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In the story “Father and Son,” Langston Hughes presents Cora as an African American woman that is the mother of her slave owner’s, Colonel Norwood, children. She destabilizes traditional gender roles by acting crazy to help her son, Bert, after he murders his father, Colonel Norwood. Though she doesn’t have nearly as much input as the men in her society, she is a central female character because she makes herself seem crazy to elicit fear and to manipulate the white men into thinking she is unintelligent. Her self empowerment intensifies due to her perseverance in helping her son. She changes from a typical reticent African American woman to a confident and smart woman by coming up with a plan to save Bert from the lynching and inflicting authority …show more content…
Her Aunt Tobie convinces her “it’s better’n slavin’ in the cotton fields.” If Cora’s kids were anyother man’s chidren, they would have to succumb to the hardships of slave work like all the other African Americans. But because Cora had her kids with the Colonel, “the Lewis niggers (old man Norwood’s kids by Cora) went away to school.” It is rare for an African American kids to be sent away to school. She listened to Aunt Tobie and used Colonel to ensure she would have more than the other African American kids. Aunt Tobie even said, “the Lewis young ‘uns ought to appreciate what the Colonel was doing for ‘em. No white man she ever heard of cared anyting ‘bout educatin’ his tar-brush chillum” (Hughes 220). This is another instance where Cora is subverting cultural norms because she bore Colonel’s kids to ensure they have access to school while the other kids were working on the plantations. She is using Colonel to enable her to twist the rules of society to her and her children’s …show more content…
This is seen when Cora says, “Whenever you called me in de night, I woke up. Whenever you wanted me to love you, I reached out ma arms to you. I bored you five children…” (Hughes 246). She angrily lists all the things she selflessly sacrificed to be a good mistress to Colonel and a good mom to her children. As an African American woman, she is expected to cook, clean, and cater to Colonel. Despite her relationship with Colonel, she still has to say, “Yes, suh” and she is always washing the “plums.” Cora consistently listened to and respected Colonel but after his death, her feelings for him change. She says, “Bert’s runnin’ from you, too… he is your’n, Colonel Tom, and he’s runnin’ from you” (Hughes 247). Cora speaks to Colonel’s dead body because he is the reason his son is hiding from the white mob. Even though he is dead, she tells him that she won’t let him take advantage of her anymore in this male dominated society. It’s an important part of her life because she is letting go from Colonel and learning to take care of herself and her
Women are equated with water and the greatness that it possesses. In both poems Hughes displays African-American’s view of women and how they the key to maintaining a family. R. Baxter Miller states “her symbolic yet invisible presence pervades the fertility of the earth, the waters and the rebirth of the morning.” (35) Women are like rivers, they continue to flow, even when they cannot be seen. In Mother to Son the speaker reminisces on what his mother told him, which shows how powerful a woman really is. Water is also a very powerful source and contributes to everything. Just like water women contribute to life and the upbringing of children. The Negro Speaks of Rivers states “My soul has grown deep like the rivers” ( Norton Line 4, 2027.) In that one line Hughes demonstrates the likeness between women and water. Females contribute to the strengthening of one’s soul. Water is used as simile to compare the depth of the water, to the human soul.
In the book Bone Black, Bell Hooks gives a vivid look into her childhood. She starts off by talking about a quilt that her mother gave her from her mother. She thinks that this is special because her mother gave it to her and not one of her other sisters. Then she goes into describing how the children in her family never knew that they were poor until they grew up. They liked the dolls that they played with and the food that they ate. They never wondered why they didn’t have the things that their white neighbors did have. You would seldomly hear them complain because they had to walk to school and the white kids rode the school bus. She thought that they had a pretty normal family.
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.
She establishes "the 'do' and the 'don't' of behavior" (Smith 132) in her children and believes, "If you could just keep from them all the things that must never be mentioned, all would be well!" (Smith 142). At the same time, the southern white woman sits atop the pedestal of Sacred Womanhood that her husband and his ancestors built for her (Smith 141). She meekly sits there, a symbol of southern society used to benefit men's ideals, feeling empty and powerless against everything going on around her (Smith 141-2). The whispers in her children's ears and her presence on that pedestal fulfill the white woman's role as protectress of Southern Tradition, but does not fulfill the southern white woman. In fact, the roles of the southern black woman and the southern white woman are equally important and equally oppressive: "In a culture where marriage and motherhood were women's primary roles, neither black nor white women were free to be fully wives or mothers, and neither were able to shield their children from the physical and psychic destruction of the racist society in which they lived" (Gladney 6).
Brent confronts her reader one on one in order to reemphasize her point. She uses the family and sentiment to appeal to and challenge the 19th century white women reader in order to effectively gain their support in the movement for abolition. Understanding what was going on in our nation, in the southern states, and in the northern states is incredibly important when reading this story. Slaves were nothing more than property and, in many cases, were treated with less respect than the family dog.
Langston Hughes's stories deal with and serve as a commentary of conditions befalling African Americans during the Depression Era. As Ostrom explains, "To a great degree, his stories speak for those who are disenfranchised, cheated, abused, or ignored because of race or class." (51) Hughes's stories speak of the downtrodden African-Americans neglected and overlooked by a prejudiced society. The recurring theme of powerlessness leads to violence is exemplified by the actions of Sargeant in "On the Road", old man Oyster in "Gumption", and the robber in "Why, You Reckon?"
Because of the laws against colored people, Rosaleen, as a black woman, lives with constraints in her life. For example, she cannot live in a house with white people (Kidd, p.8), she cannot represent Lily at the charm school (Kidd, p.19), or even travel in a car with white people (Kidd, p.76). The media is also influenced by racism, and constantly shows news about segregation such as the case of Martin Luther King, who is arrested because he wants to eat in a restaurant (Kidd, p.35), the “man in Mississippi was killed for registering to vote” (Kidd, p.44), and the motel in Jackson, that closes, because the owners don’t want to rent rooms to black people (Kidd, p.99).... ... middle of paper ...
In Francis Ellen Watkins Harper's poem "The Slave Mother, A Tale of Ohio," she uses a shifting tone as well as other specific literary techniques to convey the heartbreaking story of a slave woman being separated from her child. This story specifically draws light to the horrific reality that many slaves faced: families were torn apart. Because this poem tells the story of a mother and her son, it also draws light to the love that mothers have for their children and the despair that they would go through if anything were to ever happen to them. Harper's poem addresses both race and gender, and it effectively conveys the heartbreak of the mother to the audience.
Though the character of Bessie Mears made limited appearances throughout Native Son, Richard Wright implicated her as a representation of the common attitudes and experiences of African Americans during the time period. There is also an element of tragedy to Bessie’s character, as she faced double oppression for being both African American and a woman. Bessie is a forgotten character in the novel and she serves a purpose for Wright, as opposed to being viewed as a person. Instead, she is a symbol that strengthens the opposition and separation between Bigger’s personality and actions from those of of his equally-oppressed friends and family.
She makes the argument that all women in the south, including slaves experienced many forms of oppression because of the patriarchal society of the south during the time, because without the oppression of all women then farmers would lose full authority. “Patriarchy was the bedrock upon which the slave society was founded, and slavery exaggerated the pattern of subjugation that patriarchy had established.”(p. 6) She makes the notion that the plantation wives and female slaves shared similar experiences with unequal treatment. The book even theorizes that the plantation mistress were in more bondage than female slaves were because she had no other person to share her experiences with. Whereas, the slaves all had commonality among them and experienced there hardships together as a family rather than
...brought with it discrimination of African American women, “They were targets of brutality, the butt of jokes and ridicule, and their womanhood was denied over and over. It was a struggle just to stay free, and an even greater struggle to define womanhood” (162). As the men fought the war the women who were now dependent upon themselves more than ever had to take on the role of the father. The Mammy figure now stood up for herself and would often times leave the white family, the family they left would often have feelings of remorse for their tremendous loss. Women were standing up for themselves and where now the maker of their own destiny, but with that still came the harsh reality that they would be still the most vulnerable group in antebellum America. Many single African American women were faced with poverty and had a really hard time dealing with the war and depending on themselves. Deborah Gray White’s view of slave women shows us that their role was truly unique, they faced the harsh reality that they were not only women or African American, they were both, so therefore their experience was one of a kind and they lived through it, triumphed, and finally won their freedom.
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is broken winged bird that cannot fly.” -Langston Hughes The struggle in America that African Americans face throughout America’s history is a saddening story where it can apply to any type of people facing the same problems of inequality. The poem I, too and Mother to Son are both similar with the message that it represents but different in the way the message is said. Mother to Son highlights the struggles that Americans who are poverty stricken may face.
In her autobiography, ‘The Long Shadow of Little Rock’ Daisy boasts of her adoration for her father Smith. Bates admiration for the man was sure as she mentioned in her memoirs that he was a man strong, apt to listen to her, behaved respectfully towards her, an unselfish gentleman. In addition to the attribution of the activist attributed her strong sense of self to these characteristics that her adopted father exhibited that shifted her social perceptions. It had been Smith, who shaped the young woman into the person that she would later become training her how to cope with racism in the
The comparison between two poems are best analyzed through the form and meaning of the pieces. “Mother to Son” and “Harlem (A Dream Deferred)” both written by the profound poet Langston Hughes, depicts many similarities and differences between the poems. Between these two poems the reader can identify his flow of writing through analyzing the form and meaning of each line.
In life, we are often confronted with boundaries created by society and ourselves. In our limited understanding of what those boundaries represent, we find ourselves confined by our ego. Racism and prejudices have plagued society for many years, and many of us have been judged and condemned for expressing our true selves. How long must it take for us all to be accepted as beautiful beings, all perfectly capable of greatness and joy?