Problems of race discrimination of the USA in the XX century
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who shared an African lineage and once more showing the purity of the white race. (Williams, Chancellor. The Destruction of Black Civilization. Chicago: Third World Press, 1987)
Kate Chopin (1851-1904) emerged as one of the greatest as well as most admired American short story writers, novelists, poets, and essayists. In many of Chopins stories she has transcended simple regionalism and portrayed women who seek spiritual and sexual freedom amidst the restrictive mores of nineteenth-century Southern society. She brought attention to the racial issues that existed during the times of slavery through her short story Dsires Baby which introduces the two main characters in the story, Dsire and Armand, and creates many symbolisms, ironies, and themes seen throughout the story.is a tragic tale of race and gender in antebellum Louisiana. Desiree is deeply in love with her husband Armand, and he is a loving husband and proud father until he notices their infants dark skin. Because Desiree was abandoned as a child, her ancestry is unknown. Armand concludes that she is not white and tells her to leave. His rejection drives Desiree to take her own life and that of the baby. A few weeks later, Armand discovers that he is of mixed ancestry.following extracts will clearly describe the content of the story concerning the race problems of that time.
. Oh, Armand is the proudest father in the parish, I believe, chiefly because it is a boy, to bear his name… he hasnt punished one of them - not one of them - since baby is born… Oh, mamma, Im so happy; it frightens me.
. When the baby was about three months old … a strange, an awful change in her husbands manner, which she dared not ask him to explain…. The old love-light seemed to have gone out…. Spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the slaves.
. Desirees eyes had been fixed absently and sadly upon the baby… Ah! It was a cry that she couldnt help… The blood turned like ice in her veins…
Tell me what it means!
It means, he answered lightly, that the child is not white, it means that you are not white.
4. My mother, they tell me Im not white. Armand has told me I am not white. For Gods sake tell them it is not true… I shall die. I must die…answer that came was brief: My own Desiree: Come home to Valmonde: back to your mother who loves you.come with your child.
5. Desiree has to bear the heaviest burden, being driven away from love and safety, left bereft. She has nothing but despair, and so drowns herself and her baby in the bayou.
Once Desiree and baby died, Armand found a letter of his mother written to his father. In the last words of the story, the tragic irony of it all occurs:
… night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery. story doesnt only confront the racial issues that took place during the time of slavery but also draws upon the readers emotions to experience how people thought during that time period.word "stereotype" comes with negative connotations because it is generally used to describe an off-putting generalization. It becomes necessary though when talking about facets of something like a certain group of people or culture. The other problem with stereotypes is the way they vary from person to person. One person might assume one thing about a certain group of people while another might assume the opposite, making universal stereotyping difficult. It is up to both the author and the reader to determine whether or not a work falls under the category of African American literature.recent decades, scholars and readers have criticized the book Uncle Toms Cabin" for what are seen as condescending racist descriptions of the books black characters, especially with regard to the characters appearances, speech, and behavior, as well as the passive nature of Uncle Tom in accepting his fate. The novels creation and use of common stereotypes about African Americans is important because Uncle Toms Cabin was the best-selling novel in the world during the 19th century. As a result, the book (along with images illustrating the book and associated stage productions) had a major role in permanently ingraining these stereotypes into the American psyche.the stereotypes of blacks in Uncle Toms Cabin are: The "happy darky" (in the lazy, carefree character of Sam);light-skinned tragic mulatto as a sex object (in the characters of Eliza, Cassy, and Emmeline);affectionate, dark-skinned female mammy (through several characters, including Mammy, a cook at the St. Clare plantation).Pickaninny stereotype of black children (in the character of Topsy);
The Uncle Tom, or African American who is too eager to please white people (in the character of Uncle Tom).intended Tom to be a "noble hero." The stereotype of him as a "subservient fool who bows down to the white man" evidently resulted from staged "Tom Shows," over which Stowe had no control., scholars such as Henry Louis Gates Jr. have begun to reexamine Uncle Toms Cabin, stating that the book is a "central document in American race relations and a significant moral and political exploration of the character of those relations. "are many modern subjects that can be explored through literature besides these. For example, a piece of African American literature might touch on the use of the "N" word in todays popular culture.can be anything that either the reader or the writer deems a legitimate African American issue to be as long as there is evidence that one can make a claim for and defend successfully. Critics have argued that this genre no longer exists because American culture no longer has to deal with difficulties such as slavery or the Jim Crow laws. It is true that these things no longer exist, but racism and problems concerning race are still rampant in our society even if they now manifest themselves in slightly different ways.American literature includes any piece of literature that deals in particular with issues that are related to African Americans as a people. This does not mean the author needs to be black though, writers of any skin tone can fashion characters with many different perspectives and cultures. The common misconception that this genre includes many works or biography and autobiography is false. Many pieces of African American literature are fictional. Topics that are included in this genre can include slavery and the like, but they can also be more modern. African American literature is a growing category just like any other type of literature.
II.2 Comparative analysis of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird" Harper Lee and story Going to Meet The Man" by James Baldwin
Lees place in American letters was secured in 1960 with the publication of her Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), the story of a young girls encounter with fear, ignorance, and courage in a small Southern town.graduating from the University of Alabama in 1948 and spending a year studying law at Oxford University, Lee headed north to New York City. She took a job as n airline reservation clerk and in her spare time wrote fictitious accounts of he childhood experiences. In 1957 she submitted the manuscript to a New York publisher; one of the editors felt it had potential but was too episodic and suggested she quit her job and work full time on her book. After a long and hopeless period of writing the book over and over again" the book was finally published.some critics found the novel too melodramatic and objected to having an eight-year old narrator with a mature womans ability to recall the past, Lees first and only novel became an immediate best-seller.recipient of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize in fiction and the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, To Kill a Mockingbird was adapted into film, which in 1962 won two Academy Awards. Subsequently, critics reevaluated the novels author, this time acclaiming her as a remarkable story-teller who possessed wit and compassion. By 1975 the novel had sold more than 11 million copies and had been translated into 10 languages.story covers a three-year period during which Scout, and eight-year old girl, and her brother, Jem, observe a trial at which their father, Atticus Finch, a town lawyer, defends Tom Robinson, a black man unjustly accused of raping a white woman Mayella Ewell. They come to admire their father for standing up to injustice and racism and to understand that to kill Tom would be a senseless as to destroy a mockingbird who, dont do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. Atticus is intent on ensuring Tom Robinson receives a fair trial and is brought to justice. When a Negro is falsely accused of rape, the townspeople judge him guilty based on his color, creating obvious problems for the defendant and his family, and the fair-minded adults and children who are disgusted by prejudice and hypocrisy: "Theres something in our world that makes men lose their heads-they couldnt be fair if they tried. In our courts, when its a white mans word against a black mans, the white man always wins. Theyre ugly, but those are the facts of life." (Lee, 1960, p.243) Attic