A modern woman emerging and developing ahead of her time, dealing with the challenges of gaining independence in a time period where woman weren’t human. This is Edna Pontellier’s conflict told in the novel the Awakening by Kate Chopin. Late in her already establish life Edna a wife and mother of two discovers herself to realize she goes against society’s ideals as a woman. Never truly attempting to fit into the “woman” role Edna finds herself stepping out of her cage through self-discovery. Author Kate Chopin creates and utilizes symbols and motifs to develop the multiple cognizances Edna undergoes. Edna deals with the repercussions of a society that isn’t as accustoms to a woman being
In the analysis of the abundance of wonderful leaders who made a difference in the African American community since emancipation, W.E.B Du Bois made a special impact to advance the world. From founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to his influential book The Souls of Black Folk, he always found an accurate yet abstract way of verbalizing the strives of African Americans as well as making platforms for them to be known. Although he had less power than most of the bigger named African American leaders of his time, W.E.B Dubois’ overweighing strengths verses weaknesses, accurate and creative analogies, leadership style, and the successful foundations he stood for demonstrates his ability to be both realistic and accurate in his assessment since emancipation.
Langston Hughes used rhetoric words in his story “Salvation,” to provide foreshadows, and emotional appeals to his struggles in becoming religiously saved. Hughes began his story by stating “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen (179).” The irony in this opening is that Hughes initially believed in the presence of Jesus, but unexpected pressures pushed him to betray and deceive his faith. The setting of Hughes struggles took place in a religious ceremony in his Auntie Reed’s church. In this service, many young children like Hughes were gathered to be spiritually cleansed by the light of Jesus. Before the start of the service, Auntie Reed, and many church elders told Hughes that when Jesus spiritually exposes himself, he
W.E.B Dubois was a man who believed and fought for a cause that changed and revolutionized how some people see racism today. Before Du bois started his civil rights activism he was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on February 23, 1868, and in 1884 Du Bois graduated as the valedictorian from his high school class. Soon after he graduated from high school he was accepted into Harvard University in 1888 as a junior and was the first African American to earn a PHD from Harvard University. Shortly after he received a bachelor of arts cum laude in 1890. Later in his life Du Bois began to fight vigorously for lesser status foundations and became an advocate for full and equal rights. He is known
Du Bois believed in the pursuit of intellect though higher education, to gain equal rights for African Americans. He was an intelligent, outspoken, “enormously ambitious and disciplined” black leader. (White, p.459) “Du Bois had been born in 1868 to a family that had been free for generation.” (White, p.459) Being born into freedom Du Bois never experienced the harsh labor experiences that most slaved African American children had to face. So, he believed that education was the way for blacks to obtain advancement, power and equal rights. Du Bois “placed far more emphasis on the need for liberal arts and advanced scientific and technical education for blacks.” (White, p. 460) In 1900 he helped with the Paris World’s Fair to highlight some of the African American’s achievements. “In 1905, Du Bois helped launch the Niagara moment, a militant protest organization of black intellectuals and professionals that, in opposition to Washington’s program, tried to revitalize a national black civil rights agenda.” (White, p.460) Standing up for equal rights and taking the militant approach, he felt that African Americans should educate themselves just as the
Du Bois discussed once the southerners became prejudiced against them, all different injustices started unraveling. Firstly, restaurants, bathrooms, schools, and transportation were isolated for their used only. Secondly, they were denied their civil liberties like their right to vote, free speech, or the right to privacy. Thirdly, their human rights were violated. The black folk and their families of 8 to 10 slept in a 1 or 2 room cabin violating their right to a decent life. They were humiliated in public, even assaulted, violating their right to public security and free from degradation; and considered and treated as individuals with no human qualities violating their right to equal treatment before the law. Fourthly, they did not have the standard education and equal job opportunities. Fifthly, Children had to work to make a living, and although it was cultural and out of necessity, it is seen as child abuse and neglect by Social Work standards. Lastly, black young girls were sexually abused by the plantation owners when they were still living in slavery thus increasing the promiscuity outcomes. Du Bois said, “Ignorance of racial differences of African Americans only creates more
What does it mean to be a writer? Who or what defines a writer? Is it up to the critics, the readers, or the author’s original intentions? For Richard Wright and James Baldwin, their own authorial intentions define their work. Baldwin identified with Wright through his literature as he was growing up. He admired Wright’s work and saw him as a literary idol. When the two authors met in Brooklyn, Baldwin was just twenty-years old, and Wright was thirty-six. As they developed a friendship, they discovered that their ideas and intentions for literature were vastly different from one another. This sparked a feud between the two authors. Richard Wright felt that literature should be powerful and political. His goal as an author was to make his make his readers more conscious and aware of the social climate. For James Baldwin, he felt that literature should be an artistic creation, not used for a political agenda. Although
The personification of “the Nation” gives more character to the idea of prejudice, removing the idea of an unknowable entity. Rather, it becomes something that the reader can comprehend and even relate to. Lastly, Du Bois makes an appeal to pathos when he says, “[a]way with the black man’s ballot, by force or fraud,—and behold the suicide of a race!” Suicide is obviously a strong word choice, and in using it, Du Bois makes the readers morbidly connect with the African Americans’ plight at an emotional level. It serves to help the reader understand the impact that prejudice has on African Americans and in doing so again increases the persuasiveness of Du Bois’s argument. In conclusion, Du Bois’s stylistic and content choices, which include word choice, allusion, alliteration, rhetorical questions, personification, and an appeal to pathos, serve to make the main idea in paragraph eleven—that the effects of prejudice are negative and harmful—more
The NAACP’s primary goal during Du Bois’ time was to invalidate the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson. He was fond of Booker T. Washington, mentioned earlier, and many of his own views surrounded the concept of double consciousness. Du Bois believed that as a result of Plessy v. Ferguson African Americans began to judge themselves based on white standards, ultimately leading to the internal acceptance of inferiority. He describes the state of double consciousness as, “a peculiar sensation this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others…” (143). In other words, black people have reached a state of double consciousness where they look at themselves in the way that white people look at them. It was commonly conceived by white people that African culture is inferior to their own. Du Bois later claims, “the sense of identity thrust upon black Americans living in a world in which white political and economic leaders assumed that to be American was to be white.”
He believed colonialism exploited the labor of indigenous people, specifically people of color to profit in capitalistic economic systems. Du Bois once said, “The problem with the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” He thought the triple heritage of Latino-Native Americans, Africans and Europeans—and the role of white racism caused a division between the people and resulted in the color line of economic freedom, political self-rule and equality. Du Bois thought that the construction of the concept of race became in the world’s thought synonymous with inferiority. He also said race became a designation of devaluation, degradation and domination. To alleviate the division of race, Du Bois focused toward the idea of a capitalist economy. He believed Black liberation could be attained in a capitalistic system because the white worker turned out to be the enemy of the black worker under capitalism and that seemed to distinguish hope for capitalist. Black liberation would require “a wholesale emancipation from the grip of the white exploiters without” rather than from “an internal readjustment and ousting of [their] exploiters.” Despite his idea, the only way for capitalism to truly work, Du Bois believed racism would have to be completely eliminated. Similar to Du
Around the end of the 19th century, there lived many people wanting equality between races. Two main leaders of the African American community that emerged during that time were W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. All though both of these men were fighting for the same cause, they disagreed greatly with each other relating to the strategies that could be used to create progress in both the social and economic aspects of how African Americans lived and were treated.
Douglass writes in his short essay, begins with the following statement. “It is part of the Saxon to be prejudice, they have always been,” (Douglass, 567). Prejudice and Saxon (white) are one and the same, it is so natural to them. One would think that the information of the 1800’s would be limited to that time frame, but even in 2015 this statement appears to be true in a sense. Today the majority is still white, thus they remain in power of the systematic racism. In Du Bois’ the Problem of the Color Line at the Turn of the 20th Century, he gives context that places the prejudice of America on a scale, he states, “This fissure between white and black is not everywhere of the same width. Naturally it is the widest in the former slave states and narrowest in the older and more cultivated east. It seldom, however, wholly closes up in New England, while it is threatening width in the south is the Negro Problem,” (Du Bois, 35). The color line in this sense is the fissure of the whites and blacks. The greatest depth of the line is that closest in the heart of the south. Du Bois mentions that the fissure is least in “more older and cultivated” as one moves east; America is not yet of age nor culture enough to understand the gravity of their actions, but they are not excuse by any means. Hate and prejudice is
Booker T. Washington was born a slave and worked as a janitor to get through school. Whereas W.E.B. Du Bois was born in the North and faced very little discrimination, and had an easier time getting into College. They were well educated, and the only difference between them was how they were raised in different environments. Both were on the journey to improve African American’s social and political status in America. However, they had different methods for getting what they wanted. Regardless, they were able to aid in ending discrimination and received equal standing in education, labor, acquiring of land, etc.. If it had only been Du Bois fighting for equality, then he would have achieved the fight for equality sooner. On the contrary, Du Bois only provided one view to how African Americans were being treated; Washington had a friendlier approach. This may be due to his fear of being lynched or placing African Americans in a harsher situation than they already were. Washington seemed more methodical—he was thinking about African Americans having the full rights of the 14th and 15th amendments. At the same, he was also concerned about the consequences of his speech, and if it angered the whites more than it relieved the situation they were all facing. Washington and Du Bois had every intention to improve the social and political status of African Americans, but they sought different plans to achieve such goals due to their different upbringings, values, and opinions.
Dr. W.E.B Du Bois uses this essay to sway the audience of the insufficiency of the statements that Mr. Booker T. Washington has made about African Americans being submissive of rights and the creation of wealth. Mr. Washington believes that the black race should give up and give into what the society norms were at that time sequentially just to have a certain right. Dr. Du Bois refused to believe that the black race should give up one right to get another right. Especially, when the white South had all rights without expecting to give up anything to have those rights.
Hello! In response to your answer about whether or not religious beliefs dictates politics, I notice that people who are close-minded and judgmental are typically conservative Christians; therefore, they viewpoint on a taboo or a controversial issue is generally justified by the teachings of his or her holy book. Also, I appreciate the other reply where you place numerous historical Christian events into question since it is quite unfathomable how a single person could miraculously part the sea, construct a ship to house one set of every existing animal, or resurrect, after three days, from the