Laurence Dunbar, there is more soberness in life than the joyous moments in our existence. In more detail, Paul Laurence Dunbar demonstrates how without companionship our existence is a series of joys and sorrows in the poem, "Life" through concrete and abstract diction.
Paul Dunbar was born into a tough life from the beginning. His parents were slaves and shortly they separated after his birth but this helped Dunbar later on in his career because Dunbar would draw stories from their plantation life (Paul Poetry Foundation). He had to grow up without two parents and had to tough it out on his own. Dunbar also was financially unable to attend college and eventually moved to Chicago and befriended Frederick Douglass (Paul Poetry Foundation np). These events affected his life by not allowing Dunbar to attend college and sharpen his writing skills and Douglass helped him gain more reputation. Dunbar challenged the literary world by trying to make them read within the words and not just read the words. He fought slavery through his poetry and always referred to people as “we” and never “I”. This is important because Dunbar wanted to stand up for the whole black community and it is important he inspired so many people to read his poems. Dunbar impacted modernism by writing some o...
Through the utilization of iambic tetrameter, end rhyme, sound devices, and figurative language, the speaker expresses the hidden pain and suffering African Americans possessed, as they were “tortured souls” behind their masks (10). The poem's meter, iambic tetrameter, represents the speaker's heartfelt attitude towards the sorrow that blacks kept away from whites, and in some cases, themselves. In the first stanza, the speaker declares that "[w]ith torn and bleeding hearts we smile, / And mouth with myriad subtleties" (lines 4-5). During the time when Dunbar published "We Wear the Mask," blacks faced constant discrimination and were treated without dignity. They felt helpless and unable to stop the series of unfortunate events that were happening to them, such as beatings, lynchings, and a lack of access to education and employment opportunities.... ...
This poem immediately explains the pain that African Americans had to deal with. The diction that Dunbar chooses is not in any way dramatic. He writes, “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile.” I feel he is writing about true feelings on how serious it was to conceal these deep feelings. We now know that they suffer an internally and even with broken hearts they continue to show that they are happy. During slavery time, basically all opportunities to a better life were pretty much taken away from slaves, they were poor and were bossed around by higher dominance hierarchy. With that being they were born to be at the bottom and there was nothing that they can be done. It was just unfortunate and the only thing to do is smile and live the
Justice and freedom play a huge role in the unit as it gave African Americans still suffering from racial oppression and violence a voice to air the injustices they were facing. It also gave them an opportunity to show that even though they were free from slavery policies like “separate but equal” were used to create a new type of slavery. You can see this in the poem “We Wear the Mask” even though they were free from slavery African American still had to wear a metaphorical mask to cover the anger and sadness they felt over the policy of “separate but equal” and the lynchings of innocent African Americans that were occurring. Dunbar also uses imagery when he says things such as: “bleeding hearts”, “tortured souls”, “tears and sighs” to give
As the title puts it, “The Story of an Hour” takes place in the span of an hour. The title of the story also shows the possibility of occurrences within a single hour. This story is mostly centered around one woman, Louis Mallard. In conventional circumstances, death brings sorrow, grief, seclusion, guilt, regrets, along with other feeling depending on the cause of death. In “The Story of an Hour”, sorrow and grief are a product of the recent happenings, however, these feelings are coupled with joy and independence. Kate Chopin uses this story to convey death as a joyful circumstance whereas conventionally it is portrayed as sorrowful.
Thesis: The poems “Negro”, “I Too”, and “Song for a Dark Girl” by Langston Hughes was written around an era of civil inequality. A time when segregation was a customary thing and every African American persevered through civil prejudice. Using his experience, he focuses his poems on racial and economic inequality. Based on his biographical information, he uses conflict to illustrate the setting by talking about hardships only a Negro would comprehend and pride only a Negro can experience, which helps maintain his racial inequality theme.
Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...
The first reader has a guided perspective of the text that one would expect from a person who has never studied the short story; however the reader makes some valid points which enhance what is thought to be a guided knowledge of the text. The author describes Mrs. Mallard as a woman who seems to be the "victim" of an overbearing but occasionally loving husband. Being told of her husband's death, "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance." (This shows that she is not totally locked into marriage as most women in her time). Although "she had loved him--sometimes," she automatically does not want to accept, blindly, the situation of being controlled by her husband. The reader identified Mrs. Mallard as not being a "one-dimensional, clone-like woman having a predictable, adequate emotional response for every life condition." In fact the reader believed that Mrs. Mallard had the exact opposite response to the death her husband because finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow. "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." We can see that the reader got this idea form this particular phrase in the story because it illuminates the idea of her sorrow tuning to happiness.