The role of African American literature in recent years has been to illuminate for the modern world the sophistication and beauty inherent in their culture as well as the constant struggle they experience in the oppressive American system. When writers such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois and Alice Walker present their material, they manage to convey to a future world the great depth of feeling and meaning their particular culture retained as compared with the culture of their white counterparts. Without this attempt at preservation, much of the richness of this community might have been lost or forgotten. At the same time, they illuminated some of the problems inherent within their society, including lack of education, lack of appreciation for their own value and lack of opportunity for the future. All three of these writers work to capture the important concepts of their society within the figurative elements of daily life, urban or rural, as they are defined from within rather than without. In poetry such as Hughes’ “Mother to Son”, W.E.B. DuBois’ work Souls of Black Folk or Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, one begins to understand the unifying theme of the black community as a constant struggle between attaining higher social status and more comfortable conditions while still remaining deeply connected to the cultural and spiritual richness of their heritage and families. Rather than attempting to ‘make friends’ with the white man in hopes of gaining sympathy, the struggles of overcoming slavery and battling blatant oppression are not allowed to go unnoticed within Hughes’ poetry, as is illustrated in “Mother to Son.” In this poem, Hughes employs a metaphor to depict a mother as she explains to her son that he... ... middle of paper ... ...However, this encouragement does not come without its own cost, as is illustrated in Walker’s “Everyday Use” as Dee, who has been well educated and achieved a standard of living comparable to that of the white urban middle class, loses some of her deep connection to her cultural heritage, a heritage that is an intrinsic part of her sister who lives in it every day. The constant struggle of the black community to better its condition at the same time as it retains a close connection with its cultural past is thus a constant theme throughout black literature. References DiYanni, R. (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Du Bois, W.E.B. (1999). The Souls of Black Folk. New York: W.W. Norton Company. Hughes, Langston. (1995). “Mother to Son.” The Collected Poems of LangstonHughes. Vintage Classics.
Susan Farrell in her, “Fight vs. Flight: A Re-evaluation of Dee in Alice Walker’s ‘Everyday Use’” writes in response to Alice Walker’s short story Everyday Use. Farrell’s article is published by Newbury College in spring of 1998 in Studies in Short Fiction (179). Farrell in her article writes to argue that although Dee is inconsiderate and egotistical—supporting what she is arguing against— to a certain degree, she offers a way for a modern African American to manage with the harsh society that is, in a few ways more substantial than that described by Mother and Maggie— which is her thesis (179). Most people who have read Walker’s short story Everyday Use are prone to agree that the character Dee is ‘shallow,’ ‘condescending,’ and ‘manipulative,’;
Heritage is one of the most important factors that represents where a person came from. In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, this short story characterizes not only the symbolism of heritage, but also separates the difference between what heritage really means and what it may be portrayed as. Throughout the story, it reveals an African-American family living in small home and struggling financially. Dee is a well-educated woman who struggles to understand her family's heritage because she is embarrassed of her mother and sister, Mama and Maggie. Unlike Dee, Mama and Maggie do not have an education, but they understand and appreciate their family's background. In “Everyday Use,” the quilts, handicrafts, and Dee’s transformation helps the reader interpret that Walker exposed symbolism of heritage in two distinctive point of views.
The author of “Mother to Son”, Langston Hughes, displays the attitude of hopefulness in the poem to show that life will not be easy for the son, but he should never give up because the mother did not. The author uses literary devices like figurative language, imagery, and diction. By using these literary devices, Hughes creates a sympathetic mood in the poem in order to emotionally draw in the reader.
In Alice Walker’s story “Everyday Use,” symbolism, allegory, and myth stand out when thinking about the characters, setting, and conflict in the story. The conflict is between the mother and her two daughters (Maggie and Dee). There is also the conflict between the family’s heritage (symbolized by the quilt, bench, and butter chum) and their different ways of life. Dee chose a new African name, moved to the city, and adopted a new way of life while Maggie and her mother have stay behind. The quilt (the most important symbol) represents the family’s heritage in that it is made of scraps of clothing worn by generations of family members. The quilt has been sewn by family hands and used on family beds. It has seen history and is history. Maggie and her mother see that that history is alive but Dee thinks it is as dead as her name. Dee does not see that name as part of her heritage. By analyzing these symbols, a number of possibilities for a theme can be seen. Walker could be suggesting that to understand the African-American heritage, readers have to include the present as well as the past. However, the theme could be that poverty and a lack of sophistication and education cannot be equated with ignorance. Lastly, she could be telling her readers that dignity or self-respect rise from and are virtually connected to one’s entire heritage- not just a selected part of it.
His poems established him as a well known poet in Harlem. In two of his poems one titled “Mother to Son” and the other “Harlem” both have some comparison and contrast between the two. The poem “Mother to Son” is more of a free lyric flowing poem. In this poem Langston Hughes gets the message across in a powerful attack. The poem is narrated from a mother’s viewpoint and the wisdom she gives her son as read in the following lines:
This chapter attempts to focus upon the problem of identity that confronted the African-Americans in America. Thus it investigates the African-American’s identity dilemma as shown in the poetry of Claude McKay and Langston Hughes. At the same time, it provides a solution for the African-American’s problem of estrangement and identity crisis. But while McKay’s self-rejection of his blackness urges him to trace the quest for identity in exile, Hughes’ self acceptance of his blackness enables him to reconcile with the white oppressors who stripped the black race from its identity. Moreover, it sheds light upon the psychological consequences that resulted from the violation of the African-American’s identity. Furthermore, this chapter shows the African-American’s self debasement, helplessness, and double consciousness that emanate from the sense of uprootedness.
During this period of literature of the Reconstruction to the New Negro Renaissance, 1865-1919, African Americans were becoming more educated and more aware of the rights that they were entitled to. The start of this Reconstruction Era began after 1863’s emancipation of slaves in the Confederate states and the Civil War’s end in 1865. Although the three Civil Rights amendments, thirteenth(1865), fourteenth (1868), and fifteenth (1870), ends slavery in slaves states, ensures equal protection and due process for all citizens, and gives voting rights to all men(Black and White), institutionalized segregation was still an issue(UShistory.org). Nevertheless, more voices began to emerge as social and political changes were made approaching the Renaissance. These brave men and woman of color tried these issues and expressed themselves using the art of literature. The major reasons Blacks displayed these expressions was to: (1) articulate intellectual achievements, (2) teach themselves, (3) correct the historical record of the black experience, and (4) document and shape social and political aspirations and conditions(Gates). After the distinguished abolitionist and writer Fredrick Douglass died on February 20, 1895 at Cedar Hill’s woman’s rights meeting one intellectual leader in particular, Booker T. Washington, become a key spokes person and writer of the Black Community(bibliography.com). Dr. Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise” is noted as one of the most influential and significant speeches delivered in America(Gaston). It’s time to explicate Dr. Washington’s address as it relates to the one of the four major aims for writing literature during this era and his life story.
“Everyday Use” is a story based in the era of racial separation between communities of diverse ethnicity. “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker merely scratches the surface of racial heritage and the elimination of previous ways of living. This discontinuation of poverty driven physical labor shines through Dee as she grows to know more of her heritage throughout her years in school. An example of this is when Dee changes her name; this is an indication of Dee/Wangero wanting to change her lifestyle after the harsh truth she is hit with while going to school. Dee learns about the struggles of African Americans during this time, which changes her view on the unforgiving reality of her family’s lifestyle. In “Everyday Use”, the author opens the mind
The contradiction of being both black and American was a great one for Hughes. Although this disparity was troublesome, his situation as such granted him an almost begged status; due to his place as a “black American” poet, his work was all the more accessible. Hughes’ black experience was sensationalized. Using his “black experience” as a façade, however, Hughes was able to obscure his own torments and insecurities regarding his ambiguous sexuality, his parents and their relationship, and his status as a public figure.
By looking at the last couple pages of Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” the reader can determine a certain style Walker uses to tell the story of a culture gap between an African American family. By using slang and incorrect word usage with Mama and proper, almost eloquent English with Dee, Walker is able to paint the perfect picture of how truly different the mother and daughter are. Also, Walker alternates between simple, often incomplete sentences with incorrect run-on sentences to depict Mama’s lack of proper education. Finally, Walker uses certain wording to indicate Mama’s feelings in regards to how her daughters act, ultimately helping her make her final decision in who gets the quilts.
In “Everyday Use”, Alice Walker is exploring the concept of heritage as it applies to African-Americans. It appears to be set in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s. This was the time when African-Americans were struggling to define their personal identities. Many blacks who had stories of pain and injustice wanted to rediscover their African roots, and they were denying their American heritage to do so. In “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker argues that an African-American is both African and American.
Both Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were great writers but their attitudes towards their personal experience as an African American differed in many ways. These differences can be attributed to various reasons that range from gender to life experience but even though they had different perceptions regarding the African American experience, they both shared one common goal, racial equality through art. To accurately delve into the minds of the writers’ one must first consider authors background such as their childhood experience, education, as well their early adulthood to truly understand how it affected their writing in terms the similarities and differences of the voice and themes used with the works “How it Feels to be Colored Me” by Hurston and Hughes’ “The Negro Mother”. The importance of these factors directly correlate to how each author came to find their literary inspiration and voice that attributed to their works.
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.
The founding fathers constructed the Constitution with the notion that “all men were created equal.” However, many minorities still struggle for the same rights and opportunities as others. “Mother to Son” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are poems written by Langston Hughes that use symbolism to exemplify the struggles of African Americans as they attempt to persevere through adversity. Hughes utilizes the stairs in “Mother to Son” and the rivers in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” as his main modes of symbolism.
This image is the author’s perspective on the treatment of “his people” in not only his hometown of Harlem, but also in his own homeland, the country in which he lives. The author’s dream of racial equality is portrayed as a “raisin in the sun,” which “stinks like rotten meat” (Hughes 506). Because Hughes presents such a blatantly honest and dark point of view such as this, it is apparent that the author’s goal is to ensure that the reader is compelled to face the issues and tragedies that are occurring in their country, compelled enough to take action. This method may have been quite effective in exposing the plight of African-Americans to Caucasians. It can be easily seen that Hughes chooses a non-violent and, almost passive method of evoking a change. While Hughes appears to be much less than proud of his homeland, it is apparent that he hopes for a future when he may feel equal to his fellow citizens, which is the basis of the “dream” that has been