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Research in african american literature
Essay on african american literature
Research in african american literature
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Countee Cullen was an African-American poet during the 1900s, this was a time when racism very common. He became famous in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Harlem Renaissance was a movement that featured black writers and artists. Countee Cullen is known for his famous poems “Tableau” and “Incident”.The poems “Tableau” and “Incident” portray the racial interactions between a black child and white child in different situations (good and bad). The theme that the poet is conveying to the audience in the poem “Tableau” is, friendship is more important than stereotypes, in the poem “Incident” the theme the poet conveys is, words are powerful. In both these poems, Cullen uses figurative language and tone to create the themes of both poems. The theme of the poem “Tableau” is, friendship is more important than stereotypes. In the …show more content…
poem, the author, Countee Cullen, is explaining that being friends with someone is way more important than stereotypes, who are people that have ideas or beliefs about a thing or a group that is based upon how they look on the outside, which may be untrue or only partly true.
The theme of the second poem “Incident” is, words are powerful, this theme portrays that words are powerful and can hurt people if used in a bad manner. The themes of both poems compare to each other because they both are depicted on racism. Evidence that supports this comparison is in both poems, in the poem “Tableau” on stanza two it says, “From lowered blinds the dark folk stare / And here the fair folk talk, / Indignant that these two should dare / In unison walk”. In the poem “Incident” on This stanza two it says, “And so I smiled, but he poked out / His tongue, and
called me, ‘Nigger.’”of the poem shows the stereotypes, which are the dark folks who stare at the white boy and black boy as they walked together locked arm by arm. These stereotypes in this poem are the people who are against the belief of black people having equal rights as white people instead they believe black people are inferior to white people, this is what is called as racism. In the poem "Incident” stanza two talks about a white boy calling black boy a very bad word just because he is black so this is also depicted on racism. The two themes also contrast because the theme of “Tableau” is depicted in a good way while the theme of “Incident” is depicted in a bad way. From the same text evidence, the themes can be contrasted, in the poem I
Countee Cullen is recognized as perhaps one of the most influential African American figures during the Harlem Renaissance, and is known for adopting a style of writing known as Negritude. Cullen believed that poetry and writing should not be subject by race, so his work was emphasized on the idea of equality for African Americans.
Countee Cullen used quite an amount of poetic styles and words such as: “What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black. Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang?” (Doc.A). In these lines, the poet characterized the geographical features of Africa and the mood as well as the people there. Countee used the language of a white man but used it to show African-American
Countee LeRoy Cullen was one of the leading poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Although there is no real account of his early life, his accomplishments throughout his time was magnificent. During the Harlem Renaissance, he and other writers and poets used their work to empower blacks and talk about the ongoing struggle of blacks. His poem, “Incident”, depicts how overt racism was and how it attacked anyone regardless age or gender.
Both authors use figurative language to help develop sensory details. In the poem It states, “And I sunned it with my smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles.” As the author explains how the character is feeling, the reader can create a specific image in there head based on the details that is given throughout the poem. Specifically this piece of evidence shows the narrator growing more angry and having more rage. In the short story ” it states, “We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among bones.” From this piece of text evidence the reader can sense the cold dark emotion that is trying to be formed. Also this excerpt shows the conflict that is about to become and the revenge that is about to take place. By the story and the poem using sensory details, they both share many comparisons.
Cullen, Countee. "Incident." African-American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology. Ed. Al Young. New York: Harper Collins, 1996. 398.
Countee Cullen was possibly born on May 30, although because of different accounts of the actual date in his early life, a general application of the year of his birth as 1903 is reasonable. He was either born in New York, Baltimore, or Lexington, Kentucky. Although his late wife was convinced that he was born in Lexington. Cullen was possibly abandoned by his mother, and raised by a woman named Mrs. Porter. Mrs. Porter was thought to be his paternal grandmother.
The way the points of views in each different poem creates a different theme for each poems using different points diction to convey meaning for each of the two poems. In the poem “Birthday” a humorous tone shows a newborn baby in a first person point of view. As opposed to the poem “The Secret Life of Books” which uses a third person point of view for a more serious tone. The two poems would change dramatically whiteout the different points of views because without the humor of the newborn baby being the narrator the poem might take a different spin on the meaning to create a more serious tone. As opposed to “The Secret Life of Books” where the poem is a big personification which if it was not in a third person point of view it might have a a humorous tome in the background. The two poems have many things that help contrast them with each other another one of these being the theme chosen to give each poem a separate identity, while “Birthday” has some background information in some of the diction it uses to World War II “The Secret Life of Books” has no need for the knowledge of background information just the curiosity of the brain
Richard Wright describes in his autobiography 'The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch' the atmosphere at his first job, where his fellow workers would not teach him anything, just because he was black: "This is a white man's work around here, and you better watch yourself" (291). From that moment on, he never really felt at ease going to work. This kind of feeling of unease is also found in Countee Cullen's 'Incident.' It shows clearly how children are not really aware of the differences adults believe to exist between different races until being told that there is a difference. The poem seems to be a product of personal experiences as a child, when another child pokes out his tongue and calls the speaker of the poem "nigger" during a stay in Baltimore, and it pictures the human tendency to look no further than the colour of the skin. This is probably an event that stayed in the child's mind all his life, hence the final lines of the poem: "I saw the whole of Baltimore / From May until December; / Of all the things that happened there / That's all that I remember" (384).
Countee Cullen’s poem ‘Tableau’, which was published in 1920 when racism was at its peak, it describes how whites and blacks were expected not to converse with each other. Cullen’s poem, though, challenges this as it details a close friendship between two young boys: one black and one white. The community in which they live, however, disapproves, as demonstrated when Cullen writes that “From lowered blinds the dark folk stare” while “fair folk talk,/ Indignant that these two should dare/ In unison to walk” (Cullen 5-8). This shows the universal disapproval from both black and whites, and the fact that the two boys continue their friendship demonstrates that they know that friendship has no colour. The message that Cullen is trying to convey is that friendship has no boundaries, and colour. By having the boys continue to walk together despite the criticisms reinforces and conveys Cullens message clearly. Cullens use of rhyme scheme, imagery, and metaphor facilitates his message.
Countee Cullen's poetry illustrates a man who is torn between being born in the African American world, his career as a raceless poetic and dealing with his sexuality during the Harlem Renaissance period. Five of the seven volumes of poetry that bears Cullen's name have, in their titles, a basis for racial themes that comes out in the poetry itself.
During this era African Americans were facing the challenges of accepting their heritage or ignoring outright to claim a different lifestyle for their day to day lives. Hughes and Cullen wrote poems that seemed to describe themselves, or African Americans, who had accepted their African Heritage and who also wanted to be a part of American heritage as well. These are some of the things they have in common, as well as what is different about them based on appearance, now I shall focus on each author individually and talk about how they are different afterwards.
These poems are not as complex when compared to other poems, and with that being said they do not take an abundance of inference to determine the theme of the poem. Because they are not as complex as others all 3 of these poems are capable of being paraphrased to better understand the main idea of the poem. When putting the poem into different words, one can
... overall themes, and the use of flashbacks. Both of the boys in these two poems reminisce on a past experience that they remember with their fathers. With both poems possessing strong sentimental tones, readers are shown how much of an impact a father can have on a child’s life. Clearly the two main characters experience very different past relationships with their fathers, but in the end they both come to realize the importance of having a father figure in their lives and how their experiences have impacted their futures.
Langston Hughes was probably the most well-known literary force during the Harlem Renaissance. He was one of the first known black artists to stress a need for his contemporaries to embrace the black jazz culture of the 1920s, as well as the cultural roots in Africa and not-so-distant memory of enslavement in the United States. In formal aspects, Hughes was innovative in that other writers of the Harlem Renaissance stuck with existing literary conventions, while Hughes wrote several poems and stories inspired by the improvised, oral traditions of black culture (Baym, 2221). Proud of his cultural identity, but saddened and angry about racial injustice, the content of much of Hughes’ work is filled with conflict between simply doing as one is told as a black member of society and standing up for injustice and being proud of one’s identity. This relates to a common theme in many of Hughes’ poems: that dignity is something that has to be fought for by those who are held back by segregation, poverty, and racial bigotry.
In Red Anger Smith does not use a rhyming scheme; he uses a free verse style of poem where no line rhymes at all, in Incident Cullen uses a rhyming scheme he uses the simple four-line writing scheme where only the second and fourth line rhyme while the first and third do not rhyme with each other. Both poems use the use of the first person narrative point of view, in Red Anger Smith wants the reader to experience what it is like to be an aboriginal from each of the three tribes Tuscarora, Choctaw, and Cherokee he wants the reader to be in the shoes of each character from the three tribes the use of the point of view is powerful in Red Anger it is powerful because, of the way each member is going through sadness, and anger you can feel how the character feels with the uses of strong imagery. Although Incident is short it starts out like a nursery rhyme with a happy tone then once it gets to the second stanza the man “poked out His tongue and called me, ‘Nigger” (Cullen) just that line makes the poem so powerful, the man calls the young Cullen a racial slur, and that is stuck in his head for a long time, this poem is straight forward, and there is nothing to be hidden throughout the poem that’s what makes it straight forward it is simple to read and leaves the reader stunned with the use of racism that turned a happy nursery rhyme into a more shocking climax of the