Meaning And Definition Of Ethnic American Literature

During the 1900’s, society limited the rights of African Americans. Gwendolyn Brooks was a writer who experienced discrimination from the white population, and even African Americans who were fairer in complexion. She originally wrote about the oppression of African Americans, and their day-to-day struggles. Later on, she expanded her writings to include the struggles of African Americans everywhere. By the end of her life, she inspired thousands of young writers to write about things they’re passionate about. The impact Gwendolyn Brooks has on my life is incomparable to any other important figure I've studied. It's the steps that she took that made her a global leader and will impact my development as a global leader.

     Gwendolyn Brooks is the female poet who has been most responsive to changes in the black community, particularly in the community’s vision of itself. The first African American to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; she was considered one of America’s most distinguished poets well before the age of fifty. Known for her technical artistry, she has succeeded in forms as disparate as Italian terza rima and the blues. She has been praised for her wisdom and insight into the African Experience in America. Her works reflect both the paradises and the hells of the black people of the world. Her writing is objective, but her characters speak for themselves. Although the

Gwendolyn Brooks expresses the injustice of the black society and finding peace and quiet within in her poem titled “The Explorer”, which was published in 1960. In this poem, Brooks talk about how African Americans are oppressed by whites. To be specific, the main character, male or female, is on the run from white society. Brooks used words such as voices, scream, nervous, and griefs to describe what the main character is feeling as he is searching for a peaceful place. The reader can tell that society at that time was not perfect, but unfair and dangerous. Taking part in the civil rights movement herself, this poem specifically stresses that African Americans were tyrannized, since they could not make their own choices, nor could they

Literature is a big part of all cultures. People acquire a vast amount of information from what is being read. The way they are written and the people who wrote them can change the manner in which values are being seen. Every culture and race is unique it includes language, art, rituals, beliefs plus a great deal more. With all the different race and cultures in the country, it has shaped the American perception and identity. When a person of a certain ethnic background, gender, sexual preference, even religious view writes it is only natural for their heritage, culture and racial influence to be present. This is what makes the work powerful. As in that of Claude McKay, because of him being an African American writer his work offers a new method of considering and appreciating what it entailed to be of a certain race or gender. Showing how culture and race affect the overall meaning in his writing.

themselves as Americans with a special mission.” (Norton, 3rd ed. Vol.1. 75). In result, they would

August Wilson was a famous and influential playwright who wrote about the African American experience and conflicts with the White world. Although he may be argued as one of the greatest playwrights in America, I myself have only heard of his work once when my seventh grade English class read Fences, a play about a man and his son dealing with dealing with racism while also dealing with their own conflict when the son wants to follow in the steps of his father and become a professional athlete. I had honestly forgotten all about that one play I read eight years ago. Wilson’s name was barely among the many playwrights studied in my latter years. This could be because of the content of his plays. Much of Wilson’s work examines the negative aspects of being African American in America such as racism and poverty. When we read about African American literature in school, we read about empowerment and pride. It is ironic how students study White writers who tell stories like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Heart of Darkness with mistreated African American characters, but barely study those same stories written by Black authors, poets, and playwrights. Because African American literature was not glorified in the past, specifically speaking of a time before the Harlem Renaissance, it may take time for certain works of African descendants to be glorified at the same level as those of White writers, especially if their peak wasn’t during the Renaissance.

James Baldwin and Langston Hughes wrote two pieces of literature, Baldwin's letter to his nephew at the beginning of The Fire Next Time and Hughes’ “Let America be America Again”, to show how minorities, specifically African-American, struggled in America. Both authors write how about minorities are oppressed and how they have to fight oppression in order to realize “The American Dream” and overcome obstacles the white American man did not have. The two pieces give an insight on how, not only the African-Americans but also “the red man” and “the refugee”, are oppressed in America. Leonard Pitts work is about how Americans tip-toe around the problems is their country. Pitts statement in his article is that Americans need to realize what is wrong with America and how they need to work together to fix it.

Throughout literature many pieces of work can be compared and contrasted to each other. In “Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie discusses the challenges he faced as a young Indian adult, who found his passion of reading at an early age, living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He challenged the stereotype of the young Indian students who were thought to be uneducated while living on a reservation. Likewise, in the excerpt from The Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez shares his similar experience of being a minority and trying to break stereotypes of appearing uneducated. He shares the details of his life growing up learning a different culture and the struggles he faced becoming assimilated into American culture. In these two specific pieces of literature discuss the importance of breaking stereotypes of social and educational American standards and have similar occupational goals; on the other hand the two authors share their different family relationships.

Ai, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Kwame Dawes are all contemporary African American poets. Their works often focused on different aspects of the post civil rights movement in the African American community. Ai was known for writing poetry on hard subjects. She was laso known for writing poems that were graphic. Being multiracial, ( 1/2 Japanese, 1/8 Choctaw, 1/4 Black, and 1/16 Irish), many of her poems were based on the complexity of idenity. On the other hand, Kwame Dawes is a Nigerian born man of Jamaican descent. Gwendolyn Brooks was an African American women whose adult years were spent during the civil rights movement.

How does Fredrickson distinguish between race and ethnicity? How and under what circumstances can ethnicity become racialized’ (para.2)?

As the immigrant population currently projected to overtake latinxs and hispanics as largest group of residents in the United States of America, Asian Americans have shown their will to survive in a way that many groups have not, and that is by banding together in order to achieve the life they deserve. Taking the overgeneralization of pan-ethnicity and using it as a device for increased numbers and support for the causes of a group of people who otherwise may not have much to do with each other, is a testament to how vulnerable they must have felt as well as how successful they have managed to be many aspects of progress. What I have gained from this course is the understanding that at the root of ethnic studies and the Asian American community is the “for us, by us” sentiment that contributed to the blurred lines between the different part of their communities as social, political and cultural, structures, collectives and groups which came out of an obligation and necessity to protect those immigrants and their future generations from a country which has always pushed European superiority in all aspects of society.

The aspect of the English discourse community I will be focusing on in my report is Urban Fiction.

Gwendolyn Brooks is the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize. She has also received a lot of awards and fellowships throughout her life. Born in 1917, she started her writing career in poetry at an early age, publishing her first poem in 1930. 1967 was a turning point in her career as it was in this year that she attended the Fisk University Second Black Writers' Conference. In this conference, she has decided to involve herself in the Black Arts Movement. While awareness of social issues and elements of protest is found generally in all her works, some of her critics found in her work an angrier tone after joining the movement.

It is easy to see that current events and issues of the world around them have had an impact on authors and what they have written from the stories in this time period. The Native American authors wrote stories describing life during and after white man came to America. We read Oratory’s by two Native American’s COCHISE and CHARLOT. They gave heart-wrenching speeches, giving great details into the history of the tribes and the devastating effect the white man had on them. Author Zitkala Sa gave us a powerful interpretation of her life as a Indian and how the white’s coming to America affected her life.

Gwendolyn Brooks was a black poet from Kansas who wrote in the early twentieth century. She was the first black woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize. Her writings deal mostly with the black experience growing up in inner Chicago. This is the case with one of her more famous works, Maud Martha. Maud Martha is a story that illustrates the many issues that a young black girl faces while growing up in a ‘white, male driven’ society. One aspect of Martha that is strongly emphasized on the book is her low self-image and lack of self-esteem. Martha feels that she is inferior for several reasons, but it is mainly the social pressures that she faces and her own blackness that contribute to these feelings of inferiority. It is