Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
research on african american literature
frederick douglass and civil rights
impact of fredrick douglasss
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: research on african american literature
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Renowned African-American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar rose from a poor childhood in Dayton, Ohio to international acclaim as a writer and as an effective voice for equality and justice for African-Americans (Howard, Revell). He met and associated with other historical men such as Fredrick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and his Dayton neighbors Orville and Wilbur Wright (Harvard, Columbus). Dunbar's personal story, as well as his writings, are still an inspiration to all Americans (Poupard).
Dunbar was born June 27,1872 in Dayton, Ohio to Matilda and Joshua Dunbar, former slaves from Kentucky (Van Doren 296, Columbus). Their family was extremely poor because Joshua was not able to get a job. Racism was still strong in Ohio even though slavery was against the law at the time. To help their parents, Paul and his two half-brothers did chores like gathering firewood, raking leaves, and cutting grass (Howard). Matilda always provided inspiration to her children by reading to, supporting, and encouraging them to be creative. She loved storytelling, songs, and poetry. This affected Paul throughout his life, and it was she who instilled in him the "desire to achieve" (Columbus). Dunbar's parents separated in 1874, after having two children. In spite of this, Paul was still able to achieve. He wrote his first poem at age six and recited publicly at age nine (Howard). His first public reading was on his birthday in 1892. After Joshua left, Matilda was forced to work in Dayton as a washerwoman to support her family (Columbus). Joshua died when Paul was just twelve years old (Poupard). The death of Joshua only strengthened the bond between Paul and his mother (Revell).
Dunbar was very popular amo...
... middle of paper ...
...urence Dunbar" http://www.udayton.edu/~dunbar/biopld.htm (1/30/98)
G & C Merriam Co. Websters Biographical Dictionary. Springfield, MA: G & C Merriam Company Publishers, 1966. 450
Howard, Connie Jean. "Paul Laurence Dunbar." http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/dunbar.htm (9 May 1999)
Howells, W.D. The complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1968
O'Neill, John. The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography. Vol. 3. St. Louis, MO: McGraw-Hill Inc. , 1973. 473
Poupard, Dennis (ed.). Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1984.
Revell, Peter. Paul Laurence Dunbar. Boston, Mass: Twayne Publishers, 1979
Van Doren, Charles. Websters American Biographies. Springfield, MA: G & C Merriam Company Publishers,1979. 296
The author was born in Washington D.C. on May 1, 1901. Later, he received a bachelor’s degree from Williams College where he studied traditional literature and explored music like Jazz and the Blues; then had gotten his masters at Harvard. The author is a professor of African American English at Harvard University. The author’s writing
Kennedy, Richard S. http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-00394.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Sun Mar 18 12:31:47 2001 Copgyright © 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Publish by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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...
Bode, Carl. Emerson. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography Vol III. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1973. 572-574.
1. Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used very effectively in her story. Situational irony is used to show the reader what is assumed to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to hint to the reader something is happening to the characters in the story that they do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar born June 27, 1872 in Dayton Ohio. Dunbar mother was a laundress and his father a former slave, soldier and plasterer. As a student Dunbar was the only black in his senior class, nevertheless he was still nominated President of the class. During adulthood Dunbar eloped with Alice Ruth Moore who was a teacher. Dunbar had no children. As editor of his own newspaper “Dayton Tattler” his writing inspiration surface. Many of his family experiences of slave and plantation life influenced Dunbar later writing. There was often controversy about Dunbar dialect poetry, it was said to cruelty misread black history, and it was written for white audience. Before his death on February 9, 1906 Dunbar was considered influential because his poetry influence Harlem Renaissance writers such as James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes and Claude Mckay.
Hughes mother went through protracted separations and reconciliations in her second marriage (she and her son from this marriage would live with him off and on in later years. He was raised by alternately by her, by his maternal grandmother, and, after his grandmother’s death, by family friends. By the time he was fourteen, he had lived in Joplin; Buffalo; Cleveland; Lawrence, Kansas; Mexico City; Topeka, Kansas; Colorado Springs; Kansas City; and Lincoln, Illinois. In 1915, he was class poet of his grammar-school graduating class in Lincoln. From 1916 to 1920, he attended Central High School in Cleveland, where he was a star athlete, wrote poetry and short stories (and published many of them in the Central High Monthly), and on his own read such modern poets as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Edgar Lee Masters, Vachel Lindsay, and Carl Sandburg. His classmates were for the most part the children of European immigrants, who treated him largely without discrimination and introduced him to leftist political ideas.
Berube, Margery S., et all; The American Heritage Dictionary Second Edition; Houghton Mifflin Company; Boston, Mass, 1985
upon the natural ability of the race in song and is acknowledged to be Dunbar's
Margaret Walker was born on July 7, 1915 in Birmingham, Alabama to Reverend Sigismund C. Walker and Marion Dozier Walker (Gates and McKay 1619). Her father, a scholarly Methodist minister, passed onto her his passion for literature. Her mother, a music teacher, gifted her with an innate sense of rhythm through music and storytelling. Her parents not only provided a supportive environment throughout her childhood but also emphasized the values of education, religion, and black culture. Much of Walker’s ability to realistically write about African American life can be traced back to her early exposure to her black heritage. Born in Alabama, she was deeply influenced by the Harlem Renaissance and received personal encouragement from Langston Hughes. During the Depression, she worked for the WPA Federal Writers Project and assists Richard Wright, becoming his close friend and later, biographer. In 1942, she was the first African American to win the Yale Younger Poets award for her poem For My People (Gates and McKay 1619). Her publishing career halted for...
Perry, M., Davis, D., Harris, J., Laue, T. V., & Warren, D. J. (1985). A history of the world (Revised Edition ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Laurence Dunbar's "Ship That Pass In The Night" is a cry for opportunity for all men, regardless of race. Dunbar's poem directly parallels a passage from Frederick Douglass' autobiography that gives an account of his life as a slave. Both Douglass and Dunbar look out at the ships that sail by and see hopes for societal changes. Although they both sought change, their aspirations were quite different. Frederick Douglass watched the ships from ashore, wishing for freedom and for slavery to be abolished. Paul Laurence Dunbar on the other hand was already a free man. He was on a ship, still more of an opportunity than Douglass had, yet he was still in search for new opportunities for African Americans. The new opportunities that he seeks are upon a ship somewhere sailing in the dark night and keep passing him by.
Damrosch, David and David L. Pike. The Longman Anthology of World Literature Second Edition. Pearson Education, Inc., 2009.
Flory, Harriette, and Samuel Jenike. A World History: The Modern World. Volume 2. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992. 42.
Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd. ed. Vol. B. New York and London: