Literature has played an important role in society throughout history, the written word being a powerful tool in communicating ideas. This became even more important during the 20th century, when many people were trying to persuade others or share their emotions and histories. The black movements in the United States made use of this tool, many authors coming out and becoming part of the fabric of society. Three authors in particular, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright became some of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century, owing to their own history and life experiences to give life and meaning to their works.
Ralph Ellison is one of the more influential writers of the early 20th century in North America. Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on 1 March 1914. According to Liukkonen of Finland, Ellison was named after the great Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poet. Ellison's father hoped that by having a great name, his son would also go on to achieve greatness. After graduating from school in a relatively non-racial environment, Ellison went on to study music at the Tuskagee Institute in Alabama in the mid-1930's. Unsatisfied with the music program (they felt that jazz, Ellison's favorite form, was primitive) he went on to New York City to study sculpting. It was there that he met Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, who convinced him to join the Federal Writer's Project, a project that encouraged the production of quality literature from all walks of life across the country. The influence of the other two important writers would propel Ellison into a life of rich literature.
Of the three authors, Richard Wright is one of the more obscure, though still very important to the world of literature. Born ...
... middle of paper ...
...themselves, or simply escape the monotony of their day-to-day lives.
Works Cited
Petri Liukkonen. Ralph (Waldo) Ellison (1914-1994). Author's Calendar. Finland. 2008. Internet.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rellison.htm. Accessed 21June2011.
Carl Brucker. Ralph Ellison 1914-1994. Survery of American Literature. 1992. Internet
http://faculty.atu.edu/cbrucker/Ellison.html. Accessed 21June2011.
“Langston Hughes”. Academy of American Poets. 2011. Internet.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83. Accessed 21June2011.
Snally Gaster. “Richard Wright Biography”. Buffalo University. Internet.
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/wright/wright_bio.html. Accessed 21June2011.
Caroline Sanchez. Richard Wright, 1908-1960. University of North Carolina. Internet.
http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/1914-/lit/wright.htm. Accessed 21June2011.
In his autobiographical work, Black Boy, Richard Wright wrote about his battles with hunger, abuse, and racism in the south during the early 1900's. Wright was a gifted author with a passion for writing that refused to be squelched, even when he was a young boy. To convey his attitude toward the importance of language as a key to identity and social acceptance, Wright used rhetorical techniques such as rhetorical appeals and diction.
Then we have the evidence in which Richard Wright used to show how he feels and what happened to him in his life. First of all what we have to remember is that this book is basically prototype to his life.
Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life ofAminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life.She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.
The author Ralph Ellison is a renowned writer and scholar with significant nonfiction stories credited to his name. He was born in Oklahoma City about the year 1913. His family had a small business wherein his father worked as a foreman but soon died when he was only three years old. After several years, he later found out that his father wished that he would someday become a poet after the great American essayist popularly known as Ralph Waldo Emerson who became his namesake. His mother was Ida Millsap Ellison who was involved as a political activist campaigning for the Socialist Party. Moreover, she was arrested several times in violation of the segregation orders.
Richard Wright was born in 1908 in Mississippi and describes his childhood an autobiographical novel he published in 1945, Black Boy. Wright grew up in the racially charged South and sought to quench the physical hunger he has felt since his father abandoned the family and the spiritual hunger that he was unable to find even though his grandmother was very religious. This hunger, whether tangible or not, led him on a journey...
The 1920's had many influential writers in literature. While reaching this time period it is almost certain that the names William Faulkner, Earnest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald will be found. Each of the writers has their own personal style of writing and each one of the lives has influenced what they write about to even the way they each portray their literature.
A black American writer, J. Saunders Redding, describes the arrival of a ship in North America in the year 1619:
Levels of Literacy in African-American Literature - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Song of Solomon, and Push
Richard Wright, hero to the black American, was one of the first men to fight for equality among blacks and whites. In his writings, Richard expresses to white people what kind of hardships all young negroes go through and how this lifestyle affect their behavior. For it is our surroundings that often influence the way we react depending on the situation. After Wrights death may other novelists and authors were inspired by him and continued the fight for equality, among them James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Ann Petry, and Chester Himes. Although the final chapters of his life closed many years ago, Richard's hopes and dreams today remain an open book.
...ed him, these writers were Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine Hansberry, John Williams. throughout America but also in a way the world. As said before he stood astride the midsection of his time period as a battering ram, paving the way for many black writers who followed him, these writers were Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine Hansberry, John Williams. However these people opened doors for more people eventually giving doors to MLK and Malcolm X which we all know helped change the course of American history. Not only that but if you look at the way America has changed because of equal rights and then look how our society has changed and how that has affected our every move in America you start to see how Mr. Richard Wright was kind of a big deal.
Colonialism was when Europe took over most of Africa and Asia, and then Post-Colonialism followed. During Post-Colonialism people from Europe began to question the way European literature talked about people of color (Africans, Asians). This lens allows people to see the racism behind what they are reading, that it be intentional or unintentional. It questions poetic ideas like (darkness = evil) and (light = goodness, purity). It all gives you a different perspective on parts of the book to realize what is happening. OMAN tells the story of two friends during the Great Depression who go to a farm to fulfill their wish of owning a farm. Lennie has makes the whole dream harder because he must always watch out to make sure he doesn’t get in trouble. He has already gotten in to trouble in the past, and now he is too in this new farm.
Zora Neale Hurston and Maya Angelou are arguably the most influential writers of the mid 20th century . Their work has inspired young African Americans to have more confidence in their own abilities. Their work has also been studied and taught countless times in many schools across the U.S. But the main reason why their work is considered classics in American literature; is because their work stands as testament to the treatment, and struggles of African Americans in the mid 20th century America.
Born in Oklahoma, Ralph Ellison, was a very gifted writer. His father died when he was young and his mother became a domestic worker to provide for their family. Ellison struggled throughout
When a writer starts his work, most often than not, they think of ways they can catch their reader’s attention, but more importantly, how to awake emotions within them. They want to stand out from the rest and to do so, they must swim against the social trend that marks a specific society. That will make them significant; the way they write, how they make a reader feel, the specific way they write, and the devotion they have for their work. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgard Allan Poe influenced significantly the American literary canon with their styles, themes, and forms, making them three important writers in America.
History, current events, and social events have really influenced American Literature. Authors have been influenced by the world around them and that has reflected in their works. This can be seen throughout the many eras studied in this class. It can also be seen in all types of literature such as playwrights, fiction, non-fiction, and poems. It can also be seen in all of the different writing styles such as, realism, modernism, and post modernism. It is important that American Literature has been influenced this way because Authors have shown us their personal views and insight to situations one would not get out of a history textbook.