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Similarities Between Harlem Renaissance And Postmodernism

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The Harlem Renaissance and Post Modernism time periods are very different. So many things happened during their time period like the Great Depression, WWII, and the African American civil rights movements. However in the midst of all this worldly change the lesser known changes have occurred in literature. The Harlem Renaissance tends to focus on inspiring people and the struggle of people unified by a race, but Postmodernism focuses on the feelings and the attitude of humanity.
First, the Harlem Renaissance occurred around the time of the African American civil rights movement. Much of the literature was inspired by African Americans and their goals of achieving civil rights. All of these literary works that are published around this this serve as a foundation for African American culture seeing as they had …show more content…

The poem serves to inspire those who read it to be courageous at all times, even in the face of death. The most powerful part of the poem is the end where it states “Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!” (McKay 14-15). This is very similar to early American literature like the Declaration of Independence, which inspired people to fight for what they believe even if it is against all of the odds. This is the most significant part of the Harlem Renaissance era, the inspirational literature. The postmodern poetry can't stack up to the Harlem Renaissance in terms of Inspiration. The Postmodern poets tend to look at live from a new point of view, breaking the laws of language and choosing to write about abstract things rather than the obvious. The Postmodern poet Charles Simic expresses these views in the poem Watermelons, stating, ”Green Buddhas-On the fruit stand.-We eat the smile-And spit out the teeth.” (Simic 1-4). On the top layer this poem has barely any meaning and might even be disturbing, but when analyzed further we see a much deeper meaning. Simic is expressing the fact

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