Song Of Solomon Identity Analysis

This lack of compassion has made Crooks very lonely and isolated. When Lennie visits Crooks, he is talking to Lennie about how he is always alone or lonely and says, “I was talkin’ about myself. A guy sets out here alone at night..” (71). He knows that he is discriminated against for his race and does not think it is fair.

Racism and Loneliness: Two Components for Bitterness Norman Cousins once said, “The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness.” Crooks, one character from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, battles with loneliness. He is forced to deal with racial segregation and live in a confined space isolated. Since Crooks is secluded he becomes an unpleasant human being and treats others poorly. Crooks’ method for coping with his loneliness, hurts him as a person instead of helping him.

In writing about the black experience in America, James Baldwin often took a very negative viewpoint, saying once that he could never escape his identity and the racial oppression in America, even when living abroad. This is reflected in his short story "Sonny 's Blues," where the narrator is a person who feels trapped, like he has no future and no way out. He has a very pessimistic outlook on the world, that he and everyone around him are being held captive by Harlem and cannot escape the perpetual cycle of poverty and drug use. He also distances himself from his brother in attempt to escape. But over time, as he starts to reconnect with his brother, he realizes that his situation is not as one-dimensional as he thought.

In the novel Invisible Man, the writer Ralph Ellison uses metaphors, point of view, and symbolism to support his message of identity and culture. Throughout the story, the narrator’s identity is something that he struggles to find out for himself. Themes of blindness and metaphors for racism help convey the struggle this character faces, and how it can be reflected throughout the world. One theme illustrated in the novel is the metaphor for blindness. Ellison insinuates that both the white and black men are blind, because they do not truly know each other.

Also, because of the unfamiliarity, he had a “peculiar fascination which the South” (Johnson 51). However, the further he went from Washington D.C. the “more disappointed [he] became in the appearance of the country” (Johnson 52). At this point all he had known was the isolated culture and lifestyle of the North.

He lives alone in the harness room; a little shed that leaned on the side of the barn. He was segregated from all the other men, and he quickly became plagued with loneliness and alienation. Crooks just wanted to be accepted by the other men. In chapter four, Lennie went into Crook’s bunk because the other men went into town. Crooks told Lennie what it is like to be a lone black man and some of his everyday struggles.

In Song of Solomon, written by Toni Morrison, a majority of the main characters struggle with haunting pasts, moral issues, and with their status as black people in the mid-1900s, which makes it difficult for them to realize the “good life” described in Aristotle’s Ethics. Analyzing the life of Guitar Bains, a main character in Song of Solomon, through an Aristotelian lens shows how Morrison’s treatment of race complicates Guitar’s ability to experience a true form of human flourishing, which ultimately leads to his skewed perception on life that can be seen through his motives and seemingly irrational actions as a member of the Seven Days. Guitar’s actions don’t mesh with the actions Aristotle describes as adding to the good life in that they aren’t virtuous; however, they do seem to bring him his own, modified

As a child, Crooks was part of the only black family for miles, but he still played with the white boys. Now that he is on the farm, the white men feel superior. Apparently, Crooks smells bad and is black, so the men do not allow him in the bunkhouse. Crooks hates the other men, so he gets mad at Lennie for invading his privacy. Crooks tells Lennie that he is very lucky to have George.

In Ernest J. Gaines novel A Lesson Before Dying , the complex relationship between Grant Wiggins and Jefferson and their relationships between those in the black community and facing the oppression by the white citizens. Gaines wants the readers to learn from his novel that people do not have accept the way things are and make a better role for themselves in life even in the hardest circumstances. The relationship between Jefferson and Grant was a negative relationship that slowly transformed into a positive one, on both sides. Both men come from different backgrounds in the same black community and both feel the oppression by the white community.

Society will never understand what one has gone through; yet, it still has the nerve to point out and criticize everything wrong about someone just by their appearance. In the novel, Black Boy, by Richard Wright, a story about the struggles of a black boy unfold. For colored people,

How have you handled your academic career at RL? Do you prefer to work into the early hours of the morning, devouring page after page of English readings and contemplating complex math problems? Or are you in bed by 9 o’clock every night, with the knowledge that a good night’s sleep is crucial to your health? The next day at school, you might treat yourself to two Dunks runs and a trip to Los during your frees. It is more likely that you fall somewhere in between these two extremes.