Directions:Develop your own argument about African American Writers Requirements for this assignment are listed below. Your final grade will be deducted if any of these requirements aren’t fulfille

Directions:

Develop your own argument about African American Writers 

Requirements for this assignment are listed below. Your final grade will be deducted if any of these requirements aren’t fulfilled.

1) You must use at least one piece of direct textual evidence per body paragraph. That piece of evidence, in support of your argumentative claim, must be correctly cited and subsequently paraphrased.

2) Two secondary sources must be incorporated into the essay. Aim for scholarly sources (i.e. no web articles). Utilize the resources within the universities library. Popular library database include JSTOR or Academic Search Complete.

3) You may not begin your essay project until you get approval from me. Aim to submit your proposal in as early as possible. Send me an email once you have submitted it. (THIS ALREADY COMPLETED)

4) Your “Works Cited” will have at minimum two sources.

Below can be used as the teacher already approved of what was posted.....

Richard Wright, uses a lot of formal characteristics of African literature in his book, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”.  In his story, where he talks about his experiences growing up in the south and what he encountered. Some of the formal characteristics included in the book are, rhythmic, dramatic and evocative language, there is the reference to color-race-ethnicity, and the use of proverbs, aphorisms and biblical verses“People might have shut me off from the world cause of a mistake, crime, or a sin.... Judge not others, for you to will have your day to be judge.” (Taylor, J. 2016). Others include sermonic tone reminiscent of traditional Black church rhetoric like in vocabularies, images and in metaphor. He also uses direct address conversational tone like the case where he sates, “I think you should use the money for the railroad track….. It could fall off the tracks and kill someone on the train. And that is very dangerous. Don’t you think so? Please change your mind and pick the railroad tracks. For the People safety O.K.”, there is the use of cultural references and use of ethnolinguistic idioms

Based on color race ethnicity, he tries to show us how he bared to live with the white, yet he was a black. For example, he tells us that he doesn’t get in trouble at school or having any problems with people picking on him, he is nice to everyone no matter what color or sex. The white were not too much to the black, while this brings in the color race ethnicity. Anecdotes of awful treatment of blacks are all over included in the book (Zheng, J. 2017).

Another example on this is where he was cut by a broken milk bottle and started to bleed while the other white men they were with left him with no help, except a neighbor who helped him,”During the retreat a broken milk bottle caught me behind the ear, opening a deep gash which bled profusely. The sight of blood pouring over my face completely demoralized our ranks. My fellow-combatants left me standing paralyzed in the center of the yard, and scurried for their homes. A kind neighbor saw me and rushed me to a doctor, who took three stitches in my neck”.

In another example on color race ethnicity, is when he was working in a clothing store and he witnessed his boss and boss’s son abuse a black woman. “After a few minutes I heard shrill screams coming from the rear of the store. Later the women stumbled out, bleeding, crying, and holding her stomach” (Monnet, A. S. 2016).

Color race ethnicity is also used where the two men where Richard was presented to work start bullying him. The fact that the manager wants Pease and Morrie to help Richard in where he doesn’t know, they even tell him to leave the country without the notice of the manager getting the information. Morrie is so into that he wants at all times to be referred to as Sir by Richard failure to which, he brings up an incident where they two want to beat him up."Richard, Mr. Morrie here tells me you called me Pease". They also refer to him as, “black son-of-a-bitch|” 

Richard uses rhythm, drama and evocative language, to characterize the formal characteristics of African American literature. Drama mostly deals with cases where there is the act of conflict, there is the use of rhythm in drama at times to for example put emphasis in something. The use of evocative language can be explained as using an inner meaning of something trying to explain someone in an indirect way. It’s something that shows a strong response of feeling about someone/something. The use of evocative language has been used and an example that he gives on this is after the incident when he was cut a by a milk bottle glass and started bleeding,” Even today when I think of white folks, the hard, sharp outlines of white houses surrounded by trees, lawns, and hedges are present somewhere in the background of my mind”. This shows has that Richard does not like the white in an indirect way.

Richard also uses evocative language by stating, “Darkness is like a cage in black around me, shutting me off from the rest of the world.” When we say someone is in the dark, this means he/she does not know anything or isn’t familiar with anything. Thus this is used to refer to the black people having no visions or having nothing at all to think about. The black are so much being discriminated and being put to as failures. 

There is this act of drama that is shown between Richard, Morrie and Pease. The two white men, that is Morrie and Pease are trying to burry Richard into that he didn’t begin the name Pease with the word Sir. The both are up to him and want to beat him up. The drama was inform of a dialogue between the three, "Richard, I want to ask you something," Pease began pleasantly, not looking up from his work."Yes, sir," I said again. Morrie came over, blocking the narrow passage between the benches. He folded his arms, staring at me solemnly. “Yes, sir," I said for the third time. Pease looked up and spoke very slowly."Richard, Mr. Morrie here tells me you called me Pease."I stiffened. A void seemed to open up in me……….."Richard, I asked you a question!" said Pease. “I don't remember calling you Pease, Mr. Pease," I said cautiously. "And if I did, I sure didn't mean . . .""You black son-of-a-bitch! You called me Pease, then!" he spat, slapping me till I bent sideways over a bench. Morrie was on top of me, demanding:

There is that act of drama where Richard was later employed and there is this act where the father and the sun talk bad and beats up a black woman. She is beaten to bleeding and raped because she does not pay rent and also as she goes through the door, the security officer claims that she was drunk. This is seen as drama through the raping and the beating up of the lady, yet the two don’t see it as a big deal. Another type of drama comes in when there is this act that Richard’s bike has a puncture and she has to walk to go give the delivery and a white man offers him a ride, the men in the car throw Richard back off the truck and beats him up.

Richard has used these formal characteristics of African American literature to make the book interesting and his main aim being to address the color and race ethnicity. All the characteristics given above have a clear view about Richard’s book.

References

Taylor, J. (2016). The Political Subjection of Bigger Thomas: The Gaze, Biopolitics, and the  Court of Law in Richard Wright's Native Son. CR: The New Centennial Review, 16(2),  183-202.

Monnet, A. S. (2016). Jim Crow Gothic: Richard Wright’s Southern Nightmare. In The Palgrave  Handbook of the Southern Gothic (pp. 297-308). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Zheng, J. (2017). The Many Influences of Richard Wright: An Interview with Jerry W. Ward,  Jr. African American Review, 50(1), 17-25.

Teacher responds to this post:

Great post! You wrote an essay here!

You should write your final essay on this topic since you got so into it, and you could use some of this post in that essay to support your points!