What Is The Critical Lens Of Hybridity

To show first hand to the whites the inequality’s and hardships that the blacks face, the entire first section is in a narrative and a descriptive format. The use of these types of essays lets the readers feel more involved in the story and feel things for themselves. Split into two sections within itself, this first paragraph juxtaposes two stories — one about a “young Negro boy” living in Harlem, and the other about a “young Negro girl” living in Birmingham. The parallelism in the sentence structures of introducing the children likens them even more — despite the differences between them — whether it be their far away location, or their differing, yet still awful, situations. Since this section is focused more towards his white audience, King goes into a description of what it was like living as an African American in those times— a situation the black audience knew all too well. His intense word choice of describing the boy’s house as “vermin-infested” provokes a very negative reaction due to the bad

Language can be a powerful tool which can build individuals up but it can also tear them down. When reading Literature through a post-colonial lens it can give us the needed tools to provide or grasp the information in order to reveal the bigger picture in the story. “Post-colonialism examines the manner in which emerging societies grapple with the challenges of self- determination.” (Aladren, 2013) In one way we can see that approach of colonist being conveyed through the native tongue which tends to be taught to its subjects. Such examples can be seen in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Act1 & 2) and the The Epic of Gilgamesh which illustrates how a “savage” can be domesticated simply by learning the imperialist language. As the subjects Caliban and Enkidu encounter these dominating issues due to the situation they face once they are introduce to oppressors culture.

In Richard Wright’s novel, Black Boy, Richard is struggling to survive in a racist environment in the South. In his youth, Richard is vaguely aware of the differences between blacks and whites. He scarcely notices if a person is black or white, and views all people equally. As Richard grows older, he becomes more and more aware of how whites treat blacks, the social differences between the races, and how he is expected to act when in the presence of white people. Richard, with a rebellious nature, finds that he is torn between his need to be treated respectfully, with dignity and as an individual with value and his need to conform to the white rules of society for survival and acceptance.

As time continues, the boy struggles with what to make of himself and his future. His musical aspirations begin to hold more weight in his decisions, but are still rather questionable. Whenever he seems to be making the steps to pave his future, he seems to continuously be redirected from his intended path. His inability to fully strive for a profession can be directly related to his inability to choose how he wants to be viewed, or rather who he wants to be viewed as, by society; he lacks the confidence to potentially make the “wrong decision.” The narrator becomes increasingly likely to make a career of music, and is greatly inspired by spirituals he hears at a church service. As he leaves to “settle down to work” (Johnson 133) , he witnesses a gruesome and cruel scene. A black man was to be hanged in town, but instead a white mob burns the black man alive. The narrator is terrified and scarred, committing to live his life as a white man. Shame is what the young boy now feels, for whether he lives as a white man, he is indeed a black man. Shame is responsible for the choice he made, because he wished not to be “identified with a people that could with impunity be treated worse than animals" (Johnson 139).

Exploration during the postcolonial era was very popular in footings for people to try and reach out to find ways to set up ground for themselves. In Gilgamesh, the Tempest, and Heart of Darkness, it seems oppression and race played an important factor as to how one coexisted from events that took place to express all that existed during this period. From both good to bad, one feeling strong to weak, or even included or excluded, oppression and race were amongst the many postcolonial lenses that could be viewed from these three pieces of literature. These three stories reveal how racial difference is used to justify oppression during the time of the colonial period.

This is representative of the how our nation's white population treated African Americans for many years. Often they took a stance of authority, feeling superior to the black minorities. This belief is portrayed by the men's angered actions toward the boys.

He discusses being a child and seeing his parents and other adults humiliated. I watch my father say, “yes-sir” to white teenagers. My mom and I were in the car

African American boys are doubly displaced among society. Ann Arnett Ferguson says, “they are not seen as childlike but adultified; as black males they are denied the masculine dispensation constituting white males as being “naturally naughty” and are discerned as willfully bad”(page 80). These African American boys are thought of being two things, either a criminal or an endangered species. They are not allowed to be naughty by nature according to society, but rather there naughtiness is a sign of vicious, inherent, insubordinate behavior. African americans are seen as endangered victims, which makes them criminals. Ferguson states, “It is their own maladaptive and inappropriate behavior that causes African americans to self-destruct”(page 82). There are two versions of childhood that are contradictory to each other. A real child would be seen as a “little plants” ready to grow up accordingly which is what white men were like to educators. On the other hand the African American boys were seen as children who are powerful, self centered, and have an agenda of their own. These black boys are seen as adults from such a young age, they don’t have time to be young and grow up because others make it seem like they are already fully grown. This drives them in the path to do bad things and make bad decisions.

Imagine a man suddenly cast into a world he could never have dreamed of. He would be shocked by the unfamiliarity all around him, from the people to the plants, and confused of what to do. A man cut off from what he knows is only left with two options--either to reject his new circumstances or find a way to assimilate to his new society. This man will either try to find a way to return back to his world, or find a way to adjust his life to his surroundings. Throughout history, separate cultures have collided, and with each collision they have either melded together or rejected each other. The novels Heart of Darkness and The Poisonwood Bible both portray how every individual reacts differently when their ways of life collide with foreign ones,by either rejecting the foreign society, or accepting it and creating a merger of cultures. Although both novels describe characters finding themselves at these crossroads, the differences between the novels portray the effects of an individual's wants and needs when deciding how to react to new cultures.

Cullen utilizes imagery throughout the poem, to illuminate the racism African Americans endured and impact racism carries. The speaker in the poem is an eight year old in Baltimore. In the first stanza, Cullen describes the child as “heart-filled, head-filled with glee.” This image portrays the speaker as innocent and joyful. Then the speaker notices a boy staring at him, the speaker believes there’s little difference between them, that the kid “was no whit bigger.” The speaker gets a rude awakening after the boy “poked out his tongue.” A seemingly playful meaningless gesture is met with the boy calling the speaker “N****r.” Cullen contrasts these two experiences because it depicts how racism comes out of nowhere and effects those you wouldn’t expect. The last stanza, the speaker “saw the whole Baltimore. The image of seeing is not just visual, but a metaphor for the loss of innocence where the speaker now is exposed to the hate. Cullen masterfully uses imagery so that readers understand the incredible impact that words have, especially when used for hate.

He was made to deal with this horror in one of two ways, either to keep his head down and comply with the unfair treatment he received, or to fight back, and rebel against the society’s intentions for him. He accepted an array of abuse, ranging from humiliation to the threat of physical violence, and although it took its toll Wright kept quiet. However, in any area of his life where he could get away with it, Wright subverted the authoritative rule, with theft, disobedience, or the pursuit of forbidden education, in order to combat brutality he faced. Cleary, Black Boy tells us important lessons about the American past, in terms of racism, and how its remnants continue today. But, equally importantly, it helps understand the role an individual in society can play in bringing about change.

They see whites “in their tuxedos, wolfing down the buffet foods, drinking beer and whiskey and smoking black cigars” (Ellison 287). The whites thought the blacks were weak and inferior to them. Readers notice this when the main character grabbed a hold of a white man’s chair and the man yelled “leggo nigger!” (Ellison 292). Nigger was not a word of respect and the whites knew this. A large group of kids were shoved into an elevator but the boy mentioned, “I felt superior to them in my way…” (Ellison 287). He felt because the whites enjoyed his speech, he was the good outcast in this situation. Here readers can tell the main character feels he belongs there, in wealth, while the others are just thrown around the place. Despite this, oppressors bring the boys to a place of wealth to later throw them into a filthy rink, where they could make fun of them being harmed, to show that they need to hurt the boys’ confidence to keep them in a lower

     Richard Wright's novel Black Boy is not only a story about one man's struggle to find freedom and intellectual happiness, it is a story about his discovery of language's inherent strengths and weaknesses. And the ways in which its power can separate one soul from another and one class from another. Throughout the novel, he moves from fear to respect, to abuse, to fear of language in a cycle of education which might be likened to a tumultuous love affair.

In literature, post colonialism is the study of post-colonial theories that ask the reader to notice the effects of colonization on people or the extension power into other nations. In post-colonial theories, the term subaltern is the nickname to populations which are far cry from the power of the colony that has hegemonic on social, political and geographical prevalence. The present research aims at analyzing Spivak's essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in the light of her question whether or not the possibility exists for any recovery of a subaltern

    At first, the narrator cannot grasp that his grandfather was fighting against oppression in his work he was compliant to white men. But as he progresses as a student the denials of the system become more clear it is not clear if white men wish for him to advance or not. The narrator’s  worldview has become more