¶ … Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes and his "Refugee in America," and Zora Neale Hurston and her "The Eatonville Anthology." Specifically, it will relate the thoughts of these two writers to the statement by W.E.B. Du Bois in "The Souls of Black Folk." "It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others...One ever feels his two-ness...An American, a Negro."
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
Zora Neale Hurston's "The Eatonville Anthology" is a delightful account of the small Florida town of Eatonville and its colorful residents. Each short vignette discusses a different resident of the town, seen through the eyes of the narrator. Hurston is literally showing the reader the entire town as if the reader were a voyeur, standing back and watching, never seen. This is exactly what Du Bois speaks about in his quote regarding double consciousness, and Hurston vividly illustrates it here. In a small town, people are always being viewed through the eyes of the other residents, and Eatonville is no exception. These people are all-American and all-Negro, and they show their two-ness throughout the short story. For example, in a short sentence, Hurston depicts how the war (World War I) affected the town. "But the boys and girls got scattered about during the war, and now the dance the fox-trot by a brand new piano" Hurston 66). This could be any town in America, black or white; it does not matter. The war affected everyone, and life changed for the people back home when the children came home. What makes it uniquely "two" is how the people react to the...
Langston, in his commentary, sought to point out that the Negro condition was crucial to their development as artists. "We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame." (Hughes). In this declaration, one does not detect racial pride or bitterness, but rather, a tender plea for the right to create art without being judged by society as vulgar or threatening. Hughes viewed
Harlem Renaissance was a noteworthy era in human history that was triggered immediately after the upheaval of World War 1. It is largely characterized as a period in which African-Americans searched for greater self-actualization, and struggled for racial equality in an America drowned in ethnic bias. The Black community deemed it absolutely necessary to realize their dreams of a world with no prejudice and equitable opportunities in all walks of
Harlem Renaissance The Southern Roots of Harlem Renaissance The African-American artistic, literary, and intellectual self-development, known as the Harlem Renaissance, is one of the most important and pivotal moments in the history of African-Americans -- and that of the United States in general. The Harlem Renaissance greatly influenced African-Americans' perception of who they were, their roles in American society, and their place within the racialized society dominated by Whites. The Renaissance movement,
Harlem Renaissance- Literature and Art The Harlem or Negro Renaissance marked the 20s and 30s as a period where the spirituality and potential of the African-American community was expressed in the most explosive way possible. Black art had been relatively unknown to the American public until then, at least to the urban communities. Centered in the Southern states and with a freedom of expression generally trampled with, black art expression was
Harlem Renaissance is also known as the period of renaissance and development of Black art and writing in the United States. Literature was used as a means of promoting and projecting the realities of social oppression that African-Americans felt at the time. Literature was also one of the modes of expression that was used to articulate the complex emotions that many African-Americans felt in an oppressive society. On a related
Harlem Renaissance There were many influential people that changed the shape of American culture during the Harlem Renaissance. Among them included Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. These two individuals were responsible for much of the ideology of the Harlem Renaissance. Another key person responsible for the Harlem Renaissance this paper will review was Hubert Harrison, who was often referred to as the "Father of Harlem Radicalism." He found the
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