The Conjure Woman Analysis

The Special Collections Department of Mullins Library at The University of Arkansas houses hidden treasures in regards to American music. Items throughout the department include primary sources such as diaries, pictures, musical scores, books, and notes. I have been interested in African-American spiritual music and after looking through many collections, I decided to research this topic. I found many interesting books written about African-American spirituals which contained authentic musical examples. These books include “The Negro Forget Me Not Songster,” “American Ballads and Folk Songs,” and “Religious Folk Songs of the Negro” written in 1844, 1927, and 1934 respectively.

The Voodoo belief started within the African culture and was used to help keep faith as many were taken as slaves by the Europeans. As they traveled and worked at many sugar cane fields, many Africans were subjected under the French and there, the Voodoo religion seemed to grow into the New World. The poster has multiple photos that show the different rituals West Africans performed and explains the key components of their practice. Using visuals and providing a small explanation of the important factors that go with the Voodoo religion is a necessary aspect in order to engage the students. The photos display the acts of Voodoo from the start of the 1800s to people still practicing this religion in current day.

In the short story, “Blues Ain’t No Mockin’ Bird” by Toni Cade Bambara, extended research needed to truly understand the story because of the seemly random instances throughout the story. First, the term unknown term of “Auntie” which is what the camera man called Granny at the beginning of the story. For example, after extended research, it was learned that “Auntie was a term originally used for an elderly slave women in the south” (“Auntie”). By doing this the author reveals that Granny and her family are african americans and that the cameramen are white. As a result, by using the term Auntie, the author indirectly states the race of the characters.

In the novel, If Beale Street could talk, author James Baldwin, seeks to humanize black men, through the implementation of character development and their relationships with parents, lovers, and friends. With today’s modern black lives matter movement and frequent cases of police brutality in relation to people of color, this novel humanizes the black male, and Baldwin efficiently dismantles the reader’s tainted ideas about African Americans in America. The novel starts off with the introduction of two main characters: Tish, a pregnant, 19 year-old, lower-class African American girl- and Fonny, who is her 22 year-old baby-daddy who also happens to be in prison. This creates stereotypes in the readers minds, but as you continue to read, your mental state of how you see them changes and the stereotypes fade out. Baldwin explicitly touches on the other stereotypes the reader could have about African American’s early on in the novel.

Black culture in America was on the rise as well. While many African 's were enslaved during the 1840 's, their traditional customs such as dance, music, and storytelling reached the grounds of freedom. Ex-slave Frederick Douglass published his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave in May of 1845 (1). Douglass was very influential to black culture in that he was able to intelligently speak on his experiences as a slave, and lead different reforms against slavery. In 1842, he led a successful campaign against Rhode Island 's Dorr Constitution which was to continue the prohibition on black voting rights(2); in 1847 he began his own newspaper entitled The North Star (2); and in 1848 he was amongst a handful of men who attended the first Women 's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York.

Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, or a chapter, and helps the reader develop expectations about the coming events in a story. William’s stories include virtues of the the Old South, which take a look at tragic flaw of slavery, and this sparked many of his stories. The Old South was an adherence to the code of chivalry and a belief in natural superiority of the white aristocracy. Throughout his stories, Faulkner contrats notions of the Old South and its decaying values with the newer ideas of the New South. Beginning the story, Faulkner explains how a terrible smell starts to conjure up from Miss Emily Grierson’s house.

A narrative is a way of retelling a story, the most common way to retell a story is in words. People use narratives in literature and in social studies.The narrative my group and I choose was the narrative of John Brown.John Brown, an abolitionist, led a slave revolt in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. However, it was unsuccessful attempt. John Brown was portrayed as a traitor and was sentenced to death . Textbooks often portray John Brown as a insane man during the Civil War time period but in reality he wasn’t.

Arnold David Arnold Hensley English 11/ Fifth Period 27 February 2018 Part 12: Rough Draft #1 In Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby” one will notice Chopin’s well known use of racism and local color in the story. With the story taking place in the deep South prior to the Civil War the reader will start to notice racism being incorporated into the story. Chopin uses this theme to show how crooked some people’s morals are in this time period. As a reader, you will notice the impact racism has in the everyday life .Many decisions were impacted do to thought of blacks being inferior to whites. When reading Kate Chopin’s “ Desiree’s Baby” the reader will be introduced racism and the use of local color all throughout the story.

African-American author Toni Morrison 's book, Beloved, describes a black culture born out of a dehumanising period of slavery just after the Civil War. Culture is a means of how a group collectively believe, act, and interact on a daily basis. Those who have studied her work refer to Morrison 's narrative tales as “literature…that addresses the sacred and as an allegorical representation of black experience” (Baker-Fletcher 1993: 2). Although African Americans had a difficult time establishing their own culture during the period of slavery when they were considered less than human, Morrison believes that black culture has been built on the horrors of the past and it is this history that has shaped contemporary black culture in a positive way. Through the use of linguistic devices, her representation of black women, imagery and symbolic features, and the theme of interracial relations, Morrison illustrates that black culture that is resilient, vibrant, independent, and determined.

Book titles can play a significant role in understanding the overall concept of a story. For instance, the novel Black Like Me, written by John Howard Griffin, is based on the author’s real life attempt to learn about racial inequalities that occurred in the South. To do so, Griffin transforms from a respected white to a black who knew nothing about surviving in the South. Even though the title is a mere three words long, the words withhold a strong meaning. The title of Griffin's book reflects personal feelings throughout the novel, sets the mood by giving a denotative and connotative meaning of the word black, and also hints to how people are going to react to the novel.

The colonial period in Georgia relied on the extraneous efforts of colonization. Many of its grand stories rest upon the men of the era whom sacrifice and prevail through these experiences. Although these stories embark on reminisce of accomplishments that embellish within our history books, yet the question is left unanswered on the women. While researching information on colonial period within the plantation in Georgia, I found the topic of colonial women interesting. I wanted my topic to be on a particular individual that covers the whole dynamics of women in the colonial era as well as a story of such sacrifice.

The novel "Cane" focuses on the racial, social, and economical problems faced in both the rural south and urban north. Toomer helps portray the lives of African Americans at the time and help to understand the struggles they faced. The stories and poems of the first section are set in rural Georgia and describe the lives of African American woman. It helps illustrate the setting and strong language of the South, along with the beauty and brutality of it as well. The first story of the book "Karintha" relates to the struggles of a young African American woman whose beauty charmed the men of her community.

Furthermore, vagrancy laws, which were designed to punish vagrants by making them harvest crop for a plantation owner, were passed. This paper will analyze three primary sources, “Working on Shares,” the Black Codes of Mississippi, and post-Civil War Rental Contracts. After

“Stereotypes have evolved, I’m trying to deal with present and past stereotypes in the context of today’s society” notes Charles (Art21 - PBS, 2001). In Michael Ray Charles Forever Free – Buying Black! The text illustrated ‘Buy Black!’ explains how African Americans were sold to be slaves to white people. Additionally, in the image then there is an African American face that represents a Sambo, with large red lips. Due to this during the 1808 people exaggerated the red lips similar to a clown, as this was a symbol of how black society was categorised.

The book includes the poems “Eliza Harris” and “The Slave Auction” that attack slavery directly. A short story in the book called “The Colored People in America” really stands out to me due to the fact that Harper is calling for black intellectual achievement. Harper encouraged people to use their