... " revised edition of "Just Walk on By" he begins by describing the setting where he walks and his physical appearance in detail. He mentions the same young lady that he calls his "first victim" (258) who ran from him out of fear and continues on to describe his understanding of the "language of fear" (258). Staples mentions how people avoid eye contact with him on the streets and compares ... author's perspective. As an example of the harsher and more derogatory tone in the revised edition, Staples makes a callous comparison between himself and a rabid dog in regards to the way people avo...

• Word Count: 1531
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... is not subservient to the whites and spends most of his time and effort plotting revenge on Captain McBane for the cold-blooded murder of Josh's father. Even after the riot breaks out, Josh calls to his followers "Dese gentlemen may have somethin' ter live fer; but ez for my pa't, I'd ruther be a dead nigger any day dan a live dog!- (Chesnutt, Marrow 219). With this statement, Josh ... reaches its climax with the riot and the death of Dr. Miller's only son, he becomes a hypocrite by denying his medical services to Dodie after Olivia requests his help. He ends up taking the path of reven...

• Word Count: 1335
• Approx Pages: 5

... from her family she continuously pondered upon the rules of society and always questions the rules of her elders. In Anne Moody's, Coming of Age in Mississippi she differentiates herself from the rest of African American by questioning the way of life she must undergo due to all the restrictions her family and other African American's that surround her. Throughout the novel Moody shows discontent with her family and fellow black citizens for ... night was when "I saw her open one of them and pour some milk out of a big dishpan. Then she went out to the yard, leaving the safe door open. ...

• Word Count: 1364
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... a law Aprohibiting Negroes, slave and free, from carrying weapons including clubs.@ Some states laws prevented ownership of even as little as a single bullet (musket ball) or a guard dog. Free Blacks who had served honorably and with distinction in the Revolutionary War, could not, under a 1792 federal law, serve as part of the state militias. In Louisiana, slaves were forbidden to use a firearm even in self-defense. In ... protect all the right secured to them by our municipal regulations. They have no political rights, but they have personal rights, one of which is personal liberty." ...

• Word Count: 1519
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... who happened to be adopted by the couple Nettie is on a mission with. After many years without contact from her sister she returns home with her new family to reunite the family (Lewis 2). Albert, Celie's husband is a poor farmer who abuses her because she is not exactly like Shug. He hides all of the letters Nettie writes to Celie. Albert thinks little of treating Celie as less than human ... from watching Celie and Shug together (Fulmer 2). As a result he turns into a man who is caring and considerate. Another important theme is the destructive effect of keeping a secret when telling ...

• Word Count: 2261
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... every time a character tries to pursue happiness, they are unsuccessful or are met with tragedy. An example of a dramatization of this theme is when the character Cory tries to pursues happiness through playing football. His pursuit was thwarted because of Troy's actions. Cory's football pursuits were defeated by Troy because of one of two reasons. The reasons are either Troy does not believe that a black man could be successful in ... pursue happiness by cheating on his wife is not easily cast as a bad decision. Troy is very good at taking care of his responsibilities to his family, ho...

• Word Count: 1319
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography

... factors caused him to become an angry man with trust for no one. Soon after, he joined the Navy. But with the help of a military psychiatrist, he was able to turn his life around and actually enjoy it. Similarly, lady in blue, in Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, was raped by one of her friends whom she thought she could ... did follow through with having an abortion. Although the rape and abortion was troubling for her, she soon let the pain go. She was then able to have a sense of calm. "I found God in myself and I loved her." Fin...

• Word Count: 1924
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... The White Fiends, it shows themes of hatred and violence inflicted by White Americans and the poem also shows a sense of pride and value of one's self being African American by not giving into hatred. In the second poem In Bondage, we will explore the themes of consuming hatred that you can't escape and the value of human life. The poem To The White Fiends shows a theme of ... of hate even though they treat you this way. The words "of higher worth" are saying more valuable, show your value by not being as hateful and violent as they are, show that you are above the hate. Value goes hand i...

• Word Count: 1452
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Great-Aunt Grace, who grew up listening to he late Lady Day. Still, even after her death more than thirty years ago, Billie Holiday remains one of the most influential Jazz/Swing artists of all time. However her life was not all glitz and glamour that one would think a person with such a title should possess. With little education and no money she had a dream and was ... determined to get there, no mater what. Her experiences, achievements and downfalls contributed to her success. Unfortunately, family was not the best support ... and Billie bestowed the nickname of "Pres- on Young. An...

• Word Count: 1369
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... ;a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second sight yield[ing] him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world" (534). Look in the mirror and say what you see; most white men will say "a human being" and a black man will say "a black man." Du Bois sums this up by saying ... to be what Roosevelt would want in an American. W. E. B. Du Bois isn't the only African American who feels this way, either. Langston Hughes's poetry could almost be the love song version of Du Bois's collection of essays. In "Theme for English...

• Word Count: 1421
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... -black neighborhood she and her children lived, oblivious to everyone's opinion. The bicycle is a symbol, representing Ruth McBride's outlet of being able to cope with her second husband's death by having it become an escape from reality, and yet negotiating what her reality has become as well. This reflects the theme because it shows how these two people, Ruth and James McBride, both face these ... problems. He completely agreed with the student, but felt terrible lying about that. This gives the entire event a sense of irony, because any comments that the black student made about white...

• Word Count: 1571
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... protest of the school system's integrative bussing program. Roberta, carrying a "Mothers Have Rights Too! " sign, casually strolls over to her childhood friend, unaware of their discrepancy in stance. The argument climaxed with the picket line nearly tipping Twyla's car over before an intervention by slow-to-respond policemen. In vexation, Roberta seethes, "You're the same little state kid who kicked a poor black lady when she was down on the ground ... . You kicked a black lady and you have the nerve to call me a bigot" (Morrison 257). This instills uncertainty in the retrospective raci...

• Word Count: 1383
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , vermin infestation, verbal or physical abuse in the hands of police .For many of the black masses, the law was just another symbol of their rejection by white society("Progress Report", 34). One photograph consuming one half of the page shows a police officer holding tear gas, his dog, and has a gun in his holster. The caption reads, "Ready for action with gun, teargas, and dog, state trooper typifies those law enforcement officers who ... power" idea, when separated from the violence and hatred of the extremists, strikes a common chord with current conservative thought. Mr. Goldwater ...

• Word Count: 2489
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... the lady's look toward him. As if he is something lower than she, or not a human being as she is. Again he continued telling the story "She jerked the bill furiously from my hand and stepped away form the window. In a moment she reappeared to hurl my change and the ticket on the counter with such force most of it fell on the floor at my feet. I was really dumfounded by ... they argue about all the time. Meanwhile "When all the talk, all the propaganda has been cut away, the criterion is nothing but the color of skin. My experience proved that. They judged me by no other quality. My skin...

• Word Count: 2270
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... little town in Florida. Three of her works, "Sweat," "The Gilded Six Bits," and Their Eyes Were Watching God, are set in the village of Eatonville where the houses were built on isolated roads. The characters lived far away from their neighbors and the nearest stores. White critics referred to the language that the characters used as "that comical nigger dialect." Hurston's narrators spoke in Standard English, the language most of the ... their marriage. They experience a few years of happiness and Janie seems content. The novel ends melodramatically when a mad dog bites Teacake. She is f...

• Word Count: 1938
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." (Douglas as cited in Higgs, 2009) This shows that even the smartest southerners were raised with the fundamental thought that blacks and whites were unequal. While it may be inconceivable to many who look at the issue today, Douglas had a voice that many southerners listened too. Although the average American had little power or say ... slave labor instead? In order to achieve their goals, pro-slavery lobbyists used many different terms and language to put down African-Americans in hopes of continuing the evil. One ...

• Word Count: 1706
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... forced labor, and a little reefer on the side. These are all of the components of a Novel by Alice Walker. All of these views are illustrated proficiently in Alice Walkers third novel, The Color Purple. Each one of these aspects had a lasting impression upon the ideals and notions of the time. Walker's writing's helped to break the racial barrier that existed in some people's minds. One way that the barrier was destroyed was ... a new light. These actions are discussed out in the open, and the idea that all people have their own "flaws", is thought to be more fisable. Walker combines all...

• Word Count: 1803
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... 11-year old black girl who wants to have the eyes of a white girl, blue eyes. Pecola lives with her family in the town of Lorain, Ohio. The family consists of the mother Pauline, the father Cholly, the son Sammy, and the daughter Pecola. Every day she feels the impact of racism, not from white people, but from her own race. She doesn't like the color of her skin, because it is too dark. Pecola ... in with her family, and her life becomes difficult again. She is abused almost by everyone in her life. One day she goes to Geraldine's house. Geraldine is a middle-class African - American wo...

• Word Count: 1329
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... time adding new information; circling the subject and revealing more detail with each telling. In the story there are three levels of narrative consciousness. The 1st is personal idealized consciousness of childhood as demonstrated by Pecola yearning for the blue eyes. The 2nd is the novels central narrator Claudia McTeer. The 3rd is the social/ historical consciousness of an objective narrator who shows the reader the anger of Black lives (Bjork 39). ... about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was."" (Morrison 19) That was an excerpt from the book The Bluest Eye and in that scene we see how Pec...

• Word Count: 2499
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography

... African Americans to look for their roots in Africa. The primary theme of The Color Purple, though, reflects Walker's desire to project a positive outcome in life, even under the harshest conditions. Her central character triumphs over adversity and forgives those who oppressed her. This central theme of the triumph of good over evil is no doubt the source of the book' s great success. Since the film's premiere 25 years ago, Walker has been ... largely unscathed, but by sacrificing the complexities of the male characters, the film makes them seem less human and robs the story of some of...

• Word Count: 1523
• Approx Pages: 6

... in a waterfront bar in Senegal. A more youthful mariner, "The Little Virgin," who is a kind of protégé of the more seasoned man, unsettled by depression and a loss of group, assaults Mike. The story closes with "The Little Virgin" ridiculously droning again and again, "He oughtn't to hit a lady. So, what was Langston's goal in this story? To depict the rage he felt towards the injustice that was racism, sexism or sexual exploitation, and ... colonialism among other things. It was also an ironic twist on the way that ... ...

• Word Count: 1762
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Hansberry play, "A Raisin in the Sun," the theme is that it is possible to live the American Dream by overcoming barriers that stand in the trajectory of that dream, and being persistent. This theme is supported by the mood created by the setting, characters, and their barriers throughout the play. In "A Raisin in the Sun" the theme of being persistent is thoroughly supported by the mood of the play that is created through the setting: a low class, roach ... was being persistent, and moving forward with achieving her dream and teaching Walter how to do the same, and pass it on to his so...

• Word Count: 1328
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... is misleading him because little does he know that the ship had actually been taken over by the slaves and the Spanish men, including Benito Cereno, are being held as hostage under Babo's command, which explains his odd encounters with black-on-white assault. While Amasa Delano is a pleasant man and maintains a positive outlook, he is also racist and blind to the realities of slavery and it's ... Captain Delano's nature was not only benign, but familiarly and humorously so" (41). He continuously refers to the blacks as animals, saying that Cereno is the master of his "black sheep" (16) a...

• Word Count: 1557
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... this poem, it is necessary to know a little about the author because his work is pretty much close to his life and own experiences. James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he ... in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself. Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967, in New York. Analysis At first glance...

• Word Count: 1896
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... have different perspectives and opinionated responses to movements made in society. The three bishops are informed of the anticipation of a new governor set to control for the new term which would be either the current one or one by the name Fleming. Nevertheless the three bishops, the black bishop from New Orleans, the white bishop from New York, and the Japanese bishop from San Francisco are all at this location in Georgia ... the stranger when the convict collided with the running angry, scared woman. Her husband came rushing to the scene and had came to the conclusion that the convi...

• Word Count: 1598
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School