Harlem Mascotch By Maya Angelou: A Literary Analysis

African American Literature and the Harlem Renaissance draw distinct parallels between each other through their themes, trends, and writers. These two periods, African American Literature since 1975 and the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s mirror one another, both eras increased creativity of the black community and the productivity of literary works (Anderson and Stewart, 2007).

History.com (2009) describes the Harlem Renaissance movement as “a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity.” The 1920s and 1930s emcompass a time in history where blacks found themselves ostracized from mainstream society. It was uncommon to see the expressions of black artistry in everyday life, especially on a literary level.

The Harlem Renaissance was a period that started in the early 1920’s in which the concept of “the Negro” was intended to be changed (History.com). This period witnessed the thrive of African American art. White stereotypes had influenced not only the way African Americans were perceived in society but also their relationship between themselves and others. Participants like Gwendolyn Bennett, Langston Hughes, Paul Lawrence Dunbar and W.E.B. Du Bois were some of many authors of creative pieces that reflected their points of views. Like George Hutchinson writes in his article, The Harlem Renaissance brought many African Americans from South to North which helped the rise of literacy and the creation of organizations dedicated to promoting African American civil rights that resulted in the uplift of the race and the availability of socioeconomic opportunities (1). The distinctive expression through things like poetry and music during the Harlem Renaissance reflected the reality and experiences black people were going through. This essay is going to focus on the relationship between poetry, politics and representation while relying on the poem “We Wear the Mark” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar. At the same time, this paper will be supported with works from Langston Hughes, Alain Locke and W.E.B. Dubois.

The Harlem Renaissance was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York between the conclusion of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. During this period, Harlem was a cultural center, drawing black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars. Many had come from the South, fleeing its oppressive caste system in order to find a place where they could freely express their talents; this became known as The Great Migration. Among those artists whose works achieved recognition were Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Arna Bontemps, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jean Toomer. The Renaissance involved racial pride, fueled in part by the violence of the "New Negro" demanding civil and political rights. The Renaissance incorporated jazz and the blues, attracting whites to Harlem speakeasies, where interracial couples danced. However, the Renaissance had little impact on breaking down the rigid barriers of Jim Crow that separated the races; while it may have contributed to a certain slackening of racial attitudes among young whites, perhaps its greatest impact was to reinforce race pride among blacks. The importance of the social movement we refer to as the Harlem Renaissance cannot afford to be overlooked. Like the musicians of their day, Harlem Renaissance poets advocated for an equal society, and incorporated personal anecdotes and historical snippets into their compositions to make the

Both Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were great writers but their attitudes towards their personal experience as an African American differed in many ways. These differences can be attributed to various reasons that range from gender to life experience but even though they had different perceptions regarding the African American experience, they both shared one common goal, racial equality through art. To accurately delve into the minds of the writers’ one must first consider authors background such as their childhood experience, education, as well their early adulthood to truly understand how it affected their writing in terms the similarities and

When one thinks of Harlem, he or she typically associates the city with the Harlem Renaissance of the early 20th century, which celebrated the achievements of African American arts, and its correlation with the Great Migration of these individuals moving from the South to the North. According to sociologist Sharon Zukin in her article “Why Harlem Is Not a Ghetto,” “The first Harlem Renaissance was the period of extraordinary creativity in the 1920s and 1930s when African American and Caribbean writers, painters, and intellectuals joined with white literary critics to create a ‘capital of Black culture.’” (Zukin, 65). The city of Harlem highlights the strides African Americans have made, and today with the inclusion of chains such as Whole

Throughout the years, sports have become a major part of society. Sports, a large percentage of the time, are a part of peoples’ lives in one way or another. Whether they participate in them or just enjoy watching them, sports are a big deal to the majority of people. There are also some individuals who have redefined the expectations when it comes to certain sports. For instance, Babe Ruth redefined the way people think about baseball, or Michael Jordan completely changing the game of basketball. But Joe Louis and Venus and Serena Williams have changed their games in a way no one could have imagined. Although “Champion of the World” by Maya Angelou and “Woman Who Hit Very Hard and How They’ve Changed Tennis” by Michael Kimmelman are different, they are similar in the ways they show how the respected athletes, Joe Louis and the Williams sisters, changed the game and were seen using symbolism in racial and sexual progression.

“These places therefore are no longer mine but theirs. Not that I’m barred, any more than they were seven or eight years ago. But the complexion of the place is theirs, not mine. I? Why, I am actually stared at, I frequently feel uncomfortable and out of place, and when I go out on the floor to dance I am lost in a sea of white faces…Time was when white people went to Negro cabarets to see how Negroes acted; now Negroes go to these same cabarets to see how white people act.” African-American physician, radiologist, musician and novelist Rudolph Fisher was coupled with the Harlem Renaissance, whose fiction credibly illustrated black urban life, particularly in Harlem. In his first novel, Walls of Jericho, Fisher humorously and satirically presented a hopeful vision that African American men could get ahead in the urban north if they united to overcome distrust bred by spans of oppression. World War I shaped a transformation for African Americans from the “old” to the “new”, also known during that time period as The New Negro Movement. Thousands relocated from the rural South to the industrial North, following a vision of social and economic opportunity. This movement of the 1920s promoted a rehabilitated sense of “racial pride, cultural self-expression, economic independence, and progressive politics.” Described within Rudolph Fisher’s article The Caucasian Storms Harlem, The New Negro Movement appeared during a time heavily saturated by jazz, which was significant to not

The Harlem Renaissance was an evolutionary period in terms of African-American cultural expression; in fact, the movement changed the way that black musicians, poets, authors, and even ordinary people perceived themselves. One of the most influential poets of the time was Langston Hughes. Hughes’ works display a pride in being black that most African-Americans are too afraid to show, even today. Moreover, he adamantly refused to submit to the sentiment that he should be ashamed of his heritage, instead believing that “no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself.”(p1990 From the Negro Artist). In the article “‘Don’t Turn Back’: Langston Hughes, Barack Obama, and Martin Luther King, Jr.” by Jason Miller, Miller analyzes how Hughes’ poetry has been used by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama and how the House of Un-american Activities Committee affected that use.

“Harlem Hopscotch”, was written by Maya Angelou and was published in 1969. Without a true understanding of the poem, it may first come off as a story that is kind of child-like, but after a deeply read I feel that the poem portrays a sense of struggle from the African American life. We endure a life of segregation, race conflict, and a constant consciousness of our self-image. The poem reveals a great deal of reality both inside and outside while reading through the lines. “Harlem Hopscotch” is a poem that revolves around the overall theme of childhood poverty in an African American society. The ideas that are introduced by the speaker include poverty, self-struggle, work and leisure. Angelou relates her thoughts to the game of hopscotch by clarifying each rule or step taken to get from the beginning of the game to the end. The first rule that is discussed in the poem is to hop on one foot through the game. This immediately stresses that the life of an African-American is crippled from the very beginning, this accounts for the stressed idea of issues involving wealth. Everyone knows the truth about the rich and the poor; even the young have a clear concept of it. Angelou goes on

The African-American literary period of Realism, Naturalism, and Modernism, also referred to as the Age of Wright, was when the writers and artist would expose the realities and identities of living in America and the harshness of society. This African-American literary period would begin around the time the Great Depression ends and would end the year in the death of Richard Wright, which was 1960. One of the most notable writers of this period was, of course, Richard Wright. By his way of thinking and the way he wrote literature, “Wright [had] effectively executed his own blueprint by rejecting what Locke termed the ‘decadent aestheticism’ of Harlem Renaissance writers and by drawing on the presumably more ‘nourishing’ elixir of Marxism and social protest” (Gates, 97). Richard Wright’s Blueprint for Negro Writing appeared in the journal New Challenge that he and other African-American writers had published in 1937. Although Richard Wright’s Blueprint for Negro Writing was written before 1940, this literature work makes an excellent representation of Urban Realism. This text represents this literary period because it tells about the reality, but also the promotion of success in African-American literature by criticizing black culture and nationalism in literary works.

As an African American woman, my passions are deeply rooted in my identity. The ways in which African Americans as well as women create works of literature in order to empower and govern their identities is of central importance to me. With entities such as NAACP, Black Lives Matter, and many more social groups rising to champion the needs and wants of the community, it is important that there is a strong foundation voicing what those needs are. In dealing with writers directly related to the culture, who describe the predicament of the individual in a specific time and place, I hope to evaluate the

Being part of a young generation, people at my age level never really got to see firsthand just how intense the civil rights movement was. The civil rights movement was the dawn of a new day for African Americans. They finally had rights; they were finally equal to their fellow white man. But the civil rights movement wasn’t only big from a political standpoint, it sparked a new wave of African American civil rights poets. Harlem Hopscotch is a poem written by Maya Angelou in 1971, describing the struggles of being an African American living in Harlem before, and throughout the civil rights movement. The poem mentions different problems that minority’s faced, from not being able to put food on the table, to not being able to pay your rent at

Men can no longer take from women what they want. Women are worth more than the value of their man and Angelou refuses to allow the subjugation of women to continue. Black men received their rights before any women. Angelou will not settle for freedom for some and not for all, she wants women’s worth and value to be

Our world as we know it is fascinating, multifaceted, and cultured because of the literary aura that has been present throughout time. Just like the people that fill our world, some literature has been hurtful, some is beneficial to certain groups and cultures, and some is for pure entertainment. However, the great thing about it is that literature has the ability to connect any form of art through the past and present. Literature has no age and therefore can speak to generations and help enlighten future leaders of communities. No matter the topic, there is always a way to connect the piece of literature, whether that be a song, poem, or script, to the conditions of society. In the lives of African Americans, this idea of literature being a centerpiece of culture has continued in the past and into the present. Writers, songwriters, and poets alike all share a commonality that unites the African American community through similar aspirations, realizations, and views of the world around them. The circumstance in most literature of the past done by African Americans shares what their place in American society is like. Literature acted, at the time, as a glue that kept thoughts and morals together in the African American community in America. Today, African American culture is shared through various forms of illumifying arts that have roots given by the African American literary leaders of the past. Specifically, the “Black Lives Matter” movement and forms of media creations