Rachel Van Stedum
Mrs. Dewey
Final Paper
“The Only Man On Liberty Street”
14 May 2015
“The Story”
“William Melvin Kelley's novels to date have dealt with inter-racial conflict, but the emphasis has been on the examination of characters, black and white, and the myths with which they delude themselves” (Borden pg1). The Only Man On Liberty Street is about a girl named Jennie who lives on Liberty Street with her mother named Josephine. All of the African American women with children lived on Liberty Street. The African American women who live on Liberty Street are the mistresses of the white men who have went to war, but have returned. But, they only come to visit their mistresses when they want to. A man named Mr. Herder who comes
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to visit Jennie, and her mother twice a week decides he wants to live with the two of them. Mr. Herder decides he wants to go against all of the other men who choose to only visit their mistresses. Mr. Herder realizes it would be better to live with his mistress then his own wife. After Mr. Herder moves in with Jennie and her mother, Jennie eventually learns from her mother due to Mr. Herder bringing his suit case is that Mr. Herder is in fact Jennie’s father. But not only does she learn about her father being of a different race. Jennie learns that the town will start to give weird looks at Jennie and her mother when they leave to go to the super market. Eight Year old Jennie tells the story as a narrator, this demonstrates her ignorance to the story of her parents. As the story begins, we see that Jennie, an eight year old girl, tells the story of her parents from her view. “He was one of the men who came riding down Liberty Street in their fine black suits and starched shirts and large dark ties. Each of these had a house to go to,into which, in the evening he would disappear”(Kelley pg 262). Jennie doesn't understand the fact that all these men are coming to Liberty Street to come sleep with the women who live on Liberty Street. Jennie believes these men are just visiting these women, when they are all mistresses of a man who is of white caucasian. “Kelley thereby focuses the reader’s attention, interpretation, and evaluation on this episode in life as it would affect a child, which is to say a person who is entirely innocent, precious, and vulnerable”(Kelley pg 3). By making a child the narrator shows her lack of knowledge to what is going on between her mother and this strange man she sees during the day. Jennie doesn’t seem to understand that the white men rule Liberty Street due to the fact that all the mistresses live on Liberty Street and these men bought houses for these women. It would be hard for a women with kids to buy a house on her own with only one job. She doesn’t know there are no men that live on Liberty Street. Jennie doesn’t realize that all the women that live on Liberty Street are mistresses of rich and powerful men that have wives. She can’t interpret that these white men thin they are better than everyone because of having two women in their life. Jennie doesn’t understand that the white caucasian dressed in fine black clothes, starched clothes, and large dark ties are men of power. By looking at their clothes there is an understanding of how men with money dress. In the story Jennie doesn’t go into a lot of detail with the white caucasian. Jennie can not tell the difference between a rich and powerful man and a poor man, these two men would look similar to her. Jennie wouldn’t be able to see the difference because she is a eight year old girl living on Liberty Street. Jennie is a sweet girl growing up on Liberty Street, but she doesn’t understand what happening around her.
“The man standing over her was the one who came to her house once or twice a week. He was never there in the morning when Jennie got up. He was tall, and thin, and blonde. He had a short beard that looked as coarse as the grass beneath her feet. His eyes were blue, like Jennie's. He did not speak English very well. Jennie's mother had told her he came from across the sea and Jennie often wandered if he went there between visits to their house”(Kelley pg 263). Towards the end of this quote Jennie thinks that he goes across the sea between the two days or one day a week that Mr. Ryder visits them. Jennie doesn't understand that it’s not because he is going across the sea, but it is to return home to his wife and his fancy rich living life. Jennie doesn’t realize that going across the sea could take days even weeks, or months to travel around the world. She does not put together the idea of her mother and Mr. Herder are sleeping together when she notices he doesn’t stay when she wakes up. Jennie doesn't even question the idea of why he may be visiting. “Though children might not understand what's going on, and might be unable to be involved in the scene”(Lambert pg 1). This writer also agrees that a child wont understand what is going on around the author which is true. Jennie doesn't understand that this man is her father until her mother tells her. But Jennie doesn’t understand the fact that they have similarities between them with their eyes which should hint a sign that they are some how related to each other. If someone has similar features as another person usually they are related in someway. Having very little knowledge from the narrator shows that she doesn’t understand what may be happening around her in her
surrounding. Jennie is a very innocent child and doesn’t understand the events happening around her and her family showing she isn’t a good narrator. “Daily now a white women had been driving by their house. Jennie did not know who she was or what she wanted but, playing in the yard, would see the white women’s gray buggy turn the corner and cone slowly down the block, pulled by a speckled horse that trudged in the dry dust. A negro driver sat erect in his black uniform, a whip in the fist. The white women peer at the house as if looking for an address or something special. She would look at the curtain windows, looking for someone, and sometimes even at Jennie. The look was not kind or tender but, hard and angry as if she knew something bad about the child”(Kelley pg 264) This quote shows that Jennie doesn’t know who this random women is riding pass their house everyday since her father had arrived and decided he wants to stay. After her father decides he wants to stay with them Jennie doesn't put together that this women only started driving by everyday is the fact that her father had moved in. Jennie does’t realize that her father is a married man. But he is married to the women that drives by everyday past Jennie’s house. Jennie doesn’t seem to realize that the women that drives by everyday has a lot of money. The way we know this fact is that she has masses amounts of money is because Mrs. Herder has a servant that drives her around and to the house where Mr. Herder now lives. She also doesn’t know that her mother is the mistress of Mr. Herder since before he went to war. Jennie isn’t to the understanding that this women doesn’t like the fact that Mr. Herder had left her to be with Jennie’s mother. The Mrs. Herder doesn’t like the fact that Mr. Herder has a daughter with his mistress and is now living with them instead of her. Mrs. Herder doesn’t like the fact that Jennie is of a mixed race between her husband and Jennie’ mother which is why the white women driving in the buggy was giving Jennie these mean faces. Jennie doesn’t seem to get the message across that this wife of Mr. Herder isn’t going to go away till he returns home to her. “She only smiled, then remembered the white women. A women come to visit Mama. She come in a buggy and gave her a letter too. She made Mama cry”( Kelley pg 265). Jennie isn't to the understanding that her mother was threatened by the white women in the grey buggy which is why her mother had cried. Jennie doesn't seem to think that this women in the grey buggy is mean to her mother after she mad her cry. Jennie doesn't have the capability to understand the difference between a good person or a bad person. Which is why Jennie has a lack of ignorance as the narrator towards the story. This quotes shows that Jennie doesn’t understand who this women is
The stories that the author told were very insightful to what life was like for an African American living in the south during this time period. First the author pointed out how differently blacks and whites lived. She stated “They owned the whole damn town. The majority of whites had it made in the shade. Living on easy street, they inhabited grand houses ranging from turn-of-the-century clapboards to historics”(pg 35). The blacks in the town didn’t live in these grand homes, they worked in them. Even in today’s time I can drive around, and look at the differences between the living conditions in the areas that are dominated by whites, and the areas that are dominated by blacks. Racial inequalities are still very prevalent In today’s society.
McGuire does this by redefining the roles played by influential female figures, such as Rosa Parks, taking a personal approach to documenting the victims of sexual violence and representing the importance of black women in the civil rights movement. McGuire draws emphasis towards the outspoken and bold female figures in the civil rights movement who so often have often been erased from the dominant narrative and represented as meeker or in more subordinate roles. She spares no detail as she presents and unfiltered narration of each victim of sexual and racial violence, McGuire does not forget a name or date as she brings each victim to light in such a personal and sometimes, harrowing, approach. At the Dark End of the Street centers and remembers black women and their role in the civil rights
In the case of Amanda America Dickson, “her personal identity was ultimately bounded by her sense of class solidarity with her father, that is, by her socialization as David Dickson’s daughter, her gender role as a lady, and her racial definition as a person to whom racial categories did not apply.”1 This may mean that her freedom was less proscribed by race because she was not a male seeking political advantage. Some people of mixed-race in the nineteenth century South managed to create a personal identity and
Deborah Gray White’s Ar’n’t I a Woman? details the grueling experiences of the African American female slaves on Southern plantations. White resented the fact that African American women were nearly invisible throughout historical text, because many historians failed to see them as important contributors to America’s social, economic, or political development (3). Despite limited historical sources, she was determined to establish the African American woman as an intricate part of American history, and thus, White first published her novel in 1985. However, the novel has since been revised to include newly revealed sources that have been worked into the novel. Ar’n’t I a Woman? presents African American females’ struggle with race and gender through the years of slavery and Reconstruction. The novel also depicts the courage behind the female slave resistance to the sexual, racial, and psychological subjugation they faced at the hands of slave masters and their wives. The study argues that “slave women were not submissive, subordinate, or prudish and that they were not expected to be (22).” Essentially, White declares the unique and complex nature of the prejudices endured by African American females, and contends that the oppression of their community were unlike those of the black male or white female communities.
In the story, “The Wife of His Youth,” Chestnutt describes the racial discrimination in America. The author utilizes the primary characters as a gateway to reveal hypocrisy in declaring social equity and identity. Mr. Ryder runs away from his black heritage to become a part in a white society, while his wife from slavery uses her past to assert her faithfulness to her husband. The writer uses Mr. Ryder to reveal hypocrisy in social equity. Sam Taylor was a light skinned slave before the civil war. While his wife was at home cooking, he was always at the field working. During the civil war, he managed to escaped and moved up to north. After being free in north he decided to change his name to Mr. Ryder and joined the group called Blue Veins. Blue
McGuire, Danielle L. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance- A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. New York, New York: Vintage Books. 2011.
Beale, Frances. "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female." An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. New York: New, 1995. 146. Print.
This paper examines the drastic differences in literary themes and styles of Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston, two African--American writers from the early 1900's. The portrayals of African-American women by each author are contrasted based on specific examples from their two most prominent novels, Native Son by Wright, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston. With the intent to explain this divergence, the autobiographies of both authors (Black Boy and Dust Tracks on a Road) are also analyzed. Particular examples from the lives of each author are cited to demonstrate the contrasting lifestyles and experiences that created these disparities, drawing parallels between the authors’ lives and creative endeavors. It becomes apparent that Wright's traumatic experiences involving females and Hurston's identity as a strong, independent and successful Black artist contributed significantly to the ways in which they chose to depict African-American women and what goals they adhered to in reaching and touching a specific audience with the messages contained in their writing.
It is interesting that the authors are both females, and choose to write on a topics concerning manhood. However, I am sure this research spiked their attention from observing their children, husband, and those around them. Both give significant amount of examples that black men were wrongly treated and negatively denoted in the south. Chapter 7, The Politics of Black Land Tenure 1877-1915, talks about the evolution of black agriculture in the southern states Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. The chapter also mentions the positive of this movement as well as the illegal hanging of black people. This shows how the south after the Civil War began their new acts of racism. This is one of the first books that focus on historic issues concerning black men’s masculinities in many aspects. Hine and Jenkins uses the Civil War through the 19th century time period to focus on black men’s lives in their occupations, families, sports, military, leadership, and their image in society. The authors use history journals and academic periodicals to provide pertinent information to their readers. All of there information is substantial and very creditable because of their careful construction of questioning
The main character is completely alienated from the world around him. He is a black man living in a white world, a man who was born in the South but is now living in the North, and his only form of companionship is his dying wife, Laura, whom he is desperate to save. He is unable to work since he has no birth certificate—no official identity. Without a job he is unable to make his mark in the world, and if his wife dies, not only would he lose his lover but also any evidence that he ever existed. As the story progresses he loses his own awareness of his identity—“somehow he had forgotten his own name.” The author emphasizes the main character’s mistreatment in life by white society during a vivid recollection of an event in his childhood when he was chased by a train filled with “white people laughing as he ran screaming,” a hallucination which was triggered by his exploration of the “old scars” on his body. This connection between alienation and oppression highlight Ellison’s central idea.
Regardless the assigned reading’s time period is in Mississippi during WWII (1941-1945) and the Postwar Era (after WWII), chapters 21 to 23 does not primarily reflect Black’s discrimination WWII job opportunities in the military and war industries during or Postwar Era deindustrialization of labor and housing condition. But, historically reflecting on the extension on two time periods: 1) segregation of Jim Crow’s laws (1877-1950s) and the Post-Reconstruction tactics ranging from abuse to murder and 2) Civil Right Movement (1954-1968). The first example is at the bus station where a drunken white man told the Black woman and her children to sit at the Black side in the bus referring Jim Crow laws and performing a minstrel show satirizing the
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
This book is giving details about what was hidden from the rest of the world, shielding us from the truth. At the Dark End of the Street describes the decades of degradation black women on the Montgomery city buses endured on their way to cook and clean for their white bosses. While sifting through court files and old trial transcripts, McGuire produced evidence that showed white on black rape was endemic in the segregated South. I felt like I had discovered a whole new civil rights movement with black women and their struggle for dignity, respect and bodily integrity at the center that is as poignant, painful and complicated as our own lives.
Jack, thinking he might have been that very baby, retrieves the bag he was found in as an infant in which Ms. Prism identifies by some distinguishing marks to have been her own. Jack realized the woman that had been teaching his niece was his mother. But then Lady Bracknell explained that she was not, but Lady Bracknell’s poor sister Mrs. Moncrieff was. The irony continues to explain how Jack and Algernon were biological brothers. They were pretending to be earlier to play out their game of Bunburyism.
The author was born in Washington D.C. on May 1, 1901. Later, he received a bachelor’s degree from Williams College where he studied traditional literature and explored music like Jazz and the Blues; then had gotten his masters at Harvard. The author is a professor of African American English at Harvard University. The author’s writing