Why Study the harlwm Renaissance?

This course has taught me a lot about the Harlem Ranaissance. I hesitated to take the course because I really had no idea what it would be about. However, I'm glad that I did choose to thatke the course. I have learned a lot and have gained an entirely new perspective.

I think that all to often African Americans are viewed using the sterotyped. They are viewd as lazy and uneducated, etc. I think that the Harlem Renaissance really proves those steroetypes wrong. Just look at all the literature, art, and music that came out of the Renaissance. How can we say that these people are lazy and uneducated when we have seen firthand through our study of certian literary pieces that these stereoypes are clearly untrue. I think we study the Harlem Renaissance to remind ourselves and share with others the amazing contrubutions African Americans have made and hopefully by doing this we can ease the racial divide and lessen the discrimination faced by these people.

Their Eyes Were Watching God 2

While reading this book I found the main character, Janie to be an interesting one. I kind of assumed that Zora Neale Hurston would write her book with a strong female character. It just seemed like something she would do seeing as she was a black female writer in a time where neither blacks or women recieved a lot of credit for the things they did. Knowing this I naturally assumed that she would portray Janie as a strong character. I was disappointed in the beginning to see that Janie really wasn't a very strong character. She didn't stick up to her grandmother when she married he off. She didn't stick up to her husband when her treated her unfairly, she didn't stick up for herself when one of her husbands stole from her. She really didn't stick up for herself at all. She was just trying to fit into the steretypical role of a housewife. I was pleasantly surprised though when she finaly did stick up for herself. We see the example of her standing up for herself on page 79. This is the point where I relaized that Zora Neale Hurston had in fact made Janie a stron gcharacter, it just took her a little while to figure out just how strong she was. Overall, I was very impressed with the book and enjoyed it a lot.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

I have really enjoyed this book so far. It was a little difficult to read in the begining because of the vernacular the Zora Neale Hurston used, but the more I read the less I noticed the vernacular - I think I kind of got used to it. What I found most interesting was how everything semed to have to be active - we talked about this in class. Everything was described in a lot of detail and everything was in similie or mataphor. A lot of personification was used as well. For example, on the first page we see "his dreams mocked to death by time". On page 2 we see another example: "words walking without masters". Zora Neale Hurston seems to use a lot of descriptive words and phrases like the examples listed above in her writing.

class discussion

I really enjoyed our class discussion on the peotry we have ben reading and how it has impacted us. I find it very interesting that we can each read the same poems and get something so different from them. The autohor had a particular purpose in mind when he wrote the poem, but I guess it is up to the reader how he or she interprets the peom. It seemed like so many people chose the poem from the mother to the son, but we each chose it for our own reasons. I think the idea of the poem was the same for many of us - never give up, keep on going, etc. but we each took that message and applied it to our lives in such different ways. That is one of the amazing things about writing and peotry - it can be applied to so many situations depending on who is reading it. It is open to the interpretation of the reader, and there really is no right or wrong way of interpreting it.

Langston Hughes

In reading the Hughes poems I was glad to find that they weren't as difficult to understand as some of the other poetry we have read. He seems to keep his poems relatively simple and to the point, but they are still very good poems. One poem that I thought was great was"America" on page 52. I was surprised to see that this poem wasn't directled only at African Americans. This poem encompases all races "darky baby, Jew baby, little outcast". It seems as though Hughes has written it for all those people in the US that feel oppressed and racially segregated. It is about class struggle and the idea that things aren't always accessible to all classes. The poem also discusses the American dream. The narrator speaks about "dream of my dreams" and "seeking the stars". America is see as the land of opportunity, but as we see in the writing, this dream is not accessible to all. I think that Hughes does a great job in this poem of integrating more than one race into his writing and showing the similar struggle that they all face.

Cullen Poems

I really enjoyed reading the Cullen poems. I think that they are very different from other poetry we have read this semester. The tone seems to be one of despair, almost as though the author doesn't care anymore - like he is giving up. For example, in Incident we see that the author is called a "Nigger" while in Boston and "Of all the things that happened there/ That's all that I remember." THe author seems to dewll on the nagative and in his poetry he pertrays an attitude of hopelessness. Many of the other texts we have read this semester speak of how the past can serve as an example for the future and how tha blacks can make thier lives better. I find that that idea is missing from this poetry all together.

The Brownie's Book

I think this was an interesting change from the other things we have been reading this semester. When reading "The Grownups Corner" I thought it was interesting that the parent mentioned that her child asked her about colored people doing things. I guess I had never really thought about it before, but it is true that in schools at that time children probable heard a lot about white people and the amazing things that they had done. The child specificaly hearing about "Bersy Ross and Geaorge Washington" but never about black people. I found that this was interesting and I completely agree with the parent that it is so important to hear about these people. A child needs somone to look up to, a person to serve as a role model for them. If the child isn't hearing about these people in school then they need to get the information from somewhere else. As I read through the Brownie's Book I noticed that they did do a good job of mentioning these people. THere were articles on young heroes (the boy who got the little girl out of the fire), Denmark Vesey, Harriet Tubman, and others. This would have been a great resource for young black children.

Passing

I would first like to say that this book is a nice change from what we have been reading lately. It is much easier to read. I was shocked by the part of the book where Clare introduces Irene to her husband. I was surprised that Clare even wanted to introduce a friend of hers to her husband. Clare knew her friend was African American and she knew her husband disliked African Americans so much. I was surprised thaat she would put her friends in such an awkwatd position. He even goes so far as to say that it isn't that he "dislikes them, he hates them". It is actually ironic in a way because he has no idea that the the three women he is surrounded by are actually African American, he is even related to one. Irene is extremenly upset by thier ocnversation because he is being prejudiced toward her race, but she feels like she can't say anything because then she would be exposing her friend who is "passing". It was a difficult position for her to be in and it was inconsiderate of Clare to put her in that position.

The Gift of Laughter

Fauset's piece was an interesting change. Instead of reading literature written by an African American writer we read something more for the purpose of informing us about the plight of the African American. Most of the other works we have read have been narratives such as novels or poems so this was an interesting change. In this piece Fauset explores the use of the African American as a source of entertainment for the white American. For example, she talks a lot about the Georgia minstrels and how they "portray for us the typical Negro which the white world thinks is universal". She is basically saying that whites take advantage of the plight of the African American. They are easy to make fun of because they have historically been thought of as inferior. THey aren't going to fight back either. She also talks about how it is an "unwritten law" that whites make fun of blacks wheter it be through minstrel shows or by other means. She provides us with an interesting perspective on some of our forms of entertainment.

Elise MacDougald

I really enjoyed MacDougald's piece which discussed the task of being a black female. She discusses how stereotypical race ideas actually affect these women. For example, she discusses how black females must constantly face the stereotype that they are more permiscuous than white women when in actuality they are not. It is this stereotype and many more that make being an African American woman rather difficult. They have to deal with day to day concerns of being a women and then the added racial implications as well.

After reading Cane I am rather confused. Part of the book seemed to be poetry while part seemed to be almost like a chapter out of a novel, maybe even somewhat biographical. I thought it was interesting how Toomer chose to describe the women he did, but I am confused as to how they all relate to one another. He seems to jump around a lot from topic to topic and I find myself wondering if anything will come together in the end. I think he is a pretty good writer, especially the way he can write a novel and poetry as well. Authors generally concentrate on one type of writing so I am impressed that he can take so much and put it all into one book. However, I'm not really sure if it makes too much sense to me (at least not yet).

Claude McKay

I really enjoyed these poems. McKay managed to relay his thoughts and feelings of being a black man in America while making it sound good at the same time. I am really impressed with the poetry. The poem I enjoyed the most was "The Dominant White". McKay eloquently tells the reader that the whites had such opportunity to help the blacks. They had the power and ability to help, they had laws to protect and yet they didn't help the blacks and they didn't protect the blacks. They took the tools they had to help and used them to hurt the minority races. My favorite line in the poem is "you've proved unworthy of your trust". I think it is a perfect way to describe the treatment of the blacks. We could have helped them, we could have put an end to unjust and unfair treatment but we didn't. We were trusted with helping them overcome the obstacles they faced as a minority race and instead we helped betray them. This poem is an amazing summary of the treatment of blacks in the US.

Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man Ch 6-9

I found this section of the novel very interesting. The reader sees the narrator in his new life in the city. We see him get into gambling and going to the clubs. What I found most interesting however was his fascination with the clubs. When I was reading and the narrator went into the club for the first time and heard the rag time music I could completely understand why it was so fascinating to him. Music had been such a major piece of his life from the time he was a child that it was really no surprise to me to see that he would later get into playing rag time himself. His musical training served him well in his stay in NYC. He began to play in the clubs and make some decent money. Then he meets the person he calls his benefactor. This man pays him well to entertain him and his guests. The benefactor even takes him to London and Paris and has him play there as well. I find it interesting that the narrator would choose to give up all he had, his promising career as a musician and the money and attention of his rich benefactor, to return to the south. I'm left wondering what will become of him and if he will regret giving up the life he has made for himself through his musical talent.

Introductory Blog

Hi, I hope this works.

My name is Alyssa. I'm a childhood education major with a concentration in English (the reason I'm taking this class).