Father of Harlem Renaissance

Categories: Langston Hughes

1. Choose the story from one of the following writers: William Faulkner, Alice Walker, or Flannery O’Connor. In about 250 words, discuss how the South as a region plays a role in the story. Please provide textual evidence (lines quoted from the story) to support your answer.

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, the south is a crucial part of the context and development of the story. Emily's characteristics and her southern roots mirrors the context of the themes from the south through the movement to modern industrialization and the unity of her community.

Through Emily’s use of her hospitality towards the community, Emily “had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (1009). The collective narration given through the constant repetition of “our” in the story represents the southern town talk, which also connects Emily with her community. Emily is seen differently by her peers in the town, and the town watches her out of eagerness to see what she is up to.

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Emily’s house is also a connection to the south in a sense that her house is old and traditional. Emily does not want to leave her traditional house just like her rejection to the old south altering to a different mentality. Faulkner displays in the story how this southern time period was diminishing yet the society around Emily yearns for change. As Emily symbolizes the old south, Homer simply symbolizes the modern industrialization waiting to occur. Although the town is ready for the advancement in society, Emily is stuck in her ways to keep the south persistent.

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Homer Barron was a man that represented the rejection of southern customs and represented northern labor. In conclusion, the southern morals and values of Emily created the deeper meaning of the south in the story.

2. Talk briefly about the work of at least one of the Harlem Renaissance poets: Langston Hughes or Claude McKay. In about 250 words, discuss what ways the poet uses form and content to create their art? Please use textual evidence (lines from the poem itself) to support your answer.

Claude Mckay is known for being called “Father of Harlem Renaissance” and is graciously known as this because his works create an urge to fight for equity. Claude Mckay is an African American poet that uses powerful words that defy against the harshness of racism and defeat. In one of Claude Mckay’s works “If We Must Die”, Mckay uses the rhyme scheme of AB which builds a smooth rhythm throughout the poem. “If We Must Die” contains fourteen lines which is considered a sonnet. Claude Mckay’s use of the sonnet for this poem creates a structure of an anthem, almost like a cry for help. His form and content in the poem is authentically written and is not traditionally the normal form of a sonnet. This poem’s form creates war like and belligerence especially in line 5 “If we must die, O let us nobly die” and line 9, “O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!” In “If we must die”, Mckay uses a great amount of imagery in line 3, “While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs” which describes the eagerness of the kill towards enemies. In Claude Mckay’s “The Lynching”, the form of this poem also contains a rhyme scheme and sonnet structure similar to “If We Must Die.” Sonnets are normally created to show emotional and longing in literary works, but in “The Lynching” the sonnet has a much more serious meaning. This poem is a creative work of art simply because of the deeper meaning containing bitter and serious issues that truly occur. Mckay’s work is original and inventive because it has deeper meanings beyond the surface level words caused by the rhyme scheme and sonnet.

5. Choose a poem from one of the following poets: Gwendolyn Brooks, Theodore Roethke, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, or Lucille Clifton. In about 250 words, talk about the form of the poem and how it creates or enhances meaning in the poem. Please use textual evidence (lines from the poem itself) to support your answer.

In Theodore Roethke’s “The Waking” his writing consists of multiple ways that enhance the meaning that lies deeper in the story. The poem consists of repetition, rhyme scheme, repetition scheme, enjambment, and is written mainly in iambic pentameter. This poem is unique in a sense because it is a villanelle, which is simply five tercets and a quatrain. Since “The Waking” is a villanelle, the poem has much to offer which is mainly pulled together by the repetition. The repetition scheme in the poem is a1 and a2, which occur in the body as well as in the first and last stanzas of the poem. What is ironic in the poem is the repetition of the literal words of waking such as in lines 1, 6, 12, and 18 “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow”, which symbolizes one waking up continuously everyday. The rhyme scheme is extremely significant specifically in lines that are a2. The lines that are classified as a2 gradually change throughout the poem which enhances a more profound meaning of development and expansion. The repetition throughout Roethke’s work truly constructs an anthem or almost a realization of sort. The iambic pentameter creates a lively beat in the poem, much like a heartbeat, this continuous pulse connects with the humanistic body in “The Waking.” All of the elements of poetry visible in “The Waking” are not a mistake by Roethke; the elements have purpose and are substantial towards the context. Ultimately, these elements create emotional emphasis that shows how the speaker is learning and growing throughout his lifetime.

References

Updated: Dec 12, 2023
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Father of Harlem Renaissance. (2022, May 23). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/father-of-harlem-renaissance-essay

Father of Harlem Renaissance essay
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