Studying the Harlem Renaissance

This course overall has been very interesting. Although some things we've read for the class has been a challenged I'm still walking away from this course understanding things we've read. I also have a better understand of poetry, which has always been a week area for me.

I believe it's still worth while to study the Harlem Renaissance in the 21st century because it's part of American history. This was a period of great achievement for many African Americans and their writing was very creative. I feel it shapes a lot of the writing today. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of diversity. As a future teacher it's important for me to be aware of diversity, but it's also important for me to teach diversity to my students. Having knowledge of diversity makes individuals better people. It makes an individual a well rounding person, and there prejudice around today that we need to try to get rid of. By studying the Harlem Renaissance we may start to get rid of prejudice views and will make the world a better place.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Overall I've really enjoyed reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Hurston. While reading it I really got into the character of Janie and I really wanted to keep reading to find out how her life was going to turn out. Throughout the novel there were many times when I felt bad for Janie. I felt bad for her that she had two marriages that weren't good at all. In fact they were really bad. Then when she final does have a good marriage she ends up having to shoot her husband because of his illness. I understand that Janie had to shoot her husband for protection, but the novel seems to make it sound like Janie gets bit by Tea Cake before he dies. Does this mean that Janie is going to get sick the way Tea Cake was. On page 184 it says "Tea Cake crumpled as his bullet buried itself in the joist over Janie's head. Janie save the look on his face and leaped forward as he crashed forward in her arms. She was trying to hover him as he closed his teeth in the flesh of her forearm. They came down heavily like that. Janie struggled to a sitting position and pried the dead Tea Cake's teeth from her arm". This makes me wonder what is going to happen to Janie. I guess since she knows what her husbands illness was she will be able to take the medication and she won't have to worry about being the way Tea Cake was when he was sick.

Overall Hurston is a very interesting writer and I enjoyed this novel.

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Hurston

When starting this novel by Hurston I had a lot of mixed feelings about it. I wasn't to sure if I liked it or not. I guess in a way I'm still not sure. Her writing style is some what hard to read because we don't talk the way she was writing. Overall though I really enjoyed this novel when reading all of it. I liked the way it starts with Janie talking to her friend Pheoby and then the whole novel is her story, but it brings you right back to her talking to Pheoby at the end. Towards the end I didn't want to put the novel down. I couldn't believe the storm that Janie and Tea Cake lived through and then I was shocked when he got bit by the dog and was sick. I wanted to keep reading to see what Janie was going to do and I was shocked when she shot him. I know she did it to protect herself and any other people who were in contact with Tea Cake, but at the same time I wanted him to get better and for them to live happily ever after. I guess thats just the type of person I am. Overall I think it's one of those books that you have to read the whole thing before you can decide weather or not you like it.

Hughes/Hurston

Before I comment on the Hurston novel I wanted to comment about Hughes and the activity we did in class on Wednesday. I thought the website that we were shown in class was very interesting and the idea of reading poetry and making it fit into your life and what is going on makes it that much more interesting to read. I enjoyed the activity in class we did where we had to find a Hughes poem that had meaning to us. I enjoyed listening to what everyone else said. Overall I really enjoyed reading Hughes work. It was straight forward and easy to understand, yet it had very strong messages. I think everyone could pick at least one of his poems to relate to their life, if not more.

I'm having mixed feelings so far about Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Maybe it's just because it's early in the book that I'm not sure what I really think yet. I felt like at time it was a little challenging to read because a lot of the book is written in the southern dialog. I found myself having to go back and re-read sentences to understand what was going on. I felt like at times a character would be thrown in and I'd have no idea where they came from and again would have to go back and re-read sections of the novel. I thought it was interesting in Chapter 2 when Janie was telling the story about her grandmother and the picture of her when she was younger. She said that she saw a picture and didn't recognize herself in the picture because she was black and this was the first time that she ever thought of herself any different then the children she played with while growing up. I don't know why, but throughout all of the reading this part stuck out the most in my head. I guess it's just because I found it interesting.

I'm not so sure what I think about Janie as a character. I feel like she gets herself involved with these men before she even knows them and then it seems like she is a weak character. You don't see her standing up for herself to much. But I guess at the same time she does stick up for her self when she leaves her first husband (Logan Killicks). I feel as if Janie gets pushed around a lot, almost as if she has no backbone.

I'm still trying to decide what I think of this novel, but so far it's ok. I need to keep reading it to see what happens before I can decide what I think of it.

Langston Hughes

I thought it was very interesting reading Hughes after reading Cullen. They are two poets from the same time period, but their writing is completely different. Cullen was more difficult to understand where Hughes' poems are more straight forward. Since Hughes' poems are straight forward I think it makes it difficult to write about his poems.

The essay that was written by Hughes was very interesting. He talks about how Cullen shouldn't want to be a free poet and write about anything he wants, but should stand up for his race and only write about racial issues. When reading Cullen's poems verses Hughes poems it's easy to see that Cullen writes about anything he feels at the moment, while all of Hughes' poems have to deal with racial issues. I felt as if Hughes was being a little nasty in his essay. I felt as if he is only looking at the world as an upper class or lower class. He doesn't see a middle grounds of just ordinary people, black or white. I felt a lot of bitterness towards Cullen in the Hughes essay also.

My favorite thing about the Hughes poems we read are the flow that they have. They are very simple to read and have a nice rhyme scheme to it. I also noticed that their is a lot of repetition in his poems, which also seems to make them flow. I enjoyed the poem Aunt Sue's Stories. This poem not only talks about slavery and other racial issues, but it talks about family and how important family is. I also really enjoyed the poem Laughers. This poem is just list of a bunch of words or small phrases. But I really like the way it flows. I feel like he is listing all the jobs of African American's, but I could be wrong. This poem like many other poems by Hughes also talks about music and dancing, which shows how important this was to him.

So far even though I don't like poetry I'm really enjoying reading Langston Hughes and I'm excited to read more of his work.

Countee Cullen

Once again I'm finding it hard to understand poetry. I'm really not good at trying to find meaning behind what authors try to write when it comes to poetry. Yet when we go over them in class it makes sense and I can't figure out why I didn't get that. I found this set of poems to be difficult to understand and I felt like I struggled a little bit with these. I think it's because Cullen writes traditional poetry and also I just haven't had a lot of experience reading poetry. The class discussions help me to make sense of these poems a lot.

A Brown Girl Dead was one of my favorite poems. It's such a sad poem, but at the same time it's in a way happy because for once this girl gets to look beautiful and be dressed up in a way she has never been before. I also thought this poem was pretty straight forward and easy to understand. The girl is young and has passed away. Her mother doesn't have money to give her a nice funeral so she pawned her wedding ring. That shows you what a mother would do in order to give her daughter something she wouldn't have, even if she isn't able to enjoy it. I liked the idea in class that we discussed that maybe the white is a symbol for purity. Maybe it is because thi girl will never be able to get married. Cullen uses a lot of irony in the poems. It's ironic that the poem says "she'd be so proud she'd dance and sing, to see herself tonight" and of course we know this girl is dead and wouldn't see herself.

I thought the discussion in class about the homosexual themes was interesting. I really didn't pick up on this at all while I was reading. But after talking about this in class and then talking about the poem Tableau, I could see the theme. It makes me wonder more about Cullen's life growing up and life as an adult.

Other then the poem I talked about above I thought the other ones were ok, but nothing that I was crazy about. In the Cullen poems we see a lot of common themes that we've seen in a lot of other works we've read. Such as heritage, and religion.

Passing/Compromise

I really enjoyed the rest of the novel Passing. It was left very open ended which I thought was an interesting way to leave something. Most novels when finished have an ending that tells you how things happened or the way things happened. With this novel you really get to decided what happened to Clarie on your own. I believe Irene pushed Clarie out of the window. All the motives were there and a lot of things in the book point to Irene. It would be very interesting to talk to the author and figure out what really did happen.

The folk play Compromise was interesting. I enjoyed reading this because it's something that I haven't read to much of. It's a good chance of reading. The poetry confuses me, and I enjoy the novels, but plays are fun to read at times to. At the beginning I was confused while I was reading with who was talking and who that person was, but after getting part of the way through it I was realizing who was who and it was making sense. The only thing with this play that I didn't like is that I don't understand what happened to Annie and Jack. Did I miss something when I was reading or does it not tell you why she came home crying? Maybe someone could clear that up for me.

Passing

Before I post anything about the reading I wanted to comment about the class discussion we had on Wednesday. I was shocked to hear that there are a lot of things in the news right now about lynching. A few weekends ago I was in Georgia for a wedding and I did notice that it wasn't uncommon to see a Confederate flag. The story in class that really had me surprised was the one about the teacher who put a noose around a black students neck. What makes an individual think it's okay to bring a noose into school to teach lynching and put it around a black students neck, or any students neck for that matter? I was very disturbed by the whole story and I reall hope this teacher looses their job. How stupid can some people be?

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I think it's nice taking a break from the poetry to read another novel. So far I really like Passing by Nella Larsend. In the beginning I thought it was a little dull, but the more and more I read the better I like it. Irene and Clarie are both very interesting characters. Irene only passes for while when she needs to, but Clarie always passes as white, and her husband doesn't even know that she had black blood in her. I feel like Clarie is ashamed of who she really is. I didn't care to much for Clarie's husband. I thought he was very rude. I don't understand why someone would be so rude around people they doesn't know. Irene has very good self control to sit there and not say anything about the fact that his wife is actually black. I find the whole idea of passing to be interesting. It must have been very common during the time that this novel takes place. At the N.W.L dance people were talking and trying to figure out if Clarie was black or white. The conversation on page 118 was interesting. "It's easy for a Negro to pass for white. But I don't think it would be so simple for a white person to pass for coloured." When thinking about the time period, yes it would be harder for a white person to pass for a black, but why would anyone want to? It doesn't seem like something that would happened if it was easy.

Film

I enjoyed the film we watched in class. It was nice watching something rather then just reading about things. It was a good change of pace.

I thought the images of African Americans were interesting. I do think it's harmful to portray African Americans this way. But I believe it happens with all races and it's just a part of society. A part of society that can cause violence. The film portrayed African American's as having big lips and bugged out eyes. It portrayed women as being servants who were large and had deep voices. I thought the statue that they showed of a black woman pushing a white baby was interesting. It was as if it was saying that African American didn't care for their own children, they only cared for their white masters children. It was also interesting and ridiculous that African American's had to blacken their face even more for the shows they were in. I thought it was interesting how the one man was talking about how could work on stage and make a lot of money, but yet he couldn't go into a bar unless he had a white man take responsibility of him. The whole thing is just ridiculous.

I do think these images had an impact in the past and I think they have an impact on us today. They are still present in today's society. Aunt Jamima syrup is one of these images that are still present today. This syrup comes in a bottle shaped like a bigger African American woman. I can also think of a commercial with a little boy talking to Aunt Jamima and saying that she is "thick", but in a good way. This is just one example, but I'm sure there are other advertisements that fit this topic.

Elise MacDougald & Jessie Fauset

I really enjoyed both readings that were assigned for this week, "The Task of Negro Womanhood" and "Mary Elizabeth". It was nice to take a break from the poetry after Toomer. I especially enjoyed "Mary Elizabeth". Roger has a major attitude problem when the short story started. I would never let a man talk to me the way he talked to her. It shocked me when he said "Really, Sally, I don't believe there's another woman in the world who would send her husband out on a morning like this on an empty stomach. I don't see how you can be so unfeeling." At this point I think I would have told Roger to get up and make his own breakfast and coffee if he was so hungry. But I guess that was described like that because of the time period. In a way it kind of reminded me of my grandparents. I don't think I ever remember my grandfather doing anything for himself. But I also don't remember him ever talking to my grandmother the way Roger talked to Sally. I think my grandmother enjoyed doing everything for him. I see his a little with my parents also but not as much as my grandparents.

When I was reading I first thought Mary Elizabeth was a slave, but as I kept reading I figured out that she was just working for this family. Plus if she was a slave and showed up late, she would have been in a lot more trouble. I liked the story Mary Elizabeth told about her parents and how they were separated because of slavery and slaves being sold, but then found each other and got back together. I thought it was very sweet.

Cane

Cane has an interesting way of writing. I'm still not one for poetry, but I didn't think this was to bad. I enjoyed Cane's writing more than McKay. I felt as if Cane's writing is a lot more calm then McKay. At times McKay seemed really angry. I don't get a sense of anger in Cane's poems. With Cane's writing that wasn't written in the form of poetry had me a little confused. I wasn't sure how I was suppose to read it. Every time it was talking about a person (Ester, etc.) I was confused on how I was suppose to read this. I wasn't sure if I was suppose to read it as a novel or still think of it as poetry. I tried to look at it as poetry and I tried to take it line by line, but I don't think I fully understand it.

I did notice some common themes/topics in Cane's writing. His poems tend to be very religious. McKay had religion in his poems also, but not near as much as Cane. I think this shows a difference in the life style of Cane & McKay. It tends to make me think that maybe Cane grew up in a more religious family than McKay.

Although McKay does write about fruit in Jamaica and does seem to focus a lot on Jamaica Cane focuses on nature and Georgia. I think it was interesting the way Cane does focus so much on Georgia. I haven't looked at any background information on Cane and what kind of life he had growing up, but I wouldn't be surprised if he grew up in Georgia.

His writing makes me think that for a facts sheet I might look into who Cane is and try to find out some things about his life growing up.

End of Autobiography / Poems

I really enjoyed this book over all. I thought it was very interesting and there were parts where I didn't want to put it down. I thought the part where he decides to tell the woman that he was black was a really good part. The way the author wrote that part and the words that he used I felt as if I was there with him watching him go through this and I could feel his pain. There was a lot of detail that the author put into this section such as the letter that he wrote to the woman. I also thought it was interesting the words that he does use in the letter also. He may have been a black man, but this letter shows how educated he really was. I was very happy when the woman ends up marring him and doesn't care that he is black.

I would have liked to have had more detail about his marriage. I feel as if that part was rushed in the book. All we know is that the narrator married the woman he wanted to and that they had two kids. We also know that his wife died, but it never told us how she died or what she died from. These are things that I would have liked to have known when I was reading.

Overall the book was great and the narrator faces a lot of different challenges and problems, that I think could be related to a lot of people in a lot of different situations. I feel like it's a book that anyone could read and place themselves in the time period and in the narrators position and even if they don't think they would chose to do what the narrator did they would still enjoy the book.

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As for the poems I must say I'm not a very big fan. I don't really understand poetry and it takes me a while to figure out what the author is trying to say. It's as if it feels like I'm reading a different language. Two poems that I think I understood and I liked are written about below.

Invocation

This poem I think for the most part I understood. I believe this poem is trying to talk about how during the time of slavery, slaves had to keep their "ancestral spirit", or the beliefs of their ancestors hidden from the white slave owners. I think the author is also talking about wanting to be lifted out of the "alien place" because he is saying that he just doesn't fit in with the white people.

I'm not sure if that is the correct meaning or if anyone got a different meaning from what I got, but after reading it line by line and taking my time with it I don't feel as if it was as bad as I thought.

The White House

When I was reading this poem at first I wasn't sure why it was called "The White House", but then thinking about it I feel as if this poem was written by a slave and they are talking about the big white house that their master lives in.

I liked the way this poem talked about how the slaves were able to hold there anger inside. It says "But I posses the courage and the grace To bear my anger proudly and unbent." I also believe this poem is talking about the way slaves were always moved from different places and sold to different people so they never really had a home to call there own.

If anyway has other meanings to these poems or any of the other poems and could maybe help me figure out what they are trying to say that would be great. Poetry is something I don't enjoy reading and therefor have a hard time working with it.

Chapters 1-9

After our class discussion about the narrators father leaving and giving the narrator a gold coin I decided to go back and re-read that section and I'm not sure if I agree fully with the idea that he didn't really care about the man or the man leaving. Although the narrator doesn't seem to care to much about the fact that this man gave him a gold coin and didn't want a coin with a hole, I feel in a way he did. On page 6 it says "I have worn that gold piece around my neck for the greater part of my life, and still possess it." I feel that if it didn't mean anything to him he wouldn't have worn it as much as he did and i don't think he would still have it.

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In the beginning of chapter 6 I found it interesting that the narrator brings up the idea what it's okay for blacks to call each other "nigger", but it's "absolutely prohibited" to white people. The way the narrator said this I felt as if he was the only black person who would notice this and that the other black people weren't thinking like this. I like the way it seems like the narrator is sitting back and taking in everything around him from two different points of view. I feel like since he is black, but can pass for white he can see things from both sides in which both white and blacks can't.

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While I was reading about the narrator playing the piano for who he called his "millionaire friend" i kept thinking that if sounded as if the narrator was a servant, which in fact he was. I don't fee like the narrator was looking at his situation as being a servant and that he really was just looking at this man as a friend. I feel like the narrator doesn't think of color between them until he tells the "millionaire" that he wants to go back to the United States. I felt as if the millionaire was telling him that if he went back to his life in NY or the South he wouldn't be doing as good as he was with the millionaire based on his color. Maybe I'm taking what I read the wrong way.