In “My Year of No Shopping,” American author Ann Patchett (2017) assesses how one can sacrifice his/her desires in order to save money, time, and other valuable moments of life. The author here reveals how one can live without a year of no shopping. In order to support her idea, she describes two friends where one is convincing the other on how she is living without shopping. Inspired by her friend, the author also pledges for a year of no shopping. As time went on, she realizes how well…
Langston Hughes was an African American writer born in the early 20th century. He became a well-known and important author by discussing themes concerning race and politics from a young age in various genres, for example poetry. In a varying degree of colloquial language and a jazz inspired rhythm, Hughes conveyed his messages to his audience through a lifetime long career of writing that began around the time he published the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which in this essay will be…
Once you experience something of such great significance, it is hard to let that go and move on. This universal theme can be seen in both the song “Want You Back” by 5 Seconds of Summer, and the short story, “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury. In “Want You Back” the band sings about a girl whom they have left and will always want back. In “All Summer in a Day” the author tells about about students on Venus, who are in the absence of the sun and are grieving the loss of it too. In both of…
Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (1977) is a juxtaposition of classical myth and folklore that is deeply rooted in African American history and folk culture. Unfortunately, much of the criticism of Song of Solomon has tended to focus more on classical myth in a strict literary sense and less on the profound folk cultural context on which her writing is based1. Susan L. Blake says in her article “Folklore and Community in Song of Solomon” that the title of Morrison’s third novel is derived from a…
In the novel "The Bluest eye" by Tony Morrison, Morrison attempts to explore the meaning of beauty through the point of view of adolescent black girls as they tackle poverty, racism, sexism and the transition to adulthood. Morrison accomplishes this, through her writing she scrupulously decides which rhetoric devices to use in order to do so. Throughout her writing Morrison uses Scesis Onomaton to emphasize particular aspects she deems vital to the storytelling, while using symbolism to…
Alain Locke, in his “Foreword” to The New Negro (1925), observes, “America seeking a new spiritual expansion and artistic maturity, trying to found an American literature, a national art, and national music implies a Negro-American culture seeking the same satisfactions and objections” (xvi). Within this statement, he underscores the complex relationships that exist within national literary space, such as the one between “American literature” and “Negro-American culture,” where the latter has to…
been written in only seven weeks, pulling heartstrings in its realistic portrayal of the struggles of a black woman searching for love in the early 1900s would of course pull criticism from black male authors of the day. In this way the author, Zora Neale Hurston, experiences many of the trials that Janie Crawford, the main character in Hurston’s celebrated novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, has along the course of her hero’s journey. Throughout her separation from the known world, descent to…
In Chris cleaves novel Little Bee Sarah the protagonist is categorized as the archetype courageous, she embodies the message that cleaves is depicting which is one must have the courage to follow one's heart no matter how socially unacceptable that action or emotion might be. This novel describes the hardship and tragedy of a young African girl escaping the horrors of a country ravaged by oil hungry countries and how she meet and changed the life of Sarah. Sarah’s actions show her courage and…
All around the world there have been many cases of sexual and physical abuse against women. Such is the case in “Bluest eye” by Toni Morrison and the movie “Their Eyes were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. Likewise, in Natacha Clerge contemporary review that shares a similar perspective. In all three works there is a horrible turn of events that leads to desperate measures. The two main characters from “Bluest eye” and “Their Eyes were Watching God” have a very difficult life that’s full of…
Growing up through the early and mid nineteen hundreds was a hard time for African American’s and immigrants. They were cussed at, swore at, beaten and were separated by race in public places. Langston Hughes was born on February 1 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. He grew up in a turbulent time of depression in America. The Ku Klux Klan had very many members during the 1910’s and 1920’s, which Langston was a teenager and young adult through. Mr. Hughes was an important writer and thinker of the Harlem…