African Amer. lit related to

Claude Brown was born on February 23, 1937 in Harlem, New York. Brown w

Brown’s defiant behavior rolled over into his academic world as well. After getting expelled from school for numerous absences and getting caught stealing Brown was sentenced to Wiltwyck Reformatory. It was here he met Earnest Popanek who was head of Wiltwyk and helped turn Brown’s life around. He taught Brown that he could make something of himself and end his ways of running the streets. After released Brown failed to rehabilitate his ways due to the fact that his friends were still stealing and involved in gangs. Brown like most young men didn’t have the will at this time to turn from his friends and overcome the peer pressure. He was unable to escape the horrors of Harlem and continued his prior ways. It wasn’t until Brown was shot in the stomach at the age of thirteen for stealing bed sheets; that he was sentenced to Warwick Reformatory. Warwick unlike Wiltwyck was run like a prison. This atmosphere made Brown want more in life, he wanted to change for the better upon his release. Unfortunately things didn’t work out the way he had hoped and soon he was back at Warwick for another session. Finally after his second release from Warwick Brown made a difference in his life, he started to Attend Washington Irving High School in the evenings. It was here that Brown received his High School diploma and realized that he wanted to achieve higher learning at Howard University. After Brown graduated from Howard University he then went on to continue further studies at Stanford University and Rutgers University.

Brown’s Literary career can be seen to be rather brief if you compare it to and author like Stephen King who has a multitude of books published. For Brown only has two books in print, but these were two books of great value. When Arnold Rampersad spoke of Brown’s selections he said that there is no way possible for someone to leave a place that they have lived their entire lives, such a feet is impossible. Although it is possible for someone to leave and still have that place at heart. I would have to be in agreement with Rampersad because the basis of Manchild is Brown’s rise against all odds from an undesirable place to becoming somebody, while with Children of Ham Rampersad describes it as a book that shows how utterly impossible it is to totally leave Harlem. It is very evident that in the book Brown wants more from his life. At one point when heroin was a popular drug on the streets and was causing a plague by virtually corrupting the masses, Brown was an exception. Brown escaped the drug plague because he was strong and wanted out, he even tried the drug but his desire was so strong he was able to overcome it. While Rampersad continues to go on about Children of Ham saying how impossible it is to completely leave a place of childhood. Brown would agree with this for he once said “That day each of us had been independently overcome by an irresistible urge to reconnect with his roots” (Brown, 1). In this quote he is talking about him and his friends, the same ones he put in his book and gave the names of Dunny and Turks. This statement by Brown is true, for you cannot hide where you come from, because it is who you are.

The plot of Brown’s Book can be seen in Robert F. Worth’s analysis when he talks of the part that makes this story great. He says that it is the setting and the vivid description of it as well as the culture. Worth is very right in my opinion, for Manchild in the Promised Land wouldn’t be what it was without the setting of Harlem because it helps set the mood of the story. The plot of this story is a direct result of the environment and conditions in which Brown grew up. The evidence can be seen in the story, for one day when Brown awoke he had heard of a riot that had taken place the previous night and he was very angry, not because of the mass hysteria that went on, but that he had missed out on it. So immediately Brown went out and stole som

Some topics in this essay:
Promised Land, Claude Brown, Harlem Harlem, Houston Baker, Children Ham, Lee Brown, Haratio Alger, Claude Brown’s, American Literature, Earnest Popanek, claude brown, promised land, manchild promised land, manchild promised, children ham, black people, howard university, african american, american literature, brown grew, african american literature, book manchild promised, brown received, extremely complex confused, complex confused society”,