Domination of Black by Wallace Stevens
The poem " Domination of Black" by Wallace Stevens takes place on an early autumn night, focusing at one point on a person in a room thinking about darkness, while a fire is going in a fireplace nearby. A few images appear repetitively, which tie the poem together more clearly.
The poem begins by describing the setting: night time, by a fire indoors. Then explaining that the colors of the fallen leaves and bushed nearby outside have changed color. This is visible to the person inside by the fireplace. From a deeper meaning, this may be explained by the way leaves and branches appear different as they are looked at while pulled upward or about in the wind. Here a different appearance is achieved before falling back into place as normal. From here a reference is made to the color of the large hemlocks. Their color is said to be striding, in other words walking, almost as if they are getting closer to the indoors. "Yes: but the color of the heavy hemlocks came striding." (Stevens 68) From here an image of a cry of peacocks is heard. Their cry is uncertain at this point, while much is left open for interpretation.
Next the colors of the peacock's tails are being explained in terms of the leaves that have fallen and are turning in the wind. A specific reference to the twilight wind is made. "Turning in the wind, In the twilight wind." (Stevens 68) This "twilight" setting may prove to be a negative effect on the situation overall.
Following this the leaves are being described as sweeping across the room. The scene is made clearer by being compared to the way the leaves flew from the branches of the hemlocks of above, quickly down to the ground below. "Just as they flew from the boughs of the hemlocks." (Stevens 68) Once again a cry by the peacocks is heard. This time the reason for it is given. Their cry being caused by either the leaves, or a cry against the twilight. At this point is seems as though the reason would lie more within the twilight than simply the leaves falling and moving about. At this point it may begin to be considered as a period of uncertainty, or decline in some form, before the following day is on its way.
Following this a period of turning is introduced.
This week I read the short article on Alan Locke’s, “Enter the New Negro”. This article is discussing the Negro problem in depth. “By shedding the chrysalis of the Negro problem, we are achieving something like spiritual emancipation”. Locke believes that if we get rid of whatever is holding us back we would gain something renewing and beautiful.
Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” is an eye opening story. Ellison introduces us to a black nameless citizen. All the nameless citizen wants is to be acknowledged and to please the white men, which is strange given the white common men are forcing him to brutally fight his black peers. Ellison’s story is focusing on the ignorance of African Americans due to the constant deception of the white supremacist. (Ellison)
Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life ofAminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life.She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.
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In the stanzas of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, the speaker very honestly observes the scenes from outside her apartment. From her point of view, she sees a both a bird and a dog in the process of sleeping. The speaker views these animals as having simple lives unbothered by endless questions or worries. Instead, the two live peaceful, uninterrupted existences, rising every morning knowing that “everything is answered” (ln. 22). However, the speaker lives in contrast to this statement instead anxiously awaiting the next day where uncertainty is a likely possibility. Unlike the dog and the bird, the speaker cannot sit passively by as the world continues in its cycle and she carries a variety of emotions, such as a sense of shame. It is evident here that the speaker has gone through or is currently undergoing some sort of struggle. When she states that “Yesterday brought to today so lightly!” she does so in longing for the world to recognize her for her issues by viewing the earth’s graces as so light of actions, and in doing so, she fails to recognize that she can no longer comprehend the beauty of nature that it offers her. In viewing the light hitting the trees as “gray light streaking each bare branch” (ln. 11), she only sees the monotony of the morning and condescends it to merely “another tree” (ln. 13.) To her, the morning is something
Reading my first book for this class, I was really looking forward to it. The book, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, is an interesting book because it touches base on mass incarceration and the caste system. Figuring out that society is on a war on drugs and racism in the justice system is upsetting, and yet interesting. Michelle does a really nice job in organizing the book and presenting the plot. The fact that this book informs and explains arguments, what is happening with the justices system is complete true. Our lives would look complete different; and some of her points are happening. People do not realize getting incarcerated will take some of rights away. This essay will reflect on the book its self, answer questions,
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