Pearl Cleage's Flyin West Literary Analysis

It is strange that two of the most prominent artists of the Harlem Renaissance could ever disagree as much as or be as different as Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright. Despite the fact that they are the same color and lived during the same time period, they do not have much else in common. On the one hand is Hurston, a female writer who indulges in black art and culture and creates subtle messages throughout her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. On the other hand is Wright, who is a male writer who demonstrates that whites do not like black people, nor will they ever except for when they are in the condition “…America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears.” Hurston was also a less political writer than

The plot, or basic storyline, of this short story is about a black woman, Annie Johnson, based in the United States before 1905. Her marriage had collapsed due to her husband leaving her to pursue religion in Oklahoma and leaving her with very little money. The plotline develops on to show her struggle to support herself and her two sons and how she has to use courage to support herself and her family.

In Chapter 1 “Destinations”, Jeffrey S. Copeland introduces readers to Inman Perkins and three other characters – Doc Taylor, Williams, and Olivia Merriwether. Inman Perkins was beginning a new experience as part of the U.S. Army during World War II. He was taking the first train trip of his life, leaving St. Louis and heading for Davis-Monthan Field in Arizona. He was eager and excited to see what his new experiences in the military would bring him, but at the same time he was sad to leave behind his life in St. Louis. He missed his job as a science teacher at Sumner High School, a well-respected school for African Americans, and especially his

Zora Neale Hurston's aim in The Gilded Six-Bits is to counter the lingering; glad; darky generalization by which African Americans was respected in her time. In particular, she refutes the plainly condescending attitude of the white store clerk toward the end of the story who needs to be similar to the African Americans, obviously effortless and continually laughing. Such a recognition is rendered silly and crazy by Hurston's story of the inside turmoil brought on by a demonstration of conjugal disloyalty and the unprecedented efforts of Joe and Missie May to revive their love and recovery their marriage.

When you live in the suburbs of Atlanta, it was easy to forget about whites. Whites were like those pigeons: real and existing, but rarely seen or thought about…everyone had seen white girls and their mother coo-coing over dresses; everyone had gone to downtown library and seen white businessmen swish by importantly, wrists flexed in front of them to check the time as though they would change from Clark Kent into Superman…those images were a fleeing as cards shuffled in a deck, where as the ten white girls behind us were real and memorable (179).

Kenny Leon’s True Color Theatre Company’s production of Spunk: Three Tales by Zora Neale Hurston at the 14th Street Playhouse on September 25, 2013, presented the audience with a very culturally embellished version of Hurston’s original three tales: “Sweat,” “Story in Harlem Slang,” and “The Gilded Six Bits.” Zora Neale Hurston strived to portray the reality of life as an African American in the early 1900s through native dialect in her short stories and novels. Her most notable production, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a prime example of her effort to illustrate the life of the everyday Negro in search of a better life. Each of the short stories portrays a different, yet comparable view on African American culture in separate

In the beginning of this essay, Hurston describes the superiority dynamic between herself and White Northerners passing through her hometown. Specifically, Hurston reflects that the passing white travelers only valued her as a source of amusement: “They liked to hear me speak pieces and sing and wanted to see me dance the parse-me-la.” (Hurston 42). Almost as if Hurston was a common servant; the passing white people would pay to see an innocent black girl dance and sing just as a king demands a show from his jester. Furthermore, Hurston’s youthful naivety in the racial hierarchy of Jim Crow America made her exploitation all the more grotesque. Hurston includes this reflection in her essay to show how black people were degraded by white society even as young children. Which creates the impression that the social hierarchy of races was thoroughly integrated into the lives of African Americans. Essentially, it was part of an African Americans social identity to be inferior due to their complexion.

Melba Beals, a young African-American, was part of the Little Rock Nine: a group of nine African-Americans who integrated into Little Rock’s renowned all-white school, Central High. In Beal’s memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, the main character Melba desperately survives through the acts of prejudice brought towards her in her white environment around her. These terrifying experiences throughout Melba’s journey reveals to the reader that a successful journey of one is always heavily assisted by important figures around that person.

Robert and Bessie Brown, who are the paternal grandparents of the author’s wife, made their home in Bradley, South Dakota, a farming community and rail hub on the eastern Dakota prairie. Bessie grew up on a farm near Bradley, whereas Robert, subsequent to service in the Great War, arrived in Bradley as a young adult seeking a livelihood by acquiring the community’s Ford dealership. After becoming husband and wife, they remained in the small town where the civic-minded couple took on leadership roles in their church and numerous service organizations. Foremost in Robert and Bessie’s lives were their four children: Mary, Robert, Eldred, and Verna. They nurtured their children through the challenging times of the Great Depression and, as they matured into adulthood, guided them through the turbulent years of World War II.

The early 1900s was a very challenging time for Negroes especially young women who developed issues in regards to their identities. Their concerns stemmed from their skin colors. Either they were fair skinned due mixed heritage or just dark skinned. Young African American women experienced issues with racial identity which caused them to be in a constant struggle that prohibits them from loving themselves and the skin they are in. The purpose of this paper is to examine those issues in the context of selected creative literature. I will be discussing the various aspects of them and to aid in my analysis, I will be utilizing the works of Nella Larsen from The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Jessie Bennett Redmond Fauset,

Chapter 4 of A Shining thread of hope explores the the 19th century as it relates to African-American women. It is broken down into subsections: Origins of the movement, Sojourner's sisters, outside the movement, the underground railroad, another world, another culture,and before the dawn. Each time period followed a certain formula. First, a generalization about the time, followed by a

“Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination” written by American author, feminist and social activist, bell hooks, dissects the dichotomy of black and white culture in a westernized society. Hooks utilizes the term ‘whiteness’ throughout her piece as an acknowledgment of the domination, imperialism, colonialism, and racism that white people have asserted among black people. This discipline progressively has evolved from history; through slavery and forth, leaving an imprint in

In the 1940’s and the 1950’s, America was going through a world war and several difficulties that included problems in civil and woman rights on the home-front. In two different nonfiction memoirs by female authors, we see different yet similarities in the novels. Nisei Daughter by Monica Sone is a memoir by a Japanese-American woman, in which she describes her childhood, adolescence, and young womanhood while growing up in a Japanese immigrant family in Seattle, Washington in the 1930 's. In the second narrative, Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody is a memoir by an African-American woman whom writes about her childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood life and growing up in her home state during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s. Moody and Sone had childhoods that lacked positive influences in certain areas and tell their stories to help others in understanding the issues that surrounded them as being minority women in a society that don’t accept them.

Mammie, Jezebel, and the ever ready prostitute and Sapphire. In “Four Women” Nina Simone links the history of black women in America as defined

In The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, evil transforms certain humble citizens into envious savages. It is this evil which moves the story along and adds drama. It causes the beginning of a happy spirit, but the downfall of goodness and humanity.