Pauline E. Hopkins’s novel Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South is considered to be one of the most prominent works of African American literature. Throughout her life, Hopkins created literary works that captured the pain, frustration, and hopelessness African Americans felt at that time. Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South focuses heavily on revealing the racism that existed in both the north and south of the United States. Often, the north is depicted as the more tolerant region of the country. When in reality, the level of discrimination often did not differ from the discrimination that existed in the south. Often the North would do just enough to keep Negroes satisfied, but not have any true intentions to see that justice prevails. Hopkins stated, “Massachusetts is noted for being willing to see fair play: she hears the complaints of the Negro, and listens with attention to the accusations of Southern whites, weighs the one against the other, and, naturally enough, the scales tip in favor of the white brother” (Hopkins 224). Seldom were there any real intentions to see that Negroes were granted the same level of fairness as white citizens. Regardless of their willingness to listen, or at least go through the motions to make it appear as if it was a place where color did was not a damning factor, there was still a stigma; a stigma that is not willing to see African Americans on par with whites. Hopkins, like her contemporaries, also focused heavily on education in this novel. The ability to read and write seems to be the constituent that has allowed the Negro to progress over the years. Novels, poem, newspapers, and magazines were medium... ... middle of paper ... ...have the resources available to us today to exceed what they have done. Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South proved that racism and prejudice have no geographical boundaries. Unfortunately, racism and prejudice are not bound by time either. These are still things that African Americans have to confront for the rest of our lives. The hatred is too deeply embedded within our history and our culture for African Americans to go through life without being scathed; but just as the authors of this time chose to do, we can choose to create works that can liberate the minds of African Americans so that we can continue to delude the forces that continue to manifest themselves each time there is an attempt for progress. We cannot stand on the bravery of the leaders of that past if we are unwilling to become leaders ourselves.
Pauline Hopkins’ novel “Of One Blood” was originally published serially in a magazine called Colored American, from 1902-03. Within this novel Hopkins discusses some of the prominent racial and gender oppressions suffered by African Americans during this time. Following the Emancipation Proclamation of 1849 which resulted in African American freedom from slavery, but unfortunately not freedom from oppression and suffering. One of the minor characters, and the only dominant female role, within the novel is Dianthe Lusk. Within the novel Dianthe has many identifiers, which limits not only the readers but Dianthe’s understanding of her identity. Some of these identifiers include: women or ghost, black or white, sister or wife, princess or slave, and African or American. However, the most prominent of these juxtapositions in the novel is the racial identity. This paper will argue that the suffrage of Dianthe through her experiences with racial identity and rape serve to locate racial identity as an agent of politics, rather than of one’s color.
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. 163-67. Print.
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
When it all comes down to it, one of the greatest intellectual battles U.S. history was the legendary disagreement between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. This intellectual debate sparked the interest of the Northerners as well as the racist whites that occupied the south. This debate was simply about how the blacks, who just gained freedom from slavery, should exist in America with the white majority. Even though Washington and DuBois stood on opposite sides of the fence they both agreed on one thing, that it was a time for a change in the treatment of African Americans. I chose his topic to write about because I strongly agree with both of the men’s ideas but there is some things about their views that I don’t agree with. Their ideas and views are the things that will be addressed in this essay.
When Ellisons’ father died in the year 1917, Ida had supported Ralph and his younger brother working as a domestic aide at the Avery Chapel Afro-Methodist Episcopal Church. The family moved into the rectory and Ellison was exposed to the minister’s library. When he grew up, Ellison grew engrossed with the topic of literature which became a medium for him to grow and love his studies. Moreover, the enthusiasm he showed for reading was encouraged by his mother who had brought home plenty of books including magazines from houses which she had cleaned. There came a time when a black Episcopal priest in Oklahoma city challenged the white custom of barring blacks from the public library. As a result, this custom was overturned. As such, it became another outlet for Ellison to further his passion for reading. Although his family was sometimes short of money, Ellison and his brother were able to study well and had a healthy childhood lives.
Hopkins, Pauline E. Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South. New
Walker and Marshall write about an identity that they have found with African-American women of the past. They both refer to great writers such as Zora Neale Hurston or Phillis Wheatley. But more importantly, they connect themselves to their ancestors. The see that their writings can be identified with what the unknown African-American women of the past longed to say but they did not have the freedom to do so. They both admire many literary greats such as Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, and Jane Austen, but they appreciate these authors' works more than they can identify with them.
A wise man once said your future isn’t somewhere you’re going it’s a place that you’re creating. Well I think it’s safe to say that my people (African Americans) have created a stable present from harsh realities of slavery, oppression, and racial tension that we have seen in the past also in the present. In this paper I will touch on what the Black Experience is to me and how it correlates with Devil in a Blue Dress, in addition to where we have come from and where I see us going into the future.
James, Johson Weldon. Comp. Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 832. Print.
A recurring theme throughout Gaines' fiction is the search for dignity and masculine identity in a hostile, racist environment. Although he consistently celebrates the pride and dignity of African Americans, he has often been critiqued by black writers who feel that his works do not adequately portray the harsh realities of black life. In Ernest J Gaines autobiography “ Miss Jane Pitman” slavery, the civil rights movement, and discrimination are themes portrayed. Gaines listened to adults tell stories and wrote letters for those who could not write. Gaines’s aunt was his inspiration for the character of Miss Jane. Gaine looks at the people, not the issue. In this novel we are exposed to the life of Africans through out the civil war. Gaines is a well-regarded man and is much in demand as a public speaker and correspondent on American life.
Baldwin and his ancestors share this common rage because of the reflections their culture has had on the rest of society, a society consisting of white men who have thrived on using false impressions as a weapon throughout American history. Baldwin gives credit to the fact that no one can be held responsible for what history has unfolded, but he remains restless for an explanation about the perception of his ancestors as people. In Baldwin?s essay, his rage becomes more directed as the ?power of the white man? becomes relevant to the misfortune of the American Negro (Baldwin 131). This misfortune creates a fire of rage within Baldwin and the American Negro. As Baldwin?s American Negro continues to build the fire, the white man builds an invisible wall around himself to avoid confrontation about the actions of his ?forefathers? (Baldwin 131). Baldwin?s anger burns through his other emotions as he writes about the enslavement of his ancestors and gives the reader a shameful illusion of a Negro slave having to explai...
Today, blacks are respected very differently in society than they used to be. In “The Help”, we see a shift in focus between what life is like now for the average African American compared to what it was like for them to live in the 1960’s.“The Help” teaches readers the importance of understanding and learning from our history. The novel is a snapshot of the cultural, racial and economic distinctions between blacks and whites in a particularly tumultuous time in American history. “The Help” encourages readers to examine personal prejudices and to strive to foster global equality.
In 1942, Margaret Walker won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for her poem For My People. This accomplishment heralded the beginning of Margaret Walker’s literary career which spanned from the brink of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s to the cusp of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s (Gates and McKay 1619). Through her fiction and poetry, Walker became a prominent voice in the African-American community. Her writing, especially her signature novel, Jubilee, exposes her readers to the plight of her race by accounting the struggles of African Americans from the pre-Civil War period to the present and ultimately keeps this awareness relevant to contemporary American society.