Black Culture Essay Example for Free

Black Culture Essay During the Harlem Renaissance, writers, especially black ones, portrayed the black culture and style in their writing. They used black assumptions, generalizations and stereotypes to show, what they thought was, the black culture. Not all of this was far from the truth. Three writers, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Sterling Brown are examples of writers that emulated black culture in their works. Langston Hughes works, â€Å"†The Negro Speaks of Rivers,† â€Å"Mother to Son,† â€Å"When Sue Wears Red, † â€Å"The Weary Blues,† I, Too,† and â€Å"Harlem† are examples of the portrayal of black culture through writing. In â€Å"The Negro Speaks of Rivers,† Hughes focuses on important accomplishments and places where Negroes were heavily populated. â€Å"I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. / I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. /I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. / I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln/ went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy/ bosom turn all golden in the sunset† (Hughes 1291). In â€Å"Mother to Son,† he describes advice of a mother given to her son. She tells him how her life was no â€Å"crystal stair† and how she had to struggle to get where she is and that she is still struggling to get even further. She describes her trials and tribulations as â€Å"tacks/†¦and splinters/ and boards torn up/ and places with no carpet on the floor/ bare. † (Hughes 1292). She tells her son never to give up on his dreams and to keep climbing that â€Å"crystal stair. † This is because the mother knows how hard it is to get ahead in the world when you’re black and that everything that blacks have they have worked hard to get. â€Å"When Sue Wears Red† describes the beauty of the black woman. He compares Susanna’s face o â€Å"an ancient cameo/ turned brown by the ages. † He also compares to â€Å"a queens form some time-dead Egyptian night† (Hughes 1293). â€Å"The Weary Blues† portrays the musical side of the black culture, describing a man playing â€Å"that sad raggy tune like a musical fool† and singing in â€Å"a deep song voice with a melancholy tone† The music that â€Å"comes from a black man’s soul† (Hughes 1294). â€Å"I, Too† show the degrading manner in which black people were treated. The black house workers were treated as if they were inferior or not fit to be around white people. This is shown when the worker tells us, â€Å"they send me to eat in the kitchen/ when company comes. † Due to the high hopes and determination of black people, this does not discourage the speaker. He knows that, one day, he’ll â€Å"be at the table/ when company comes. / Nobody’ll dare/ say to me/ ‘eat in the kitchen’/†¦they’ll see how beautiful I am/ and be ashamed† (Hughes 1295). He believes that one day black people will be accepted and will be able to â€Å"eat† with the whites. This attitude is what kept blacks striving to succeed. â€Å"Harlem† questions what may happen if black people put off their dreams and progression. This delay may be willing or by force but either way the dreams may â€Å"dry up/ like a raisin in the sun† or stink like rotten meat† or even worse â€Å"explode† (Hughes 1309). Stopping black people from fulfilling their dreams would at worst cause a rebellion. This rebellion may not be nonviolent. Sterling Brown uses poems such as â€Å" Odyssey of Big Boy,† â€Å"Southern Road,† â€Å"Slim Greer,† and â€Å"Ma Rainey† to describe black culture in his eyes. Brown wrote mostly of the working class black population. He wrote his poems as though it were a work song that they used to keep time. Thus, you see a lot of repetition in his works. This is seen in both â€Å"Odyssey of Big Boy† and â€Å"Southern Road. † In â€Å"Odyssey of Big Boy,† Brown gives sight to some of the folklore heroes of the black culture, such as â€Å"Casey Jones† and â€Å"Stagolee† (Brown 1248). This not only shows the heroes represented in black culture but also their use of stories past down through the generations to keep the culture alive. He goes on to describe the manual labor that black people have done over the ages. This includes how they â€Å"skinned as a boy in Kentucky hills/druv steel there as a man/†¦striped tobacco in Virginia fiel’s/†¦mined de coal in West Virginia† etc (Brown 1249). These are prime examples of the jobs that the lack culture held whether it is when they were slaves or after they were freed. It was characteristic of them to hold jobs that involved a great deal of manual labor. â€Å"Southern Road† depicts some of the struggles that a typical black man may have dealt with during those times. He speaks about working in a chain gang, a father dying, going to jail and white men degrading the black man. â€Å"Slim Greer† is about a black man that passed as white. He met a white woman who â€Å"thought he as from Spain/ or else from France† (Brown 1256). It was not until he played â€Å"some mo’nful blues† that they found out that he was indeed black (Brown 1257). This depicts the musicality of the black culture. Music was one of the many ways they used to express themselves, so, for the most part, they had a great talent in it. â€Å"Ma Rainey† is also a poem about the musicality of the black culture. Whenever Ma Rainey came to town â€Å"folks from anyplace/ miles aroun’/†¦flocks to hear/ Ma do her stuff† (Brown 1258). Black people enjoyed gathering around to listen to music. This was probably because not only was it entertaining but it also told a story. Zora Neale Hurston depicts black culture through her works entitled â€Å"Sweat,† â€Å"How IT Feels To Be Colored Me,† and â€Å"Their Eyes Were Watching God. † Hurston wrote a great deal about the togetherness in the black community. Many of her stories, including these three works, took place in an exclusively black town and included at least one seen where the entire community sat outside together talking, usually gossiping, and watching passersby. In â€Å"Sweat† they gossip about Delia Jones, mainly they talk about how her husband, Sykes, beats and abuses her and how he is having an affair with a woman named Bertha. They badmouth Sykes, saying how horrible and stupid he is for cheating on a god woman like Delia, especially with such a fat woman. This also shows how it was common in the black culture, especially in the south, for men to like thicker women. â€Å"Their Eyes Were Watching God† also has a few scenes in which we see the black community together. In the beginning, Janie is seen by the whole community walking back in overalls. They immediately begin to talk about her. They make assumptions, such as Tea Cake stole all of her money and abandoned her. They talk about how silly she was for taking off with a younger man in the first place and whatever happened to her probably serves her right. In conclusion, the black culture is evident in many works by various black writers. They show the good and the bad, the truth and its exaggerations. Reading works written in the time gives us a good look into what the black society was actually like back then.

Analysis on Marx’s Historical Materialism Essay examples -- Political

As one of greatest figures in human history, Karl Marx introduced not only Communism but also historical materialism to us. According to historical materialism, the mode of production would determine and foster mankind’s ideas, values, and beliefs. Many opponents of Marx attacked his â€Å"impossible† Communism but neglected his contribution in defining the relationship among important production elements. This paper would explain the theme of historical materialism and probed the relationship between consciousness and mode of production. Then, this paper would analyze how division of labor affect mode of production and conclude that historical materialism was realistic and applicable. Marx defined historical materialism in the preface of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy that, â€Å"it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, on the contrary, their social existence that determines their consciousness.† In contrast to idealism, which prioritized the value of human ideas, historical materialism insisted that the existence of human kinds pushed the productions; and mode of production shaped human consciousness in return. The contradictory between Idealism and historical materialism lie between whether it was evolvement of consciousness steering for societal changes or the other way around. While choosing one of them as individual political philosophy, it was very similar of answering question, â€Å"which came first, chicken or egg?† Personally, I favor for historical materialism for â€Å"consciousness is determined by your beings† seems rational as well as logical. So what is consciousness? According to Marx, â€Å"Consciousness can never be anything else than conscious existence, and the existence of men is t... ... future stage would follow Marx’s blueprint or not. This beautiful image was worth of dreaming. Comparing with Idealism, which stressed the human ideas’ capabilities in shaping societies, I felt historical materialism was more realistic and applicable. Despite the communism’s unclear future, the equation between mode of production and consciousness (or ideas and values) was very understandable and logical. I was convinced by the theme of historical materialism, which was â€Å"life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life.† (Marx 155) Works Cited Brooks, Mick. "What Is Historical Materialism." Maxism. 14 Nov. 2002. Web. 25 May 2012. . Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. "The German Ideology." The Marx-Engels Reader. Ed. Robert C. Tucker. New York: Norton, 1978. 146-200. Print

My Favorite Movie

My Favorite Movie There are thousands of movies in the United States. Many people have several favorite movies throughout their lifetime. Some people have favorites from each decade. Though many movies have grabbed my attention, my favorite is the eighties movie The Breakfast Club. I love the main characters, the amazing storyline, and the original ending. I have watched this movie many times and it never gets old to me. The reason I love this movie is that I can relate many of the characters to people I know or have met throughout my life. I relate myself to Alisson Reynolds, who comes off as strange and reserved.She is insecure and alone, but she wants to be noticed. John Bender (the bad boy of the group) has a hard shell but he is soft at heart. John reminds me of many gentlemen I enountered in high school. The popular girl, Claire Standish, and my best friend are so similar it is scary. They are insecure and feel neglected by their parents, but are envied by outsiders for their l ooks and financial stability. As the movie starts, the storyline captures my attention and glues me to the screen. In the beginning, five high school students with nothing in common face spending a Saturday in detention together in their high school library.Detention starts out kind of rocky at first. The students see each other as different and make judgements based on social statuses. As the movie progresses, the students start to open up to one another. Allison is a compulsive liar and craves attention because she feels invisable. Brian and Claire are ashamed of their virginity. Andrew even tells his classmates the real reason he is in detention. Later, it is also discovered that each person in the group has a strained relationship with at least one of their parents. I think that the storyline shows that Andrew is right, â€Å"We’re all pretty bizarre.Some of us are just better at hiding it, that’s all. †-Andrew (The Jock), The Breakfast Club. The ending of t he movie is the icing on the cake because everyone becomes a friend. Andrew seems to be interested in Alisson. Claire kisses John and it looks like the two characters might start a relationship. The group decides to have Brian write about the assigned topic. He writes a letter to the principal objecting to his request to describe who they are, stating that the principal has already judged who they are and he will not accept anything different from the students.To the outside world they are simply the Jock, the Brain, the Criminal, the Princess, and the Basket Case, but to each other, they will always be the Breakfast Club. As many times as I have seen this movie, it still keeps me entertained. The main characters still remind me of friends and family. The plot entrances me like no other movie I have seen. More than anything else, the ending makes me want to watch the movie all over again. Everyone should see this movie at least once in his or her lifetime. It has been my favorite fo r many years and I think that it will be a hard film to top. My Favorite Movie My Favorite Movie There are thousands of movies in the United States. Many people have several favorite movies throughout their lifetime. Some people have favorites from each decade. Though many movies have grabbed my attention, my favorite is the eighties movie The Breakfast Club. I love the main characters, the amazing storyline, and the original ending. I have watched this movie many times and it never gets old to me. The reason I love this movie is that I can relate many of the characters to people I know or have met throughout my life. I relate myself to Alisson Reynolds, who comes off as strange and reserved.She is insecure and alone, but she wants to be noticed. John Bender (the bad boy of the group) has a hard shell but he is soft at heart. John reminds me of many gentlemen I enountered in high school. The popular girl, Claire Standish, and my best friend are so similar it is scary. They are insecure and feel neglected by their parents, but are envied by outsiders for their l ooks and financial stability. As the movie starts, the storyline captures my attention and glues me to the screen. In the beginning, five high school students with nothing in common face spending a Saturday in detention together in their high school library.Detention starts out kind of rocky at first. The students see each other as different and make judgements based on social statuses. As the movie progresses, the students start to open up to one another. Allison is a compulsive liar and craves attention because she feels invisable. Brian and Claire are ashamed of their virginity. Andrew even tells his classmates the real reason he is in detention. Later, it is also discovered that each person in the group has a strained relationship with at least one of their parents. I think that the storyline shows that Andrew is right, â€Å"We’re all pretty bizarre.Some of us are just better at hiding it, that’s all. †-Andrew (The Jock), The Breakfast Club. The ending of t he movie is the icing on the cake because everyone becomes a friend. Andrew seems to be interested in Alisson. Claire kisses John and it looks like the two characters might start a relationship. The group decides to have Brian write about the assigned topic. He writes a letter to the principal objecting to his request to describe who they are, stating that the principal has already judged who they are and he will not accept anything different from the students.To the outside world they are simply the Jock, the Brain, the Criminal, the Princess, and the Basket Case, but to each other, they will always be the Breakfast Club. As many times as I have seen this movie, it still keeps me entertained. The main characters still remind me of friends and family. The plot entrances me like no other movie I have seen. More than anything else, the ending makes me want to watch the movie all over again. Everyone should see this movie at least once in his or her lifetime. It has been my favorite fo r many years and I think that it will be a hard film to top.

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