The Harlem Renaissance was a time of growth and rebirth in New York during the 1920s, when the careers of writers such as Helene Johnson were changed for the better. Johnson in ‘Bottled’ and ‘Fiat Lux’ uses a range of ideas throughout her writing to sway readers’ emotions. In ‘Bottled’, the use of symbolism and the idea of imprisonment shown through the bottled sand leaves readers with a sense of curiosity and confusion. During the last stanza of ‘Bottled’, these feelings are changed through the use of the idea of false identity shown through the dancing man, turning more towards feelings of admiration and regret, also connecting back to the history of slavery and the idea of the ‘new Negro’. In ‘Fiat Lux’ (which means ‘let there be light’), …show more content…
The bottled sand can be interpreted as a reference back to slavery, when African people were taken from their home country and unwillingly forced into boats where they had to travel weeks at a time, cramped and unable to escape. A quote that stood out and reinforced this idea for me went like this, ‘But the label said this: “This sand was taken from the Sahara Desert” / some bozos have been all the way to Africa to get some sand’. Helene uses these lines to express the author's point around the skepticism of the bottle's authenticity, showing the reader a clash of authority. This forces the reader to also question the authority of the label on the bottle, leaving feelings of confusion and annoyance as to why the sand from the Sahara should be treated differently to any other sand, another deconstruction of racism and slavery against …show more content…
This is done through the portrayal of the dancing man, a man who feeds into the stereotype given to African Americans at the time known as ‘Jim Crow’, a fool or a clown putting on a fake show. The quote ‘trick shoes, trick coat, trick cane, trick everything - all glass - but inside - gee that poor shine’ shows that the man is putting on an act, a persona. By the use of the words ‘that poor shine’, Johnson sets a tone of sympathy for the man as he cannot be himself. ‘I was where I could see his face, and somehow, I could see him dancin’ in a jungle’. This progression of the author's perception of the dancing man, from one of a dancing fool to the image of a warrior in a jungle. Readers get a feeling of admiration for the man, who stays proud of his identity even after the mockery received from others, also showing readers a sense of regret for the way that people so often stereotype those around
The story explores many vital concepts accompanied by beautiful illustrations. I felt a strong sense of cultural understanding, spirituality and connection to family and land as though I was on this journey too. I could sense an underlying meaning in each dance, holding great importance to Bertie’s family and a strong connection to their culture. Pryor has attempted to fuse the then and now, by speaking of changes in the land, from a once spiritual gathering place, to a now busy town street where through food, they keep the culture alive (Pryor, 2010).
Jones, Sharon. Rereading the Harlem Renaissance: Race, Class, and Gender in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset, Zora Neale Hurston, and Dorothy West. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002.
There has been much debate over the Negro during the Harlem Renaissance. Two philosophers have created their own interpretations of the Negro during this Period. In Alain Locke’s essay, The New Negro, he distinguishes the difference of the “old” and “new” Negro, while in Langston Hughes essay, When the Negro Was in Vogue, looks at the circumstances of the “new” Negro from a more critical perspective.
3. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 51: Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Trudier Harris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Gale Group, 1987. pp. 133-145.
...l P. "Chapter 9: Harlem Renaissance - A Brief Introduction." A Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing Project. 2 Feb. 2008. PAL: Perspectives in American Literature. 13 Nov. 2008 .
It is strange that two of the most prominent artists of the Harlem Renaissance could ever disagree as much as or be as different as Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright. Despite the fact that they are the same color and lived during the same time period, they do not have much else in common. On the one hand is Hurston, a female writer who indulges in black art and culture and creates subtle messages throughout her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. On the other hand is Wright, who is a male writer who demonstrates that whites do not like black people, nor will they ever except for when they are in the condition “…America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears.” Hurston was also a less political writer than Wright. When she did write politically, she was very subtle about stating her beliefs.
Both Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were great writers but their attitudes towards their personal experience as an African American differed in many ways. These differences can be attributed to various reasons that range from gender to life experience but even though they had different perceptions regarding the African American experience, they both shared one common goal, racial equality through art. To accurately delve into the minds of the writers’ one must first consider authors background such as their childhood experience, education, as well their early adulthood to truly understand how it affected their writing in terms the similarities and differences of the voice and themes used with the works “How it Feels to be Colored Me” by Hurston and Hughes’ “The Negro Mother”. The importance of these factors directly correlate to how each author came to find their literary inspiration and voice that attributed to their works.
Hatch, James V. Lost plays of the Harlem Renaissance 1920-1940 Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 1996
According to Locke, “The New Negro”, whose publication by Albert and Charles Boni in December 1925 symbolized the culmination of the first stage of the New Negro Renaissance in literature, was put together "to document the New Negro culturally and socially - to register the transformations of the inner and outer life of the Negro in America that have so significantly taken place in the last few
"The Harlem Renaissance - Boundless Open Textbook." Boundless. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. .
Works Cited Hughes, Langston. “Visitors to the Black Belt”, Note on Commercial Theatre”, “Democracy”, Theme for English B” : The Norton Anthology of English Literature Gen. ed. Nina Baym. Shorter 8th ed. of the book.
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.
Scott, Freda L. "Black Drama and the Harlem Renaissance." Theatre Journal 37.4 (1985): 426-439. Print.
Hughes, Langston. "Harlem." [1951] Literature. 5th ed. Eds. James H. Pickering and Jeffery D. Hoeper. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1027-28.
Black Fiction: New Studies in the Afro-American Novel since 1945. Ed. A. Robert Lee, a.s.c. London: Vision Press, 1980. 54-73.