The Racist Awakening Through Harlem Renaissance Literature
For many years authors tried to successfully express their views on historical tribulations through their literature. These authors attempted time and time again to communicate their opinions to the reading audience in hopes of changing the onlookers’ point of views and broadening the readers’ outlooks on the authors’ mentioned topics. One of the most influential subject matters in American literature was the racism toward African Americans in society. Literature lucratively blossomed and helped mold peoples’ attitudes toward racism during the Harlem Renaissance. Three authors, in particular, were feasible precursors for the increase of intelligence concerning discrimination and the awakening of its brutal truth. W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes are true models of this abolitionist literature revolution. Some believe the Harlem Renaissance was just as much a construction of the white imagination as it was the site of black cultural expression or freedom (Balshaw 309). While some African Americans chose things such as paintings, sculptures, and photographs during this artistic outpouring, others expressed their thoughts through their writings (Wright 253). DuBois, Hurston, and Hughes left littl
e to the imagination and wrote pieces that showed the factual side of racism. They used their writings to educate people on different aspects of racial discrimination. Their works promoted the awareness of the intolerance and assisted in the decrease of prejudice that is still seen today. W.E.B. Dubois did an excellent job of bringing the injustice of racism to the reader’s attention. He was one of the most significant African American writers in history. DuBois made it clear that blacks were capable of everything that whites were and that the intelligence of a person did not come from the color of their skin, but the capacity of their minds. In his novel, “The Souls of Black Folk”, he spoke of three things that he felt that black people needed: political power, civil rights, and higher education (“W.E.B. DuBois”). The three items that he mentioned were things that every citizen desired. DuBois, like many, understood the significance of a first-class education, but he also realized that during his time, blacks were not given an equal opportunity to obtain this knowledge. His writings were not, however, directed only toward the uneducated, partial racists, but also to the deprived African Americans. DuBois believed that in order to see change, one must force it to revolutionize from the outside. Blacks must be willing to stand up for their rights and not conform to the white supremacists. He comprehended that in order to achieve an elevated status, one must be willing to work for it and not take a backseat to what was thought to be a superior race. One of DuBois most powerful statements in his novel was, “To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships” (Baym 1690). This testimonial blatantly demonstrates what he and other African Americans have had to face in order to achieve their political and social statuses in the world. DuBois’s expanded knowledge about this matter is what has brought him so much praise over the years. During the Harlem Renaissance African American art
Some topics in this essay:
African Americans,
Son” Hughes,
Harlem Renaissance,
African American,
Langston Hughes,
World Cabaret,
Americans DuBois,
Black Folk”,
,
Hurston DuBois,
harlem renaissance,
african americans,
black people,
african american,
white person,
hughes hurston dubois,
racial diversity,
neale hurston,
zora neale,
baym 2086,
attitudes racism,
zora neale hurston,
Join now to see the rest of the essay!
Approximate Word count = 1397
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
Example Essays Home
