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Civil rights movement and the literature of james baldwin
Civil rights movement and the literature of james baldwin
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We Real Cool and We Old Dudes Gwendolyn Brooks We Real Cool and Joan Murrays We Old Dudes were written at two different time periods in United States history, and affects two very different groups of people, yet both seem to use the same type of technique to describe the events that happened when they wrote their respective poems. Brooks poem takes place in the Middle of the Civil Rights Movement, while Murrays take place during the 2006 midterm election, when the democrats gained control of both the House and the Senate. While Brooks and Murrays poem are directed towards two groups of people, they both describe the feelings of their respective group of people. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote We Real Cool in 1960, four years prior to the passing of …show more content…
the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The idea of racial oppression is not necessarily given in the writing of the poem, however the idea that a group of people is oppressed is given and considering that this poem was written during the Civil Rights Movement gives the idea of racial oppression in this poem. Joan Murray wrote We Old Dudes in 2006, the year that the Republicans lost control of both the House and the Senate. The group of people Murray is talking about is clearly about a different group of people, at a different time in history than Gwendolyn Brooks. The idea that maybe this group was feeling a little bit like the people in We Real Cool is given with the words “We/ Vote Red. We/ Soon Dead.” (Murray 7-8). In the years prior to Brooks writing of We Real Cool, negro groups who were fighting for equal rights were forming. According to an article by Walter English in the Journal of Negro Education, titled Minority Group of Negroes and Implications for Guidance, English gives the reason why groups were formed. One of the main idea of the groups were that “the place of meeting would be familiar… wherever the group was accustomed to gather,” such as bar playing pool, which is where We Real Cool Takes Place (English 101). The 2006 Midterm election was a major blow for the Republican Party. During in and after the election Republicans felt a lot like the groups in We Re Cool. Gary Jacobson’s article Referendum: The 2006 Midterm Congressional Elections, describes what lead to the democrats winning control of the House and the Senate in the 2006 Midterm Election was “a classic referendum on the performance of the president and his party… and as a consequence, Democrats won majority control of both chambers” (Jacobson 1). Murrays poem help describe the feeling and emotion of what it was like to be a republican during that time. Both Brooks and Murray end their poems with the idea of death.
It could be that both authors were not referring to literal death, but instead the death of a time period as they knew it. Brooks poems ending with “We/ Die Soon,” could have been referencing the unrest that she and others like her faced during the Civil Rights Movement (Brooks 8). Murrays use of “We/ Soon dead,” may not have meant literal death, but instead death to the Republican Party as the Old Dudes knew it (Murray7). In both poems the idea of death seems to not be used in a way that is literal, but rather in a wat that describes the emotion that these groups were feeling at the …show more content…
time. While the death of Brooks poem does not seem to be literal death, one could argue that is does mean literal death. According to Mozell Hills The Metropolis and Juvenile Delinquency among Negroes, the racial oppression that blacks faced, caused young black children in metropolitan areas to join gains, because “The discriminating forces guiding and controlling Negro youths' acceptance of criminal subcultural patterns as a way of life result from learned feelings that the underworld makes accessible” (Hill 281). In this article Hill makes a fair point about how the oppression that blacks have faced have lead them to join gangs, and one could argue that the oppression blacks faced lead to them dying at a younger age. While that is a pretty fair argument, Hill gave no information about how many deaths occurred because of the racial oppression. While Brooks poem may not have referred to literal death, the death Brooks could have been talking about is that of the racial oppression, several lives have forever been changed by gangs, and the quality of life has been reduced for people of color, and it was almost as with their way of life in the early 1960’s, that they were like a dead person. A person could very well make the argument that Murrays poem is by no means referencing a time period, but rather just a way of life, and that the use of death was literal.
By the title We Old Dudes, the idea is given that Murray is talking about a group of old guys. After reading We Old Dudes one would think maybe she was just talking about a bunch of old, rich, white, guys who liked to play golf, who were in the final years of their life. The argument about the group just being in the final years of their life would be valid if the poem did not read “Vote Red. We/ Soon Dead” (Murray 7-8). The “vote red,” part of the poem is significant only because this poem was written in 2006, the year the republicans lost control of the house and the senate (Murray7). According to Gary Jacobson’s Referendum: The 2006 Midterm Election, “Democrats picked up thirty seats in the house, fifteen more than necessary to take over… They also gained six senate seats…to win a one seat majority” (Jacobson 1). The fact that the democrats gained control leads one to believe that maybe the death being talked about is not that of a person, but rather the death of the party as some knew it to
be. Gwendolyn Brooks and Joan Murrays poems bring to light events that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement and the 2006 Midterm Elections. While there are valid arguments that both Brooks and Murray were talking about literal death, one must look at the time period that the poems were written to understand them. While both poems are different in the time period, and group of people they talk about, they both go into detail about the events that occurred when they wrote their poems, without giving the historic facts away in their poems. Works Cited Brooks, Gwendolyn. “We Real Cool.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature Eleventh Edition by Michael Meyer. Bedford/ St. Martins. 2016.Print. English, Walter H. “Minority Group Attitudes of Negroes and Implications for Guidance.” The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 26, no. 2, 1957, pp. 99–107. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2293336 Hill, Mozell. “The Metropolis and Juvenile Delinquency Among Negroes.” The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 28, no. 3, 1959, pp. 277–285. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2293107. Jacobson, Gary C. “Referendum: The 2006 Midterm Congressional Elections.” Political Science Quarterly, vol. 122, no. 1, 2007, pp. 1–24. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20202806. Murray, Joan. “We Old Dudes.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature Eleventh Edition by Michael Meyer. Bedford/ St. Martins. 2016.Print.
Part Three of the book “Just Like Us” written by Helen Thorpe is comprised of illegal undocumented individuals residing in Denver Colorado. The individuals consist of a group of four Mexican young adults all with the dream of one day attending college and finally obtaining a legal status within the United States. In this portion of the readings, Yadira, Marisela, Clara, and Elissa are entering their senior year at their University and have defined the odds of successfully completing college while maintaining an illegal status. Helen Thorpe clearly demonstrates a passion in tracking individuals that are determined to become legal citizens within society; however, lack the proper advocacy and documentation to do so. Part Three of the book envelops
“Making a Difference” by June Callwood is an expository essay created to inspire the reader to make a change in the world around them, and to stand up for what they believe in. By just doing simple, positive things, people can make a huge impact on their lives and the lives of people around them. June Callwood, author of “Making a Difference”, changes the way many people see the world by describing scientific research and telling the stories of people who performed small, random acts of kindness that made a huge difference in people’s attitudes and the community around them.
This week’s reflection is on a book titled Girls Like Us and it is authored by Rachel Lloyd. The cover also says “fighting for a world where girls not for sale”. After reading that title I had a feeling this book was going to be about girls being prostituted at a young age and after reading prologue I sadly realized I was right in my prediction.
Lisa Delpit’s book, “The Skin We Speak”, talked about language and culture, and how it relates to the classroom. How we speak gives people hits as to where we are from and what culture we are a part of. Unfortunately there are also negative stereotypes that come with certain language variations. There is an “unfounded belief that the language of low income groups in rural or urban industrial areas is somehow structurally “impoverished” or “simpler” than Standard English” (Delpit 71). The United States is made of people from various cultures and speak many different variations of languages. As teachers we must be aware of some of the prejudices we may have about language and culture.
An unknown author once wrote “Never take life too seriously; after all, no one gets out of it alive”. When reading this quote, there can almost be an immediate connection between two very good works of writing: Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” speech from Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, and the poem “Out, Out --” by Robert Frost. Both allude to the idea that a single life, in its totality, denotes nothing, and eventually, everyone’s candle of life is blown out. However, each poet approaches this idea from opposite perspectives. Frost writes of a young, innocent boy whose life ends suddenly and unexpectedly. His poem is dry and lacks emotion from anyone except the young boy. Whereas the demise of Shakespeare’s character, Macbeth, an evil man, has been anticipated throughout the entire play. Through these writings, we are able gather a little more insight as to how these poets perhaps felt about dying and life itself.
In Ain’t No Making It, Jay Macleod explains his theories and findings on social reproduction of inequality. He begins by telling us more about some authors and their theories. This helped me have a better understanding on what this book is really trying to portray. One author I found interesting was Bernstein who focused on language patterns and social reproduction. By bringing up issues like this one that most people usually don’t think about, I was able to look at the problems that the Brothers and Hallway Hangers faced from a whole new perspective. I would not have noticed this throughout the book if these issues were not mentioned right away. I come from a very traditional family that believes that success depends on how much work you
The Message of Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Are Real Cool" "We Real Cool" is a short, yet powerful poem by Gwendolyn Brooks that sends a life learning message to its reader. The message Brooks is trying to send is that dropping out of school and roaming the streets is in fact not "cool" but in actuality a dead end street. Brooks conveys her message in an ironic manner, which is presented in the title of the poem. Before actually reading the 10 line poem, the first thing that grabs the reader's attention is the title. After reading the title "We Real Cool" one would assume that the intent of the poem is going to be about a group of people who are fortunate and live a flamboyant lifestyle.
“Death, the end of life: the time when someone or something dies” (Merriam-Webster, 2014). The definition of death is quite simple, the end of life is inescapable. I chose to write about death and impermanence because it is something we all must inevitably face. People often deal with death in a number of different ways. Although it is something that we must eventually face, it can be hard to come to terms with because the idea can be hard to grasp. Some of us fear it, others are able to accept it, either way we all must eventually face it. In this essay I will look at two different literary works about death and impermanence and compare and contrast the different elements of the point of view, theme, setting, and symbolism. The comparison of these particular works will offer a deeper look into words written by the authors and the feelings that they experiencing at that particular time.
The two poems, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, by Dylan Thomas and, “Because I Could Not Wait for Death”, by Emily Dickinson, we find two distinct treatments on the same theme, death. Although they both represent death, they also represent it as something other than death. Death brings about a variety of different feelings, because no two people feel the same way or believe the same thing. The fact that our faith is unknown makes the notion of death a common topic, as writers can make sense of their own feelings and emotions and in the process hope to make readers make sense of theirs too. Both Dickinson and Thomas are two well known and revered poets for their eloquent capture of these emotions. The poems both explore death and the
in both poems death is present, the way the two authors express it however is a
Many people find it hard to imagine their death as there are so many questions to be answered-how will it happen, when, where and what comes next. The fact that our last days on Earth is unknown makes the topic of death a popular one for most poets who looks to seek out their own emotions. By them doing that it helps the reader make sense of their own emotions as well. In the two poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickenson and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, the poets are both capturing their emotion about death and the way that they accepted it. In Dickenson’s poem her feelings towards death are more passionate whereas in Dylan’s poem the feelings
Herrick’s examination of death and decay is without gore or sadness rather he uses positive and beautiful imagery of writing and sun and “raine” (63). The optimistic, excited tone of the poem keeps it from sounding like a lesson rather than a love charm. In lines 65-66, the speaker is romanticizing death by using the infinity of writing to preserve their love in “a fable, song” for everyone to experience (65-66). He wants his love to realize that even though they can be immortalized in words, before that time comes they need to “goe a Maying” to make their story more significant when they are older and when they are gone (70).
The tone of “If We Must Die” conveys inspiration, while the tone of “Harlem” is frustration which indicates the difference between the poets’ attitudes toward racial oppression. In the first eight lines of “If We Must Die”, the speaker insists on dying nobly. By stressing the last words of these lines: “hogs”, “dogs”, “lot” and “shed”. Readers might experience a strong feeling that the speaker and his allies will die as heroes. The use of an exclamation point in line eight, “Shall be constrained to honor us though dead”, strengthens the speaker’s emotions; it also makes the tone more motivational. Then, there is a dramatic turning point in line nine, “Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe”. This dramatically changes of the tone making it
Death is the inevitable and unavoidable conclusion to life. Every human being in the phase of this planet is born with a death sentence. Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 73” tackles the theme of aging and death with an aging speaker who compares his late life to late autumn or early winter. The speaker goes on to explain to his loved one that he/she must express his/her love to him more than ever, as death is upon him. The song “When I Get Where I’m Going”performed by Brad Paisley also tackles the theme of death.
In poetry, death is referred as the end of literature and it is associated with feeling of sorrows. However Emily Dickinson demonstrates that death is not the end of literature or feeling of sadness but death is a new element of inspiration in poetry and is the beginning of a new chapter in our life. In the poem ‘’Because I Could Not Stop for Death’, she discusses the encounter of a women with death, who passed away centuries ago. Dickenson uses metaphors and similes to show that the process of dying can be an enjoyable moment by appreciating the good moments in life, and by respecting death rather than fearing it. Also Dickinson portrays death in a humorous way as she compares it to man seducing her to go to her death as well, to childhood games that show the innocence of this encounter (Bloom). The poem is a reflection of how unpredictable death can be. Death is a scary process in life that should not be feared because it should be celebrate as new start.