Nicholas Hughes

Furthermore, the novel introduces the theme of Religion in the middle of it’s chapters during a flashback memory of Joe Christmas’s. Joe Christmas was being sent to live with Mr. and Mrs. McEachern as a young boy. Mr. McEachern raises Christmas with his last name instead of his own and teaches him using his strict Calvinist beliefs. Mr. McEachern has no time for fun games and he believes in no individuality. (Themes, Motifs, & Symbols). He teaches the young Joe Christmas religion by putting the…

eighteenth century, William Blake in "The Little Black Boy" intended to romanticize an individual with fanciful ideas or beliefs concerning riches, power and beauty. After all, whether in youth or old age, an African is someone who seems to dream of changing the human condition in an unrealistic manner. The little slave child in Blake's verse is only half-alive in being ruled by hopes and fears of a curious nature (Ogude 1976, 85-96). And Dr. Johnson might have associated Rasselas the Prince of…

Born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, Sylvia Plath would later be recognized as one of the greatest poets and novelists of the post-war era. Plath was raised in an academically focused environment; her father was a biology professor and her mother was a shorthand teacher. Contrary to the writing style of the time, Plath wrote about genuine emotions experienced by women. Additionally, she wrote about personal life events and the people that surrounded her. The poem, Point Shirley,…

In the poem Human Family, by Maya Angelou and the speech given by Barack Obama, similar ideas are expressed are presented in both writings,despite their different writing styles. Both writers express the idea of equality and how people are different in small ways, but ultimately the same. Maya Angelou uses less of a serious approach than Senator Barack Obama, although, both articles get the same or similar ideas acrossed clearly to their reader or listener. In the poem Human Family, by Maya…

When Hughes wrote, he would take a very complex topic, such as race relations, and make a simple piece of work. His poems have a very simple meaning when read literally. However, when his works are read beyond the words, the reader can make many connections to other topics. Hughes knew “that only responding honestly to the life he finds around him he can make great art” (Longabucco 1). He was able to present the facts of race relations because he showed no remorse for speaking the truth. Hughes…

Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, which was the African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture. Hughes's creative genius was influenced by his life in New York City's Harlem, a primarily African American neighborhood. His literary works helped shape American literature and politics. Hughes, like others active in the Harlem Renaissance, had a strong sense of racial pride. Through his poetry, novels…

1. In Langston Hughes’, Radioactive Red Caps, we are given very little about our narrator. But what we are given is the basic facts that the narrator is black and slightly intelligent. We know that he is intelligent by the way he phrases his sentences. In the opening line he says, “that Negroes today are being rapidly integrated into every phase of American life from the Army and Navy to schools to industries—advancing, advancing!” (210) The narrator also thinks himself above others due to his…

Sylvia Plath “The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence" (Plath). Throughout her life, Sylvia Plath wrote about her hardships and emotions, to contribute to her main theme that death brings the hatred out of people, as reflected in her own life, which allows people to relate to her work and feel as though they are not alone. Sylvia Plath faced a challenging childhood and reflected her emotions within her poems. Otto Plath died on the night of November…

The Black Arts Movement (1965-1975) is considered to be one of the most essential moments in African American literature. It encouraged and motivated African Americans to form their very own publishing companies and magazines as well as numerous institutions of the arts. The movement was also believed to have inspired the formation of African American Studies classes at universities and colleges throughout the United States (Rojas 2147). The Black Arts Movement was also thought to have been…

The Essays “Salvation” by Langston Hughes and “The Lottery” by Chris Abani maintain correlations regarding main ideas. In “Salvation,” Hughes retains the belief that a community enacts pressure onto its youths to comply with its customs in order to maintain orthodoxy in its society. Hughes shares his personal experience at a revival where twelve year old Hughes was pressured by his congregation to be “brought to Jesus.” Similar to Hughes, in “The Lottery,” Abani asserts that society is forcibly…