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Negative Effects of the Harlem Renaissance
The harlem renaissance: the rebirth of black arts and culture in the north
Brief summary of harlem renaissance
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-Great grabber -Thesis makes a clear, analytical point about the poem New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings…” – Lao Tzu Whenever a scene of a movie approaches where a debacle unravels or innocent lives are jeopardized, audiences grip their chairs in anticipation for help to come or for a hero to spring into action and save lives. Similarly, in many circumstances, no matter how dire an event might seem, there is always a beacon of hope amongst doleful situations. From every ending comes a new beginning. The poem, “November Cotton Flower”, written by Jean Toomer, describes the conditions in which slaves were under during the Harlem Renaissance where there seemed to be no prospect for a brighter future for the slaves in the society. …show more content…
Throughout the poem, Toomer develops his theme of hope and desire for a brighter future by exhausting literary devices such as metaphors, structure, and imagery. “The November Cotton Flower” is a poem that not only depicts a late autumn setting where the cotton season comes to an end, but also captures the agony and essence of slavery with the usage of metaphors and similes. In the poem, a product of Harlem renaissance, Jean Toomer illustrates the everyday-life struggles of the African Americans by conveying his point of view through depleting metaphors of the growing season. Taking place in a dismal landscape, the sonnet portrays the cotton of being wilted due to horrible weather conditions. The cotton, the town’s main cash crop, is “as scarce as any southern snow” and does not bloom often; the changing season only adds to the effect, making it harder for the cottons to grow. All the wonderful aspects of the summer days are met with their expiration date with the start of the winter and these images of scarcity and death in the natural world parallels to the declining hope of the people in the town. The “drought fighting soil had caused the soil to take all water from the streams”, causing tremendous difficulties for the town people. As the climate gets colder and the cottons diminish, people’s ambitions for greater fortune sank as well.
However, as the weather became warmer and the “beauty [appeared] so suddenly for that time of year,” town people began to regain hopes for better days to come. After months of innumerable deaths, people finally saw a new beauty they had long since forgotten. In this poem, the growing season serves as a metaphor in which people’s ambition and moods changed as the weather did. Moreover, throughout the poem, Toomer teaches the readers of an important lesson of losses and of new beginnings that are often disguised as painful memories. For example, the poet describes of discrimination of the African American and their attempt to cope with the truths of the harsh reality through the metaphors of cotton and fear. During this time period blacks lived under the draconian rules of the white patriarchal society where slavery was as brutal as anybody could imagine. However, “superstition saw something it had never seen before,” where African American began to see hope of better future as the Harlem Renaissance came into the light. The African Americans who were looked upon with eyes full of dreads were now “loved …show more content…
without a trace of fear”. Not only does this depicts the strength of African Americans and their desire to improve their status in the society where white supremacies had installed in them fallacies of their own race, but it also shows the breakage of the chains of slavery and the stereotypical “cotton picking American Americans”. Throughout this poem, Toomer assays the new freedoms that blacks have gained. For example, the “cotton-stalks [that] look rusty” serves as the old ways of how blacks were treated and “vanishing [of these] cotton,” indicates the fading of the severe treatments that African Americans experienced. Even through the harsh changes of the new season and the cruel treatments faced by the blacks, people still had better days ahead of them. Every painful ending is just the beginning and even when one thinks that he or she had hit rock bottom, there is always hope that seems to keep them going. In addition to the usage of metaphors to advance/ intensify his theme, Jean Toomer also drills in imageries of the south into the readers’ minds in order to help them have a better grasp of the beliefs, thoughts, and the feelings of the characters within the poem.
For instance, to illustrate an enhanced understanding of the conditions of the south, Toomer gives a brief summary of the setting of the time period taken place. This poem describes of the Southern land with its changes throughout the fall. As stated in the poem, “boll-weevil’s coming” to eat the cotton “ and the winter’s cold”. This symbolizes the forthcoming of the dark ages in which town people are about to experience. The time when the sky turn dark early, the ground turn white, and when nature goes in a deep slumber. This image of growing darkness and the features of the dead land sets of a depressing mood of the lost season as well as the oppression that African American felt in the South before Harlem Renaissance. Furthermore, Toomer not only uses imagery to augment the knowledge of the circumstances in which the poem in taken place, but also uses it to describe a newly forming anticipation and optimism within the town. After a period of destruction, people encountered “the season when the flowers bloomed”. In this stanza, the blooming flowers represent tiny little sparks forming in people’s hearts, and with this, readers are able to hint that the time of growth, renewal, and of new life is near. Also,
flowers, which have long served as symbols of hope, particularly those that spring out of lifelessness and superstition, holding its breath, would not be remiss in personifying it. Similarly, the Harlem Renaissance, the fruit of so much lost life and struggle, is that bloom which gave African Americans hope for a better future. With the usage of these imageries and moods, Jean Toomer is able show that even in the moments when one is ready to give up, hope is never lost. "November Cotton Flower" is fourteen lines of rhyming verse describing the unlikely bloom of a cotton flower in November. Its’ structure of the poem and the writing style of the poet broadens the message of prospect and hope. Consisting of three quatrains followed by a couplet that reverses the theme, this poem is a Shakespearian Sonnet that contains various rhyme schemes. The tone of this poem is autumnal, which throughout the first few lines, describes a late fall or early winter backdrop of extreme drought and scarcity. No warmth is visible within these lines and the despondent tone of scene can be exemplified through terms such as “ rusty”, “cold”, “vanishing”, and “dead”. Through these words, the poet is able to set a clear visual of the struggles brought upon the people for the readers; indicating how all optimism for a bright future was disappearing. ¬¬Even the birds that are ubiquitously known to symbolize hope cannot survive this catastrophe. However, as the sonnet proceeds, with the help of the two couplets, the poem’s mood and the tone is reserved from being miserable and disheartened to positive and ecstatic. “Superstition saw something it had never seen before” and the life that was being sucked away from the land had suddenly turned into a land where “beauty” was found. Not only that, Toomer’s poem is part of a series of lyrical narratives that blurred the boundaries between poetry, fiction and drama, which was uncommon during his time period. His unique mix of traditional black folk culture’s ethos was what separated him from the others. Had Toomer followed the mainstreams of the artists and had he not used the Sonnet to write his poem, his message would not have been clearly delivered to the readers. The readers are only able to discern the theme of hope within the poem due to that last few lines where he describes of the optimism that had suddenly appeared. Without it, the poem would have had a completely new theme where instead of prospect being the central message, depression would have been one.
In all, Tademy does a great job in transporting her readers back to the 1800s in rural Louisiana. This book is a profound alternative to just another slave narrative. Instead of history it offers ‘herstory’. This story offers insight to the issues of slavery through a women’s perspective, something that not so many books offer. Not only does it give readers just one account or perspective of slavery but it gives readers a take on slavery through generation after generation. From the early days of slavery through the Civil War, a narrative of familial strength, pride, and culture are captured in these lines.
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement during the 1920s and 1930s, in which African-American art, music and literature flourished. It was significant in many ways, one, because of its success in destroying racist stereotypes and two, to help African-Americans convey their hard lives and the prejudice they experienced. In this era, two distinguished poets are Langston Hughes, who wrote the poem “A Dream Deferred” and Georgia Douglas Johnson who wrote “My Little Dreams”. These two poems address the delayment of justice, but explore it differently, through their dissimilar uses of imagery, tone and diction.
In this story it clearly shows us what the courts really mean by freedom, equality, liberty, property and equal protection of the laws. The story traces the legal challenges that affected African Americans freedom. To justify slavery as the “the way things were” still begs to define what lied beneath slave owner’s abilities to look past the wounded eyes and beating hearts of the African Americans that were so brutally possessed.
After reading Frederick Douglass’s narrative of slavery, I couldn’t help but stop and try to gather my thoughts in any way possible. It was not the first time I had read the narrative, but this time around Douglass’s words hit me much harder. Perhaps, it was that I read the narrative in a more critical lens, or possibly it was just that I am older and more mature now from the last time I read it, but whatever the reason, I can confidently say reading the narrative has changed my heart and opened my eyes in many ways. I have always been aware of the injustices that slavery encompassed and of course like many other people, I have been taught about slavery in a historical narrative my entire life. But, Frederick Douglass’s narrative does more than just provide a historical perspective in seeing the injustices in slavery. His narrative asks the reader to look directly into the eyes of actual slaves and realize their very heart beat and existence as humans. Douglass humanizes the people of whom the terrible acts we acted upon that we learn about as early as elementary school. It is because of this that I decided to write this poem. Reading the narrative made me really think about Douglass’s journey and the story he tells on his road to freedom. I felt as if he was really speaking to me and, and in turn I wanted to give Douglass a voice in my own writing.
The civil rights movement may have technically ended in the nineteen sixties, but America is still feeling the adverse effects of this dark time in history today. African Americans were the group of people most affected by the Civil Rights Act and continue to be today. Great pain and suffering, though, usually amounts to great literature. This period in American history was no exception. Langston Hughes was a prolific writer before, during, and after the Civil Rights Act and produced many classic poems for African American literature. Hughes uses theme, point of view, and historical context in his poems “I, Too” and “Theme for English B” to expand the views on African American culture to his audience members.
For each seasonal section, there is a progression from beginning to end within the season. Each season is compiled in a progressive nature with poetry describing the beginning of a season coming before poetry for the end of the season. This is clear for spring, which starts with, “fallen snow [that] lingers on” and concludes with a poet lamenting that “spring should take its leave” (McCullough 14, 39). The imagery progresses from the end of winter, with snow still lingering around to when the signs of spring are disappearing. Although each poem alone does not show much in terms of the time of the year, when put into the context of other poems a timeline emerges from one season to the next. Each poem is linked to another poem when it comes to the entire anthology. By having each poem put into the context of another, a sense of organization emerges within each section. Every poem contributes to the meaning of a group of poems. The images used are meant to evoke a specific point in each season from the snow to the blossoms to the falling of the blossoms. Since each poem stands alone and has no true plot they lack the significance than if they were put into th...
The story clearly illustrates that when one thinks of their ideal lifestyle they mainly rely on their personal experience which often results in deception. The theme is conveyed by literary devices such as setting, symbolism and iconic foreshadowing. The abolition of slavery was one step forward but there are still several more steps to be made. Steps that protect everyone from human trafficking and exploitation. Most importantly, racism is something that needs to stop, as well as providing equal opportunity to all without discrimination.
Welty tells the story with “some dreams and harassments and a small triumph or two, some jolts to [Phoenix’s] pride, some flights of fancy to console her, one or two encounters to scare her, a moment that gave her cause to be ashamed, a moment to dance and preen…” (quoted in Moberly, 109). The early harassments evoke symbols of slavery such as coming through the “dark pine shadows” in slave garb, “dark striped dress…an equally long apron of bleached sugar sacks…all neat and tidy” (Roberts, 95). The “chains about my feet” and the uphill climb is descriptive of literally being a slave in chains. Being caught in the “pretty green bush” (Rogers, 96) that turns out to be a thorn bush is a figurative hard worn path to equal rights, with unseen snags and pitfalls. “Purple stalks” (Rogers, 96) and the buzzard and through the “old cotton” (Rogers, 96) represents the mourning of the African American people,...
In conclusion, this poem shows the progression of desegregation throughout the south. When the poem is placed in context to the time in which it was written, it is easy to identify the injustices of African Americans. The most notable observation is when the beach is marked “colored” (Trethewey). Analyzing this poem via historical criticism allows the reader to fully understand the injustice and also experience the growth of society towards desegregation.
Overall, this poem is used to compare an African American to a cypress tree in a positive manner, which is evergreen and always pointing upwards. The time frame in which Angelina Weld Grimke wrote this in was a difficult time to live in. Only recently had African Americans received their rights, and even then, other races, more prominently, caucasians were hateful towards them. Although not lengthy, this poem manages to successfully capture the enduring strength that African Americans held during this difficult time period by simply comparing them to a strong cypress
“We pluck and marvel for sheer joy. And the ones still green, sighing, leave upon the boughs…” (14-16). This emphasis on nature reflects the respect and connection to the natural world the culture was trying to convey in their poetry. The colorful and illustrative descriptions of the physical world are indicative of the mindset and focus of these poems. Namely the fact that they were concerned with the world around us and the reality we experience as opposed to that of abstract concept of god or the supernatural as seen in other historical texts. This focus on nature is important because it sets the context in which the major theme of loss and separation originate from. In this poem the poet chooses to emphasize the passing of time in the choice of comparing the two seasons. Spring, in which life begins a new, and fall, in which the leaves begin to fall off and die. The poem reads “And the ones still green, sighing, leave upon the boughs- Those are the ones I hate to lose. For me, it is the autumn hills” (15-18). This juxtaposition of these two
Hughes’s poem, “Let America be America Again” conveys a forward-looking, emboldened tone. The speaker acknowledges the suffering of all of the different people, from the “poor white” (Hughes 19) to the “red man” (Hughes 20) to the “Negro” (Hughes 32). The speaker attempts to name all who have suffered in America, but continues to dream that
In conclusion, by viewing the motifs of pain, struggle, and the search for equality both in Moody’s novel and the songs by Johnny Cash and Nas, we see how the today and yesterday are intertwined. Although we may have come a long way from slavery to civil rights to modern day, these authors want to remind us that we still have a long way to go.
In the poem, The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Browning based the poem on past experience due to the fact her family had owned slaves in Jamaica for several generations. Once these slaves were set free in 1833; sixteen years later abolitionist repudiated the “ unjust- power of the white slave owners.” ( Stephenson, 43). With Browning rejection of her once slave owning father’s irrational authority to refuse his children to marry and leave home, this poem empowered the rage she had suppressed by years.
...ss, representing the truth of the times. The majority of the problems influence only the one dreamer, however, the ending suggests that, when despair is everywhere, it may "explode" and cause social and political uprising. “Harlem” brings to light the anxiety between the need for Negro expression and the opposition to that need because of society’s subjugation of its black populace. His lines confront the racist and unjust attitude common in American society before the civil rights movement of the 1960s. it expresses the belief that black wishes and dreams were irrelevant should be ignored. His closing rhetorical question—“Or does [a dream deferred] explode?”—is aggressive, a testimony that the inhibition of black dreams might result in a revolution. It places the blame for this possible revolution on the domineering society that forces the deferment of the dream.