American Literature Response Essay

Submitted By cassygail228
Words: 825
Pages: 4
Open Document
Cassandra H. Ivey
American Literature
July 8, 2012

My Life will Speak For Me

When I had to choose a topic to write a response for this time, it was difficult to find something positive to write a respond on. Being an African American Woman and looking back through history I found myself sadden by the details of what happened in our history. The Harlem Renaissance, for instance grieved me to read some of the poems, short stories stating what happened during that era, and how many lives were lost during that time. I was however able to find one poem that spoke volumes to me and gave me the inspiration to write this paper.
I chose the poem “If we must Die” by Claude McKay. This poem informed me of how important it was for many African Americans to live a noble and honorable life. It was very important for them to take a stand for equality and honor and even die, if need be, fighting for it. McKay states in the poem “If we must die, oh let us nobly die, so that our precious blood may not be shed”. I think McKay felt as though during this time African Americans were indeed going to die eventually. However, if they had to die, let there be a reason, or and positive meaning to their death.
McKay states in the poem, “So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy shall be constrained to honor us though dead”. I think in a statement McKay was saying that if death were to happen, it would not be a meaningless death but one that will make even the accusers respect and honor those that they have killed. McKay was making sure that African American knew how important honor and respect was. He wanted to make sure that nobility was still an important factor even unto death.
When reading this poem I was reminded of the death of Christ, and how he instructs us to remember his death and the meaning and honor in which he did just for us. I am thankful for the blood that was shed on the cross for our sins and how much he went through just for me. I also feel as though many African American lives were lost and their deaths paved the way for the freedom that I have today. African Americans fault for equality, they wanted to have the same rights as everyone else, to be able to vote, work, have land and possessions, and live their lives in freedom. Often times during this era African Americans were beaten, murdered in the streets, and hung to death from trees, with no one being punished for their deaths. During this era there were other poems that reflected the deaths of African Americans such as Silhouette, and The Lynching that portrayed how brutal the death were and how meaningless it was for the white man to kill most times innocent African Americans.
The first two lines of McKay's poem, "If we must die, let it not be like hogs, Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot," I think
Show More

Related Documents: American Literature Response Essay

Summary Of Why Literature Matters By Dana Gioia

In response to the declining percentage of Americans who read literature, Dana Gioia argues in his article “Why Literature Matters” that the reading of literature is an essential activity and has an importance to civic, personal and economic life that we can’t ignore. The author builds his claim by making use of plenty of different survey and articles made by official organizations or magazines; the purpose of this is to increase his credibility for the readers and to show that the decrease of readers…

Words 184 - Pages 1

Beloved: Fiction and Toni Morrison Essay

the full essay . . . Reader-Response Approaches "A Response to Beloved" by Giuliana Selvaggio Reader’s response is a reaction to literature, when reading literature like Beloved that is intricate and deep the reaction is similar. Latent themes and levels of ambiguity are techniques that the author uses to conjure up emotion and correlation that relate to our own personal experiences. With every new perspective and with every reading of ambiguous literature, we allow ourselves to grow and…

Words 520 - Pages 3

Learning Perspectives and Engaging Strategies Essay

and a situative perspective that focuses on learning by participating in group activities (Conole, Littlejohn, Falconer, and Jeffery, 2005). An associative perspective controls behaviors through reinforcement, and this perspective observes the responses caused by stimulating events or one’s interaction with his/her environment. The methods used to teach a lesson will cause students to respond and interact in the classroom. One of the strategies that I will use to encourage participation will include…

Words 1581 - Pages 7

african american lit paper

African American Literature Paper Sarah A. Perkins March 2, 2015 ENG/301 African American Literature Paper African-American literature is literature that was written and published in the United States by African – American writers. Much of this writing began during the American Revolution and has continued to flourish and thrive throughout Western society. Many of the themes and issues explored within this literature include the role of African Americans in society, racism, African culture, civil…

Words 1514 - Pages 7

Huck Finn Research Paper

Western expansion, disregarding any effect migrating would have on the lives of the many Native Americans who populated the western hemisphere. The Trail of Tears took place in the mid 1800s,…

Words 2373 - Pages 10

Differences Between Corrections And Incapacitation

Abstract Corrections literature gives information on a variety of information pertaining to the supervision of inmates, community sanctions, and various other correctional system information. The publics’ views on these varied topics does not always correlate with corrections literature. Through this analysis, responses to various questions pertaining to corrections are summarized and analyzed. This analysis also considers social factors such as age, race, income, marital status, and criminal…

Words 1971 - Pages 8

Harlem: Harlem Renaissance African Essay

Harlem Renaissance At the start of the twentieth century African Americans were looking for way to explore their new identities because they were now free men and women. Many began to explore their new nature through visual arts, theatre, music and literature. This time span known as the Harlem Renaissance, was also called the “New Negro Movement.” The Harlem Renaissance was an expression of African-American social thought and culture which took a place in newly-formed Black community…

Words 1153 - Pages 5

Racial Microaggressions: A Literature Review

There is a growing body of literature on how disparate groups cope with racial microaggressions. For instance, researchers have investigated the how African American and Black college students cope with racial microaggressions (Grier-Reed, 2010; Lewis, Mendenhall, Harewood, & Browne Huntt, 2013) and the coping strategies utilized by Asian International students (Houshmand, Spanierman, & Tafarodi, 2014). In one study by Robinson Wood et al., (2015) Black women who experienced racial microaggressions…

Words 175 - Pages 1

Analytic Literature Review Final Paper

A Feminist Viewpoint of Organizatonal Theory in the 21st Century Debra J. Boutiette Capella University OM8021 Management Theory Creation – Section 01 March 15, 2012 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review of the topic selected for this final project which is “The feminist viewpoint on organization theory and what historical factors determined the present state of affairs. As a woman over 50 and returning to the job market after many years, there has been a great…

Words 4890 - Pages 20

Compare And Contrast Young Goodman Brown And Bartleby The Scrivener

In early American literature the gothic and romantic style is favored. Much like the literature in Europe the writers in American also appreciated literature which involved humans verses human nature. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”, the theme of free will is often challenged. When reading these works one may ask, “Does a character have free will?” A close reading of both works will determine that neither has true free will. In Hawthorne’s…

Words 369 - Pages 2