Family Themes In African American Literature

Who in your life would you find the most valuable? In African American literature writing, a theme that is found throughout is the importance of family. In many of the stories, poems and films we were introduced to, a common theme shared was family, with them either being away from them or how important they are to them. The works that best showed how family was important to either the author or a character were: The Song of Solomon, 12 Years a Slave, The Narrative life of Frederick Douglass and poems written during the Harlem Renaissance. The theme importance of family is shown in many different ways for characters through African American writing, poetry and film. The normalcy of an average family was absent from Milkmans family, but even

One of those being Laurence Dunbar, he wrote the poem “When De Co’n Pone’s Hot” the lines “ When yo’ mammy says de blessin’ An’ de co’n pone’s hot” (Dunba Lines 11+12 ) This poem portrays how an important part of the day is when the whole family is around the dinner table and being together with your family. Many other poets used a similar theme during the same time period while writing. One of those being Frances Harper, her poem “Slave Mother” tells a story of a son being taken from the arms of his mother. Harper, uses the powerful message of the sad truth, mothers being stripped of their kids for them to become slaves. " They tear him from her circling arms, Her last and fond embrace. Oh! Never more may her sad eyes Gaze on his mournful face" (Harper Lines 37-40) This is a different approach to show the importance of family, when Harper uses the phrase " sad eyes" it indicates that she is losing something of value. It being her son, shows how much family means to

Frederick is a man who didn't know what it was like having a family, but when he was he taught to read by his slave masters wife he made her a mother figure. " She very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters." (Douglass 237) Unaware a mistress could be so kind, Frederick had very strong feelings about Mrs Auld and how she cared for him. That shows a way that having something close to a family is important to him. " My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant-before I knew her as my mother." (Douglass 233) Douglass shows how he didn't know anything about his mother or even that she was his mother. Leading how later in the story when his mother dies he isn't sad like one would