Saturday, January 25, 2020

Journey Towards Racial Reconciliation Essay -- The Harlem Renaissance,

The Harlem Renaissance poets had to overcome many obstacles to establish themselves in the world of American poetry. They faced overt racism, harsh criticism, and racial isolation. Out of these impediments came a multitude of great literary contributions. However, some of the best poems came from the critical self-analysis of four highly influential Harlem Renaissance poets. Hughes, McKay, Cullen, and Bennett each wrestled with the issue of uncertain racial identity. Each pair had poems with identical titles: â€Å"Mulatto† for Hughes and McKay and â€Å"Heritage† for Cullen and Bennett. The analysis of each pair of poems and how the respective authors handle the subject material will reveal a distinctive pattern of racial confusion. For many of the Harlem Renaissance poets, establishing a definitive place of belonging was virtually impossible. Their poems portray individuals are conflicted as to where they belong and how they identify themselves. While the differences between the poems are telling in their own right, the similar theme of racial identity is what links all four poets together in the larger context of being â€Å"negro poets†. â€Å"Mulatto† is the strongest case for racial confusion of the two titles that will be analyzed. A mulatto is someone who is classified as a person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially a person with one white and one black parent. It is this exact type of person that Hughes and McKay are writing about in their identically titled works. During the 1920’s, when both of these men were writing poetry, people of mixed races were looked down upon by both blacks and whites. They were oddities and not accepted by either ancestral group. This fostered feelings of isolation in these individuals. Conflicted, the... ...Fiction. New York: Atheneum, 1969. Print. Bontemps, Arna. The Harlem Renaissance Remembered; Essays,. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1972. Print. Emanuel, James A., and Theodore L. Gross. Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America,. New York: Free, 1968. Print. Gibson, Donald B. Modern Black Poets; a Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973. Print. Maxwell, William J., and Joseph Valente. "Metrocolonial Capitals of Renaissance Modernism: Dublin's 'New Ireland' and Harlem's 'Mecca of the New Negro." (2001): n. pag. Modern American Poetry. Department of English, University of Illinois. Web. Nelson, Cary. "Claude McKay." Anthology of Modern American Poetry. New York: Oxford UP, 2000. 314-19. Print. Parham, Marisa. "Hughes, Cullen, and the In-sites of Loss." ELH. Vol. 74. N.p.: Johns Hopkins UP, 2007. 429-47. Print.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Violence and Tragedy in Romeo and Juliet

Violence in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet there are many scenes of dramatic irony throughout the play. The dramatic irony in the play adds suspense because you know something the other characters in the play does not know. This play if filled with many examples of dramatic irony and that creates suspense in the plotline. The first example of dramatic irony in the play is when a Capulet servant was sent my Lord and Lady Capulet to invite guests to their party.At the same time Romeo and his cousin Benvolio are standing in the streets and the servant comes up to them because he cannot read and asks them to read the names on the list. In return the servant says â€Å"Now I’ll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich Capulet, and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry! †(Shakespeare 1:1, 82-84) this is a prime example of dramatic irony because the servant does not know that Romeo and Benvolio are Montagues but the audience does.This creates suspense because the audience is nervous about what is going to happen at the party. Another great example of dramatic irony is when Tybalt has challenged Romeo to a duel because he disgraced the Capulet name, and Romeo does not want to fight him. The reason Romeo does not want to fight is because he and Juliet just got married which means that him and Tybalt are now related. Romeo tries to stop him from fighting by telling him that he â€Å"love thee better than thou canst devise, till thou shalt know the reason of my love† (Shakespeare 1:1, 70-71).Tybalt does not know that Romeo is married to his cousin so he does not realize why Romeo is trying to reason with him and tell him he loves him. This is yet another example of how the dramatic irony adds suspense; the audience is waiting to see how the duel will play out and to see how Romeo will handle this situation. The third and final example of dramatic iro ny in the play is when Lady and Lord Capulet have decided to allow Count Paris to marry their daughter Juliet.She says â€Å"Marry my child, early next Thursday morn, the gallant, young, and noble gentlemen, The County Paris, at Saint Peters Church. †(Shakespeare 3:5 112-114) This would be great, but Romeo and Juliet have just gotten married, secretly at that. Nobody in Juliet’s family know about their marriage except for Nurse, which means that she has to decide if she is going to marry Paris and leave Romeo, or she could run off with Romeo.The dramatic irony in this scene play an important role in creating suspense in the fact that the audience want to know what will happen next, they want to know what Juliet will do or will she chose Paris over Romeo. As stated earlier The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is filled with dramatic irony and here are just some of the many examples that give the play great suspense and make it an ancient classic. The suspense in this play is important to creating much suspense making it a great play.