The Best American Essays Of The Century By Robert Atwan

The composition begins with Hurston describing her life as a child in the exclusively colored town of Eatonville, Florida where she enjoyed sitting on the front porch and saying friendly hellos to the white passer-bys. When she was thirteen, her mother died and she was sent to a boarding school Jacksonville, this is when she realized she was “a little colored girl”. Though she

Life, liberty, freedom, equality, opportunity, and so many other words have been used to describe the United States of America. Every American child grows up with the words “the land of the free” pounded into their heads, and every morning schools declare America as a place of “liberty and justice for all.” Such inflated rhetoric presents America with large shoes to fill. Thus, America’s shortcomings should not be surprising. Langston Hughes and Upton Sinclair were two 20th Century writers, who saw past this idealistic talk and saw the jungle that the United States really was. Langston Hughes wrote in his poem “Let America be America Again”, “Let America be America again. –Let it be the dream it used to be. –Let it be the pioneer on the plain –Seeking a home where himself is free. –(America was never America to me) (1).” He highlights not only the experience of African Americans during the 1930s, but identifies with other oppressed groups including immigrants writing, “I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—And finding only the same old stupid plan –Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.” Likewise, Upton Sinclair conveyed his repulsion to immigrant oppression during the Industrial Revolution in his book The Jungle, emphasizing the gullibility behind trusting the grandiloquence of the American dream.

After reading “the Innocent Man” by Pamela Colloff’s who write a long journalism about Michael Morton, who was found guilty for murdering his wife Christine was sentenced for fifteen years in prison. Later founding that Michael was Innocent after reinvestigating his case, capturing DNA testing and finding new evidence was able to help prove his innocence. The theme of this essay a widow husband who seek to fight for his freedom in prison and staying connected with his son. Michal son Eric gave him a reason to have hope that they would one day reunite and his son would know for himself that he did murder his wife. The point of view of this essay although a man is falsely accuse for a crime he did not commit he is self-determined to fight.

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,

Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle in their book “Rereading America” feel that commencing college is a very disturbing experience. So many things we have to deal while starting college, but the major challenges are expanded difficulty levels and higher expectation which we are not familiar over the years of high school. In order to solve this issue, we have to remodel ourselves by taking up the challenge and rethink about our strength and flaws. To succeed in college we need to be mentally strong and dedicated towards our goal.

Hurston prides herself on who she is because of her background. Her identity of being a black woman in a world

The later readings focus on the famous writings of America. With writing, such as William Faulkner towards the end it puts the focus more on the importance of these writings in America’s History. These writings are related to the American history and the events in its history. All the writers in this anthology are a major force in history and each of their writings relate to different time periods and events during their time. For example, Daniela Gioseffi focuses her writing “The Exotic Enemy” on the issues of race and segregation in America during the 1940’s. Other works focus on ethnicity, race, slavery, and politics. Each work serves a purpose in American history and shows the importance of those events.

The experience of ethnic Americans has changed drastically throughout the nineteenth century all the way to present day. The awareness of racism and equality has allowed America to become more diverse throughout the past couple of centuries. Since equality has had such a major impact on society, it is beginning to create opportunities for ethnic Americans. In the early to mid-nineteenth century America was not as welcoming to people from different ethnicities as it is today. As people of different races with different backgrounds continued to come to live in America they began to realize that there was equality and race issues. Toward the end of the twentieth century there began to be movements that made it aware that there needed to be changes. Equality awareness movements such as the Civil Rights Movement have changed America for the good, and have created a greater experience for ethnic Americans.

Purpose- Hurston’s purpose is to demonstrate that she is proud of her color. She does not need the bragging rights of having Native American ancestry, nor does she ‘belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it.’

In the poem ,“America”, Claude McKay uses figurative language and diction to create a dark tone, a powerful empowering tone, and an optimistic tone. The theme of double consciousness of African-Americans is supported in the poem and the poem itself also connects to the purpose of the Harlem Renaissance which was to fight back racial hate and stereotypes with black empowerment.

     In the poem "Let America Be America Again," Langston Hughes paints a vivid word picture of a depressed America in the 1930's. To many living in America, the idealism presented as the American Dream had escaped their grasp. In this poetic expression, a speaker is allowed to voice the unsung Americans' concern of how America was intended to be, had become to them, and could aspire to be again.

Hurston, on the other hand, lived in a town where only blacks lived until she was thirteen years old. Therefore, she only knew the “black” self. There was no second identity to contend with. She states that “white people differed from colored to me only in that they rode through town and never lived there.”2 She does not feel anger when she is discriminated against. She only wonders how anyone can not want to be in her company. She “has no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored” (Hurston 1712).

Written in the first half of the 20th century, “Let America Be America” is a poem that documents and responds to the oppressed state of the United States, in both the past and present. The poem is a plea for a return to the original principles of freedom that our country has seemingly forgotten. Additionally, the speaker sees America as the broken home to oppressed people who have lost sight of the ultimate goal of freedom and happiness. Although America is often perceived as the “land of the free,” Langston Hughes’s poem contradicts this ideology by not only painting a vivid picture of oppression in America but also by providing a desperate hope for the future.

The issue of class and race has been seen as a society standard in American going back as early as the days of slavery. American history and literature has always put a huge emphasis on a person’s wealth, social status and race. The color of your skin has been seen as a huge factor on whether you are treated like royalty or like a peasant who no one seemed to respect. Throughout the course of this class we discussed many writers and poets who came from very different walks of life, which led to the different themes and styles helping develop American literature to what it is now

Twentieth Century is the most complex era of the United States History. In this era lots of changes were taking place in America; Industrial development, railroad network, cheap labor, mass production, and more. Standard of living started improving with a focus on education and healthcare. People started paying more attention to family life. However, among all these developments; racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination was still predominant. Through these literary works; Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire and Kerouac’s The Subterraneans, both written in the same era but the former is set a decade earlier than the later, we enhance our understanding of the diversity and complexity of mid-twentieth century America.