Gianfranco Da Prat, Luis Gallego
Mrs. Grant
English III Honors
29 November 2015
Michael S. Harper
Michael Harper was born on March 18th, 1938 in Brooklyn, New York. Michael’s family consisted of his father, Walter Harper, his mom, Katherine Johnson and his younger siblings, Jonathan and Katherine. The Harper family weren’t wealthy but lived in white neighborhood in West Los Angeles with a middle-class income. This area was known for the black residents who lived there, had their houses bombed in the early 1950’s. This middle-class income allowed him to attain a good record collection, which got him interested in music and then later developed into poetry. Michael S Harper was enrolled in Susan Miller Dorsey where he was assigned …show more content…
In 1951, he was suffering from extreme asthma and spent the summer restricted in his house. In the fall he refused to undress for gym class therefore failing the class and not making the honor roll. His family would encourage him to pursue a life in medicine but to get away from his family pressures he would turn his attention to the streets and neighborhoods around him. He graduated from high school in 1955 even though he wasn’t a disciplined student but being a good test-taker. Working full time as a postal worker, he pursued a premedical course at Los Angeles College which is now known as California State University. Michael’s medicine studies were discouraged by a zoology professor because he felt that black people could not be successful in medical school. The racism Michael experienced first-hand was a key factor in understanding that the American society is schizophrenic, meaning he realized the color of a person was more important than one’s character. Michael was the only student in his poetry and workshop classes, which made him undergo a lot of prejudice and misunderstanding. These factors motivated Michael into becoming the …show more content…
Recollecting the memories of his grandfather, Michael celebrates the hardships his grandfather had to go through but lived honorably despite the fact of many obstacles in his lifetime. Michael describes the origin of “Grandfather”, from a showing of the D. W. Griffith film The Birth of a Nation in a college film course. He states his anger at his professor for attempting to highlight the technical achievement of the film while ignoring its racist inaccurate presentation of the events following the civil war. His father who was actually born the in 1915, the year of the film’s release and was determined to tell the story of his father and grandfather as well as a testimony to the reality of black life after the civil war. The first stanza describes how the grandfather’s neighbors were circling his house, planning to “burn his family out”. He explains that this act is set in contrast with the humanity in man itself. A quick shift from the past of the poem’s setting enables Harper to see his grandfather, now in old age, continuing to be strong, winning a footrace against the man who will compose the poem. The conclusion of the poem continues in a mood of reminiscing as Michael Harper narrows the focus of the tedious but necessary acts of existence that define the reality of a man’s life. His language becomes more lyrically reminiscent, as he is emotionally moved by the images of his grandfather. As many
Mrs. Grant
English III Honors
29 November 2015
Michael S. Harper
Michael Harper was born on March 18th, 1938 in Brooklyn, New York. Michael’s family consisted of his father, Walter Harper, his mom, Katherine Johnson and his younger siblings, Jonathan and Katherine. The Harper family weren’t wealthy but lived in white neighborhood in West Los Angeles with a middle-class income. This area was known for the black residents who lived there, had their houses bombed in the early 1950’s. This middle-class income allowed him to attain a good record collection, which got him interested in music and then later developed into poetry. Michael S Harper was enrolled in Susan Miller Dorsey where he was assigned …show more content…
In 1951, he was suffering from extreme asthma and spent the summer restricted in his house. In the fall he refused to undress for gym class therefore failing the class and not making the honor roll. His family would encourage him to pursue a life in medicine but to get away from his family pressures he would turn his attention to the streets and neighborhoods around him. He graduated from high school in 1955 even though he wasn’t a disciplined student but being a good test-taker. Working full time as a postal worker, he pursued a premedical course at Los Angeles College which is now known as California State University. Michael’s medicine studies were discouraged by a zoology professor because he felt that black people could not be successful in medical school. The racism Michael experienced first-hand was a key factor in understanding that the American society is schizophrenic, meaning he realized the color of a person was more important than one’s character. Michael was the only student in his poetry and workshop classes, which made him undergo a lot of prejudice and misunderstanding. These factors motivated Michael into becoming the …show more content…
Recollecting the memories of his grandfather, Michael celebrates the hardships his grandfather had to go through but lived honorably despite the fact of many obstacles in his lifetime. Michael describes the origin of “Grandfather”, from a showing of the D. W. Griffith film The Birth of a Nation in a college film course. He states his anger at his professor for attempting to highlight the technical achievement of the film while ignoring its racist inaccurate presentation of the events following the civil war. His father who was actually born the in 1915, the year of the film’s release and was determined to tell the story of his father and grandfather as well as a testimony to the reality of black life after the civil war. The first stanza describes how the grandfather’s neighbors were circling his house, planning to “burn his family out”. He explains that this act is set in contrast with the humanity in man itself. A quick shift from the past of the poem’s setting enables Harper to see his grandfather, now in old age, continuing to be strong, winning a footrace against the man who will compose the poem. The conclusion of the poem continues in a mood of reminiscing as Michael Harper narrows the focus of the tedious but necessary acts of existence that define the reality of a man’s life. His language becomes more lyrically reminiscent, as he is emotionally moved by the images of his grandfather. As many