Civil Rights are freedom from arbitrary or discriminatory acts by the government, or private individuals. During the time “Florence” by Alice Childress was written, the female characters were set in the time period of when the series of Civil Rights were fighting and taking place as means of affirmative action. The story centers on a Black mother that is mainly defending about Florence, a young woman in hopes of pursuing her theater career, but never appears on stage. In “Florence” by Alice Childress, the racism stereotypes women from understanding each other physically and mentally, coupled with the limitations that these stereotypes creates a border among them and especially for the main protagonist named Mama. The foundation of the plot and the setting of this play are set in a train station. The symbolism here depicts a journey, or some sort of change that will be committed. A clear emphasis in the social division of the train that segregated the Blacks and Whites is which the time period is depicted in the play. The objective of this physical segregation is to reveal striking similarities with racism in society. The play’s dialogues in “Florence” are very informative as well as revealing the women’s different personalities and judgmental beliefs. With the author’s intention of exploiting different women in this play, this allows the audience to put forth the physical border between the women from understanding one another. Mama felt the atmosphere of social tension with Marge, Florence’s sister, is rather to set boundaries for Florence. Our affect for Mama’s character grows powerful because of the highlights from her conversation with Marge. Provided that Marge is trying to help as through means of warning Mama that Florenc... ... middle of paper ... ...w York, but instead send a letter to Florence to keep trying, and for this reason it is to mentally and physically stimulate her to not lot others push one’s goals down. Mama states that no matter what the color of the skin is, one should try to pursue one’s goals and hint a sense of motivation to Florence through this letter. Work Cited • Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth. "Contemporary Black Women Playwrights: A View From The Other Half." Helicon Nine 14/15.(1986): 120-127. Literary Reference Center. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. • Dugan, Olga. "Telling The Truth: Alice Childress As A Theorist And Playwright." Journal Of African American History 87.(2002): 146. Literary Reference Center. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. • Balestrini, W. Nassim. “The Invisible Black Female Artist in Alice Childress’ Florence (1950).” 108-110. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Gill, Glenda Eloise. No Surrender! No Retreat! : African American Pioneer Performers of Twentieth-Century American Theater. New York: St. Martin's, 2000. Print.
This piece of autobiographical works is one of the greatest pieces of literature and will continue to inspire young and old black Americans to this day be cause of her hard and racially tense background is what produced an eloquent piece of work that feels at times more fiction than non fiction
Beale, Frances. "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female." An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. New York: New, 1995. 146. Print.
Anne Moody had thought about joining the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), but she never did until she found out one of her roommates at Tougaloo college was the secretary. Her roommate asked, “why don’t you become a member” (248), so Anne did. Once she went to a meeting, she became actively involved. She was always participating in various freedom marches, would go out into the community to get black people to register to vote. She always seemed to be working on getting support from the black community, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. Son after she joined the NAACP, she met a girl that was the secretary to the ...
Lisa Genova, the author of Still Alice, a heartbreaking book about a 50-year-old woman's sudden diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. She is a member of the Dementia Advocacy, Support Network International and Dementia USA and is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer's Association. Genova's work with Alzheimer's patients has given her an understanding of the disorder and its affect not only on the patient, but on their friends and family as well (Simon and Schuster, n.d.).
Gwendolyn Brooks is the female poet who has been most responsive to changes in the black community, particularly in the community’s vision of itself. The first African American to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; she was considered one of America’s most distinguished poets well before the age of fifty. Known for her technical artistry, she has succeeded in forms as disparate as Italian terza rima and the blues. She has been praised for her wisdom and insight into the African Experience in America. Her works reflect both the paradises and the hells of the black people of the world. Her writing is objective, but her characters speak for themselves. Although the idiom is local, the message is universal. Brooks uses ordinary speech, only words that will strengthen, and richness of sound to create effective poetry.
Gates Jr, Henry Louis, and Nellie McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd edition. New York, NY: Norton & Company, 2004
Sofia’s encounter with Millie is a daily occurrence in nations worldwide. Her “Hell no” is a justified response to the subservience white people have forced upon African Americans and the constant struggle against black women have against abuse and sexism. Millie is an example of the everyday white woman whose class and social standing prompt her unawareness about social problems and her own racist misgivings. Alice Walker’s novel explores this deep-rooted racism intertwined with social class and sexism. Walker’s writes from the events that have marked her life, other’s lives, and the cruelty that has scarred the black community for years. Hence, the softened racism in the form of stereotypical comments, white superiority complexes, and the sexism towards women of color that fills the
The play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, begins with an African American family about to receive a check from their father’s death. The check makes the family think about what each person would do with the money and they all have different ideas. Whenever we find out what Walter Lee and Beneatha each want to do with that money, we learn more about their different views on gender and what they believe a man and women "should” do. The family lives in Chicago in the 1950’s, which from my research about this time and location, I’ve learned it’s like everywhere else during this time; the men think they control everything and everyone. During this time, these men and women were raised like this, so they didn’t know any different. It’s hard for us to read about this stuff because women are much more independent these days than they were even just 10 years ago. Walter and Beneatha have different views on how men and women should act. Walter’s relates more to the time period they are in and Beneatha is more modern.
Leonard, K. D. (2009). African American women poets and the power of the word. The Cambridge Companion to African American Women's Literature, 168-187.
Mama, as a member of an older generation, represents the suffering that has always been a part of this world. She spent her life coexisting with the struggle in some approximation to harmony. Mama knew the futility of trying to escape the pain inherent in living, she knew about "the darkness outside," but she challenged herself to survive proudly despite it all (419). Mama took on the pain in her family in order to strengthen herself as a support for those who could not cope with their own grief. Allowing her husband to cry for his dead brother gave her a strength and purpose that would have been hard to attain outside her family sphere. She was a poor black woman in Harlem, yet she was able to give her husband permission for weakness, a gift that he feared to ask for in others. She gave him the right to a secret, personal bitterness toward the white man that he could not show to anyone else. She allowed him to survive. She marveled at his strength, and acknowledged her part in it, "But if he hadn't had...
Effiong, Philip U. In Search of a Model for African-American Drama: a Study of Selected Plays
In 1942, Margaret Walker won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for her poem For My People. This accomplishment heralded the beginning of Margaret Walker’s literary career which spanned from the brink of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s to the cusp of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s (Gates and McKay 1619). Through her fiction and poetry, Walker became a prominent voice in the African-American community. Her writing, especially her signature novel, Jubilee, exposes her readers to the plight of her race by accounting the struggles of African Americans from the pre-Civil War period to the present and ultimately keeps this awareness relevant to contemporary American society.
Ryan, Bryan, ed. “Alice Walker.” Major 20th Century Writers. Vol. 4. R-Z. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1991.
The emergence of black women writers on the American literary scene was not a sudden or a fortuitous event.Their bursting on to the scene was a result of the new found consciousness of black American women.They were increasingly becoming conscious of the racist and patriarchal oppression that they were being subjected to in America.By the 1970's the black women had the knowledge that both-The Civil Rights Movement and The Feminist Movement were neglecting the issues relating to black women.Despite being active participants in both the move...