When referring to the race of the body described in “Portrait in Georgia,” Suzanne Lynch wrote “positioning this woman as neither black nor white, within a world so polarized by color, makes her a destabilizing force within the power dynamics of the culture… If the poem strips this Georgia woman of her wholeness and reduces her to a series of fragments, it also accounts for that effect by placing her in a social setting of violent white dominance.” In summary, Lynch’s response is attempting to convey the subject of Jean Toomer’s poem “Portrait in Georgia” is purposely not given a race, and might be a black, mixed-race, or raceless woman to make the reader acknowledge his pigeonholing: “Just in case the reader…feels an uncontrollable inclination …show more content…
Her features remind him of her direct role in racism and the physical harm that could come his way. The speaker begins by describing her hair as “braided chestnut, / coiled like a lyncher’s rope” (Toomer 1-2). Lynch concludes the subject’s braids symbolize the indelibly intertwined lives of black and whites, “‘braided’ in a common southern experience.” I consider the opposite, concluding these two lines represent the racial divide between the speaker and the subject of the poem, rather than a union. The woman’s hair is braided like a lyncher’s rope and the color of her hair, chestnut, describes a type of tree of which the rope might hang if the speaker interacted with the white woman. Similarly, and not mentioned by Lynch, the woman’s eyes are then figuratively compared to the burning of a body during a lynching, evident through Toomer’s use of “fagots,” or a bundle of sticks intended to be lit (Toomer 3). The speaker cannot admire even her most mundane features, like hair or eyes, because it reminds him of the racial division between the two. Her features compared to a tree, rope, and fire in that back-to-back manner further imply the representation of the speaker’s feasible gruesome
She was about to press charges against the mob members, however, she was lynched before she could have done anything. According to Buckner, authors like Fuller, Clifford, and Grimké, who have also written about Turner’s fatal end, they have “cast Turner as maternal icon, but their sentimental antilynching statements” (Buckner 208). Moreover, Turner opens a space for new ways of thinking. Across the different retellings of her story, including Toomer’s, there are always images of silence and voice, blindness and seeing, that prevail. Lamkins is one of the few females that add something important to the conversation of racism, tolerance, and audacity to not be silenced. “Lynching has been constructed as masculine discourse” (209), considering what Buckner states, then the fact that “Kabnis” is a male-dominated literary work that somehow refuses to acknowledge women, is connected to Toomer’s interpretation of lynching. In other words, Cane’s all-male narration is done deliberately to portrait lynching in a more realistic way. In addition, “Both the story [“Kabnis”] and the book [Cane] end on a note of hope, deploying images of rebirth to compensate for the horrific deaths of Mame Lamkins and her fetus” (207). Toomer’s images of rebirth bring once again hope to his readers, it is another form wherein Toomer tried to speak out against the violent acts
To engage a large audience, Staples appeals to readers with his use to two different points of views throughout the essay: societal views and black views. Staples tries to connect with the readers by giving examples of unconscious thoughts that run through the minds of most people when in the same situation as the “white women.” In his opening sentence, Staples calls the women a “victim.” In her own eyes, she herself was “victim” due to the influence of generalized stereotypes presented in our culture. She becomes quick to judge based on Staples appearance: his skin tone. Because of his color, his every action becomes nothing but threats and anxiety on the women. “She casted a back worried glance. To her, the youngish black- broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a
First, ask yourself how would you feel after hearing the news that one of your family members had been lynched? Throughout the chapters 1-8, we can experience and observe the disheartening history of violence and lies. It is additionally an irritating depiction of a partitioned country on the very edge of the social equality development and an eerie contemplation on race, history, and the battle for truth. Throughout history, the conditions of the lynching, how it affected the legislators of the day, quickened the social equality development and keeps on shadowing the Georgia people group where these homicides occurred. During the 1900s until 19600s various African-Americans experienced various harsh conditions of violence, never being granted the right to vote and being segregated from whites based on their race and skin-color from their white masters. In general racism between whites and blacks can be seen throughout the globe during the era of slavery
The reading begins off with describing a mother, Dinah Kirkland and her traumatic experience with the concept of lynching. During the early 1930’s her son went missing after he was arrested and although Dinah knew that her son had been the product of a lynching, she could do nothing about it. She did not know where he was kept, who killed him, or even why he was killed. She contacted the head of the NAACP, and told him the fear she had regarding her son. Members of the African- American society came together to help Kirkland with her efforts, and eventually, Dinah did find the remains of her eighteen-year-old son.
In conclusion, the poem was used as a key to unlock some of the thoughts the negro had concerning Africa. The negro in this poem was a representative of all negroes during this time; their thoughts and the their feelings toward Africa. Cullen’s usage of the literary devices allow for an effective expression of the meaning of this poem. Poems are intensified language of experience, so the devices assured the connection of the reader to the poem and the experience. This applies to many issues in society today because as beautiful as our country is there are still dark clouds that cover the very essence of what the states once stood
Wexler’s attention to these details ensures that the lynching victims are more than flat “symbols,” constructed by a foreign and long past semiotic system, to the reader. She writes, for instance, of George Murray, or Dorsey, who had “returned [to Monroe] from the army” (167), after “four and one-half years” of service, in September 1945, that he was a man who had “love for music,” “skill as a farmer,” and a memorable smile (99). In this respect, Wexler accomplishes the same empathy for an innocent victim as the NAACP, in 1946, might have done, and in similar style—as she contends, in parallel fashion to the deceased victims’
It has always been assumed that races have a certain look; a person can always tell what a person is by their mannerisms, their speech and the overall way they carried themselves even if they looked a certain way. However, this is mainly due to stereotypes that have long plagued our society and what one “expects” someone to look like just based on the negative connotations that are associated with skin complexion. When we read certain literature, the description of the character is the first thing that we look for as it is a way for us to somewhat bond with the character and attempt to see the story through their eyes. Toni Morrison’s Recitatif explores how the author describes each character not expressing their race leaving a bit of mysery to the reader and attempts to breaks down the stereotypes that exist for each race. Through a literary analysis, the reader is able to see those stereotypical assumptions about the color of one’s skin and how they should cease to exist in any world whether it is literal or figurative.
Nichols uses humour as the main deconstructive strategy to be an efficient tool for subverting the myths that have oppressed black women. The woman’s body acquires relevance, as the poems focus on a black immigrant woman within a context of white supremacy. Nichols creates persona who she uses to represent the black female body and she constitutes a challenge to black women’s objectification in the Western (British) society, in which she is exiled. The writer occasionally speaks in the first person, has no name, so the third-person poetic voice refers to her as ‘the fat black woman’. The fat black woman refuses to be a victim and, therefore, rejects all the traps laid by racist and sexist society by means of stereotypes that aim at constricting her into limiting roles. It is her that
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,
After the ellipses, there is a shift back to the poetic “I”. The speaker states that while starring into the sockets of the victim’s skull, he becomes “frozen” with the “pity for the life that was gone”. This transitional sentence separates the scene of the already occurred murder from the present material world. The material world revives around the speaker in the next sentence of the poem. In this massive sentence, Wright dramatically personifies the nature in order to transform the cruel historical scene into the current time. However, the significant transformation of the poetic “I” to the “thing” starts when “the ground gripped” the poet’s feet. From that line, the personified ground captures the speaker, and from the observer of already happened images of the lynching, he revives as a participant in the present scene. In this scene, when the dry bones “melting themselves” into the poet’s bones, he becomes the victim of the lynching. The last minutes of the victim’s life are graphically presented in the third stanza of the poem. The first person’s perspective is a very powerful element, which Wright uses in order to put any reader into the African Americans unlawful suffering from the terror lynching. Furthermore, it is obvious that in the Richard
Over time, it has become relatively easy, almost second nature, for people to devise strict societal barriers and categorize people, cultures, and ideas into separate boxes. In Jean Toomer’s “Portrait in Georgia”, however, this is exceptionally challenging for the reader to do so. With his poetic paintbrush, Toomer describes a beautiful woman, but he intentionally blurs the racial lines of black and white in order to illustrate an underlying theme concerning the deep-rooted problems of racism in America. To help convey this theme, Toomer utilizes the literary tool of imagery, and he does so masterfully. Each image is meticulously placed and organized to provide the most powerful impact possible. While certain images emphasize the beauty and grandeur of a woman, others bring up unbelievably violent, gory, and horrific images of death associated with the treatment of African Americans during the time of Jim Crow Laws. Overall, Toomer’s use of imagery brings “Portrait in Georgia” to life, grabs the reader’s attention, successfully demonstrates an extremely powerful message, and causes society’s darker parts to be questioned.
Baines utilizes the knowledge of artifacts found in the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods and compares them with the artifacts from the Naqada Period and Dynasty 0 in order to understand the social and political organization of the latter periods. Baines justifies the use of later artifacts as evidence for earlier periods through the examination of the representation of three aspects of sociopolitical organization in art: the early Egyptians’ view and depiction of outsiders, the themes present in the forms of display of these views, and the material expression of Egyptian hierarchy.
The assignment required a selection and review of five different literary sources, designating three as resources for an analytical literary review of the subject matter. The detailed review of the three selected resources is a culmination of our written critic. The first source, “Should College Athletes Be Paid?” by Tiffany Patterson, has no firm stance is taken. The article is laid out in a manner to inform readers without prior knowledge of the subject, information that would assist them towards drawing their own stance on the subject. Patterson does this by providing three pros and three cons on the topic and then allowing the reader to decide. In her article, Patterson (2016) proclaims:
Lynching was way of life in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century. As Wells-Barnett points out, although most white people try to say that they did not want to discuss the noisy, because it will drag the reputation of angry white women, the vast majority of lynching had been completed, white people thought like lynching or burning some black people just to teach them their place. Wells intends to dissolve these myths and reasons into lynching, especially black rape white women. She repeats and the objectivity of the news proves that most black corpses killed black citizens are innocent and that their murders are not punished.
In “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens”, Alice Walker looks to educate us on the hardships that almost all black women face when trying to express themselves through things such as art. She delves into many sociological and psychological concepts that have affected black women throughout human history. These concepts and ideologies created a realm for mass exclusion, discrimination, and oppression of many African American women, including Alice Walker’s Mother, who Alice utilizes as one of her particular examples. The writing thematically aims to show how these concepts of sexism, racism, and even classism have contributed to black women’s lack of individuality, optimism, and fulfillment for generations. The author does a tremendous job of defending and expanding upon her arguments. She has a credible background, being a black woman that produces the art of literature herself. As well as being raised by one, Walker’s first-hand experience warrants high regard. Therefore, her use of abstract and introspective language is presented clearly and convincingly. Also, her use of evidence and support from sources like Jean Toomer, Virginia Woolf, and Phillis Wheatley, all produce more validity for her stance through poems, quotes, and even experiences. All these individuals have their own accounts pertaining to the oppression of black women and their individuality. Successfully arguing that the artistry plights of black women described in “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” are