Summary Of How To Be Drawn By Terrance Hayes

777 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender stereotypes in literature a level essays

Terrance Hayes “How to Be Drawn” gives his perceptions in on race, culture, family, art, and issues that he had experienced in his life in three parts of the book. Hayes not only describes the struggles of racism for African American men, but he also talks about how we all as one view ourselves and how we believe others view us. The themes that were mostly discussed in this book was race and self. The author tells his story in his poems about the struggles of him being invisible and visible as an African American. There is a great amount of questions that are being asked about how we understand things? How we process memories? Hayes was incredibly creative when creating this book of poems by showing inventive ways to tell his stories by showing …show more content…

This poem created visual images that clearly changed the way he thought and felt at that time what he was going through as an African American man. In the sixth line, Hayes says, “My uncle used the money I gave him to buy a few vials of what looked like candy after the party…” (Hayes, pg 3). Terrance’s uncle was supposed to use that money for medicine and that is what his uncle portrayed it to be at the time. It wasn’t exactly what he thought his uncle was going to use that money for. Hayes explains to the readers that no matter how we view things it is not always how we see things. The poems that caught my attention are “Wigphrastic”, “How to be Drawn to Trouble”, and “Like Mercy”. These three poems all tie in together about how…… They were relatable because I am an African American that grew up in a white neighborhood. I wasn’t accepted by my peers or the children that lived on my block because of my skin color. The students always picked on my hair because it was nappy or because it was too greasy. So I always felt that if I started wearing weaves that individuals would stop making fun of my hair. I’ve always thought to myself why hair, skin, or clothes has to define who we are as a …show more content…

Hayes made a tribute to James Brown using the song, “Please Please Please”. This poem actually made me feel like I was in the reader’s shoes and I could just imagine me being in the room with him as he is saying “please please please”. I feel like it was more of him crying out for help and asking god please please please take me out of my misery or why am I never good enough? I could the feel the pain as I was reading this poem and over again because the language that Hayes used was so strong and very deep. “Like Mercy” he speaks about his relationship that he has with God. The speaker is angry and the fourth stanza on page 46 really stood out to me and I could feel how hurt and angry he was in the third line when he mentioned, “Shedeadshedeadshedead…”( Hayes, pg 46). The feeling of never being accepted in the white society is heartbreaking and will always be a struggle trying to accept ourselves because on one else

Show More
Related

  • Essay On Ernie Barnes

    1852 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although Barnes’ marriage was not a successful one, he adored his newborn baby girl, and was heartbroken when his wife left him, taking his daughter with her. At North Carolina College, Barnes majored in art, and developed his own style (Artist Vitae, 1999). When Barnes was a freshman in college he went on a field trip to the newly desegregated North Carolina Museum of Art. At the museum Barnes noticed that there weren’t any works by black artist displayed, and when he asked the guide where the black artists were exhibited, the guide responded, “your people don’t express themselves this way” (Artist Vitae, 1999). That negative response encouraged Barnes to work hard at becoming an artist.

    Read More

  • A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes and My Little Dreams by Georgia Douglas Johnson

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even if these poems had the same theme of the delayment of a dream, each poet’s vision towards this dream is explored differently, where readers are able to grasp both the effects and potentials of a dream deferred, through the use of imagery. Nonetheless, both poems had fulfilled the role of many distinguished poems during the period; to communicate African-Americans’ desires to live a life of equality and free from prejudice.

    Read More

  • The Influential Work of Paul Laurence Dunbar

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Hayes And Hayes's Views Of Being Free

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    “My daddy was a free man but in his acts he was a slave” (26.) He was not afraid to beat his children, but when it came to speaking up for himself to the white man, he did not speak his mind. Hayes not speaking up for himself can contradict what freedom is, he still obeyed the white man from when he was a slave. “He wasn’t a slave but he lived like one” (33). Hayes was always afraid to speak up for himself and because he had trouble breaking out of the mindset that he was no longer a slave. Hayes showed his actions with anger, and he could not let go of the past. He was not really free, but Hayes thought he

    Read More

  • Analysis Of How It Feels To Be Colored Me By Neale Hurston

    1781 Words  | 4 Pages

    In ‘How it feels to be colored me’ Neale Hurston opens up to her pride and identity as an African-American. Hurston uses a wide variety of imagery, diction using figurative language freely with metaphors. Her tone is bordering controversial using local lingo.

    Read More

  • Messages from Point of View in Langston Hughes’ I too

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    Another example of Hughes’s constant struggles with racism and his inner and thoughtful response to that is clearly seen when he recalls being denied the right to sit at the same table. His point of view identifies that he was not able to sit at the table because he was an African-American. Yet, he remains very optimistic in not letting his misfortune please what is considered the “white-man” in the poem. Langston Hughes’s states,

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast How It Feels To Be Colored Me By Langston Hughes

    1849 Words  | 4 Pages

    It is true that old days were really hard to live in, especially if the person was dark skin. This poet’s main idea of this poem “ I, too” was that, he wanted to let people know what he, and most of the African American people were going through. He wanted to let people know that color should not define your personality, and people should accept the fact that people with dark skin were humans just like others. People should have accept them and treat them equally and respectfully. Also one of the things I liked in the poem was that, he was using word sing as a expression of a word of talk, he was not really singing but he was saying it

    Read More

  • Final Research Essay

    1357 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...is presented in a way that “blacks or whites can draw admonition from the subject” (1) . Another perspective from Revell is that the poem presents itself in terms of passionate personal regret. Revell believes that Dunbar felt guilty because he allowed himself to be bound to the “ plantation lifestyle” (1). The plantation life style internal anguish and agony the blacks went through as slaves. Some blacks have moved on from it, but some continue to use slavery as an excuse to not progress in life. It should be noted that Revell draws the most attention to the middle of the poem. The poem itself is masked because it never specifically says who its linked too, even though most would infer that it is linked to the black race. Revell concludes that Dunbar left aside the preconceived image of what it meant to be black in America, and spoke “only from his heart” (1) .

    Read More

  • Issues of Racial Identity during the Harlem Renaissance

    2024 Words  | 5 Pages

    The early 1900s was a very challenging time for Negroes especially young women who developed issues in regards to their identities. Their concerns stemmed from their skin colors. Either they were fair skinned due mixed heritage or just dark skinned. Young African American women experienced issues with racial identity which caused them to be in a constant struggle that prohibits them from loving themselves and the skin they are in. The purpose of this paper is to examine those issues in the context of selected creative literature. I will be discussing the various aspects of them and to aid in my analysis, I will be utilizing the works of Nella Larsen from The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Jessie Bennett Redmond Fauset, and Wallace Brown.

    Read More

  • I, Too by Langston Hughes

    694 Words  | 2 Pages

    When looking at the poem, Hughes expresses the pride that he has in his heritage and in who h...

    Read More

  • Black Poetry

    2173 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Perseverance in Mother to Son and The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through the exemplary use of symbolism, Langston Hughes produced two poems that spoke to a singular idea: Black people have prevailed through trials and tribulations to carry on their legacy as a persevering people. From rivers to stairs, Hughes use of extended metaphor emphasizes the feeling of motion which epitomizes the determination of the people. Overall, the driving feeling of the poems coupled with their strong imagery produce two different works that solidify and validate one main idea.

    Read More

  • The Negro Speaks of Rivers

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    Analyzing the poem’s title sets a somber, yet prideful tone for this poem. The fact that the title does not say “I Speak of Rivers,” but instead, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (1) shows that he is not only a Negro, but that he is not one specific Negro, but in his first person commentary, he is speaking for all Negroes. However, he is not just speaking for any Negroes. Considering the allusions to “Mississippi” (9) and “Abe Lincoln” (9) are not only to Negroes but also to America, confirms that Hughes is talking for all African Americans. This poem is a proclamation on the whole of African American history as it has grown and flourished along the rivers which gave life to these people.

    Read More

  • A Deeper Look: Langston Hughes's 'Ballad of the Landlord'

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ites a short 33-line poem that simply shows the barriers between races in the time period when racism was still openly practiced through segregation and discrimination. The poem captures the African American tenant’s frustrations towards the landlord as well as the racism shown by the landlord. The poem is a great illustration of the time period, and it shows how relevant discrimination was in everyday life in the nineteen-forties. It is important for the author to use the selected literary devices to help better illustrate his point. Each literary device in the poem helps exemplify the author’s intent: to increase awareness of the racism in the society in the time period.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” symbolically connects the fate of the speaker of the poem and his African American community to the indestructible and powerful force on Earth- the river. The river embodies both power and dominance but also a sense of comfort. The poem is a prime example of the message of hope and perseverance to anyone who has suffered or is currently suffering oppression and inequality in their lives and in society. The speaker in the poem pledges to the reader that with hard-work, determination, and willpower to succeed, he will get where he is going regardless of the obstacles and challenges he may face on his path of reaching his goals in life.

    Read More

More about Summary Of How To Be Drawn By Terrance Hayes

Open Document