American novelists

The cultural history of American Negro can broadly be demarcated into two periods, the period beginning with folk art before the Emancipation and the period beginning from 1890. The period between Emancipation and 1890 was the gestation period for the Negro novelists. During this period, important events took place in the Negro World of America as the rise of the middle class, different from the mass of freedom by virtue of its superior educational and economic attainment. This middle class…

college because ‘he had his own mind.’ He wanted to become ‘an adventurer or a traveler,’ so that he could be a great American novelist in the tradition of Jack London and Thomas Wolfe’’ (Charters x). In 1951, Jack Kerouac began…

life” (Langston Hughes). Langston Hughes is a famous African American author and poet, who lived from 1902 to 1967. He wrote in a modernist style during the time he was an author, which was from the 1920s to the 1960s. He is one of the many African American writers that helped advance the civil rights movement. Many things influenced his writing style. The Harlem Renaissance, the segregation of and discrimination against African Americans, and his personal experiences inspired him and influenced…

paternal great-grandfather was a white slave owner in Kentucky while his paternal great-grandmother was of African American decent. As a result, like most African Americans he was a victim of racial stereotype leading to his election as a class poet in high school since Negroes were known for their rhythm in poetry. More importantly, he became well known as a social activist, poet, novelist, columnist, and playwright, whose works focused on social prejudice against the blacks (Rampersad 1).…

George Washington High School is a public high school in Richmond District, San Francisco, California. Maya Angelou was also an educator and served as the Reynolds professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University. Maya was influenced by both her personal history and the literary…

Ernest Hemingway, an American novelist, short story writer and journalist, once said, "In order to write about life, you must first live it." The first black author to win the Pulitzer prize, Gwendolyn Brooks, is among the most distinguished African-American poets. Already in love with writing poetry, she first published her poem at the age of 13. Many of her life experiences influenced her work greatly. First of all, Gwendolyn Brooks uses important elements from her childhood and weaves them…

He was a poet, a social activist, a novelist, a columnist, and some might even say he was the backbone for African American literature during the first half of the 20th century. Langston Hughes was born in 1902 and grew up to be one of the primary contributors to the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s. His views on life changed dramatically throughout his lifetime and this can be seen in all of his famous poetry. “I, Too”, “Let America Be America Again”, and “Dream Deferred” are just three of…

moment in history that was the Harlem Renaissance, countless black artists, novelists and musicians helped contribute to the newly forming facets of African American existentialism and cultural autonomy in a nation that had denied their independence for centuries. In her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, novelist Zora Neale Hurston illuminates the unique experience of a black woman’s search for meaning in both the African American and feminist rights movements of the mid 20th century . Their…

irony of Herman Melville’s career is that his masterpiece, Moby-Dick, which is now considered one of the greatest American novels, was almost wholly ignored during the time of its author. Although he might have thought of himself as a complete failure, he came to be one of the greatest American writers. During the American Renaissance period, Melville came to be a great American novelist, short story writer, and poet. While traveling on the remote and stranded sea, Melville writes his firsthand…

In every American household there is the ultimate goal to achieve the “American Dream”. And every household holds a different version of the “American Dream”. But what is the proper version of the “American Dream”? How can we achieve it? Who has access to it? For the majority of people, myself included, one would argue that the “American Dream” is to utilize the system of capitalism, to achieve financial success, materialistic belongings, have a family and to be healthy and stable when retired.…