Sympathy By Marian Anderson Essay

We all were affected by the tragedy that was the Civil Rights Movement, although not many of us were directly a victim of such discrimination- Marian Anderson was. Throughout the two pieces of literature, Sympathy and The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights, we view into two different people’s story during this time. Yet, they both combined, teach us what America did during this time, and how it can affect our future as a nation.
In “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the extended metaphor of the bird forced in a cage expresses how people of color felt in the civil rights movement. In The Voice That Challenged a Nation, by Russell Freedman, he uses Marian Anderson’s experiences to portray how people of color were treated rather than how they felt. These two contrasting purposes really show the main difference between the two. With that said, they do still have many similarities, but nowhere near as many contradictions. With this major difference, being the tone portrays the feels attached to discrimination and the other expressing what happened to these victims, these two art forms have become so popular in the world of black literature. …show more content…
Black discrimination. One directly states the issue at hand- “ she experienced the strict "Jim Crow" laws that enforced racial segregation throughout the South.”. The other, “Sympathy”, doesn't. Dunbar was one of the few “famous” poets during the 1890s. The Voice That Challenged a Nation and “Sympathy” both (in their own way) discrimination of people with the label “black/negro”. They just do so on their own, special way. In The Voice That Challenged a Nation, Russell’s quote “...she [Marian Anderson] was one of the school's few black students…” emphasizes the topic/theme of the story by explaining that Marian was one of the only black students in her school, which in turn sets up the tone for the rest of the