Zora Neale Hurston – Sweat

In “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, the character Delia is the focus as she journeys from timid and abused to a woman with backbone. The themes of gaining strength, good versus evil, and what goes around comes around are all developed in the story through the plot. The story was also bit hard to read and understand as the wording used was definitely something we haven’t read so far. Not to mention, this kind of script is mainly common in the black community.

The story is about Delia Jones, a woman who washes clothes for a living. Despite her hard work, Delia is not appreciated by her abusive, mean husband Sykes. Traditionally meek, the story begins at Delia’s turning point, where she decides to no longer endure Sykes’s abuse. Meanwhile, Sykes has plans of his own. He wants to break Delia down so that he can get her to leave the house she has paid for so Sykes can move his mistress in. Sykes’s plan isn’t working, though, so he decides to try to kill Delia with a poisonous snake, leaving it in her washtubs. However, Sykes’s plan backfires when Delia comes home to find the snake and leaves it loose in the house for Sykes, who will reap what he has sown, his plan turning around on him. The snake bit Sykes who eventually dies crying for help to Delia.

Julio Cortazar – The Night Face Up

“The Night Face Up” is a short story embedded with complexities, written by Julio Cortazar. This story reveals a mysterious adventure which takes place in both reality and in the mind of the protagonist. The story takes place in the both the present reality of the protagonist and also in his unconscious thoughts. The unexpected trip starts when the protagonist goes through a minor motorcycle accident, and is immediately taken to a hospital for medical attention. During the time that he is admitted in the hospital, he is kept in a ward with other patients. The smell of the hospital and the medical treatment that he is given makes him very uncomfortable, and he suffers from hospital phobia. But while he is in the hospital he starts dreaming of a time that is completely different from the present. During the dream sequence, the protagonist goes through a very dreadful situation where he finds himself as a member of the Motecas tribe which is being hunted and slaughtered by the Aztec tribe. The protagonist attempts to run from the ‘hunters’, to save himself from being slaughtered. He is in a rough location, where he is tripping and falling, and making his way through the marshes and pointed barks, to save himself from being caught. In the concluding paragraph, Cortazar does not clarify how the story is exactly supposed to be analyzed, since it is fiction, but if paid close attention it can be derived that the protagonist dies from a very high fever while having a very dreadful nightmare in which he sees himself being slaughtered by savages.

In this short story Cortazar uses several different techniques that are very effective in revealing important aspects of the story. The central conflict of the text exists between the concept of a modern, civilized world and a violent, savage world. Through this story Cortazar has made determined that the modern world is very civilized and a safe place to live in, where as the “dream” world of savages is very unsafe and violent towards humanity and has no qualities of being a civilized nation.

Claude McKay – America

The poem “America” by Claude McKay speaks of the difficulty of living in a country filled with racism and hate and its effects on the speaker. Although it is sometimes difficult to live in a country filled with racism the speaker still loves America because it makes him grow to be a stronger person. “Her hate” gives him strength, and although America is a huge country he is still willing to put up a fight against it like “a rebel fronts a king in a state.” He is not afraid of it, he simply looks toward the future day after day. He sees how mighty America is and he appreciates it because of that. However time is being wasted “like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.” He believes that the longer America is ignorant toward blacks the more time is being wasted because there are many black people who can do great things for America, but because America has such a racist culture it doesn’t allow blacks to prosper, and so time is being wasted. The 1920s (the time when the poem was written) were a time of excitement, but also a time of struggle. This poem clearly shows both sides during the Harlem Renaissance.

Langston Huges – Harlem

Langston Hughes poem “Harlem” is an incredible piece of work having a series of similes describing what happens to a dream that is put off. The first simile in line 3, “dry up like a raisin in the sun”, is suggesting that the dream is merely forgotten over time. The second simile (in line 4), “fester like a sore”, is suggesting that it eats you, constantly aggravating you because it has not been obtained. The third (in line 6), “stink like rotten meat”, is a suggestion that the dream is making you mad because it has not been reached. The simile in line 8, “sugar over like a syrupy sweet”, suggests that the dream is on the horizon and is so close that you can taste it. The last simile (in line 10), “sags like a heavy load”, is asking if it is a burden on the dreamer.

Hughes then switches from similes to a metaphor in the last line. This metaphor “does it explode”, to me, suggests that the dream has finally been reached, I think that Hughes switched to a metaphor in this line to symbolize the drastic difference from not successfully reaching your dream to obtaining your dream, just as a metaphor is a big difference from a simile.

Langston Huges – The Weary Blues

The Weary Blues is an incredible piece of work by Langston Huges. This poem has a rhythm to it that is expressed by Huges word choice. The dialectic mixing of hard syllables and repetition of certain phrases are strategically placed so as to mimic a song (but originially talking about something serious). Not to mention, the title having the name “Blues” in it, could confuse readers with some kind of musical poem but it really isn’t.

I think this poem is indirectly talking about racial inequality. Huges wrote this poem in the 1920s when the lives of African-Americans were strongly effected by racial prejudice emboldened by groups that advocated extreme points of view including enforced sterilization of minority ethnic groups. Also, when Hughes says “With his ebony hands on each ivory key”, he is making the musician part of the instrument and the instrument part of him. He is therefore saying that the two cannot be separated. The music is his soul and he is the music. Jazz being the root of African-American culture, is why its used in this poem. The sad tune used reflects the bad status of the blacks in that era, yet their weariness about the discrimination and the racial alienation.

This only being one of the various ways to interpret the poem.

Song of the Son

Song of the Son is a quite confusing but interesting poem by Jean Toomer. This poem could be found in one of Toomer’s book called “Cane” which is a collection of alot of different works by Toomer. After reading the poem multiple times, I have come to the conclusion that the poem concerns the effects of slavery ending. As a young African-American writer during the Harlem Renaissance, it is very probable that Jean was, himself, a son, to some extent, of a slave. And this poem could be seen as his emotions put into words. I got the impression that this poem was talking about how slavery was on it’s way out, but not quite gone yet. To me it sounded like the son is calling on the slaves to not give up. There is still time “to catch thy plaintive soul, leaving, soon gone.” They have almost ran out of hope, but the speaker is telling them to hold on a little longer. I think in the first stanza the speaker is saying that any thoughts they have about “parting” and giving up, should be put into a song and “let the valley carry it along.” This poem doesn’t quiet sound hopeful, it just sounds like the speaker is trying to give the slaves inspiration to keep hanging on and not give up as the end is in sight.

The internal and external conflict

So far we have seen a lot of astonishing acts happening in Things Fall Apart which were mostly happening within the tribe, internal conflicts. I believe this is the time frame where the name of the book “Things Fall Apart” really play a crucial role. As we see, things are really starting to fall apart in Okonkwo’s life, where he gets exiled for 7 years from the very village where he was once the hero and most respected person. The reason behind the exile was the killing of Ezeudu’s sixteen-year-old son by Okonkwo, which was merely an accident. Okonkwo is sent back to his old village for the exile where he isn’t very much liked by the locals. Also not to mention the drifting apart of Nwoye from the Okonkwo and the family and getting converted to a new religion, Christianity.

The external conflict here being the introduction of the white missionaries which was the main reason behind Nwoye’s conversion. This all happened after the request of the missionaries for a piece of land to build a church, which the village leaders accepted by giving them a plot in the Evil Forest. As time passed the church grew popularity and tons of people converted to Christianity and literally changed the shape of the whole village.

Things Fall Apart

‘Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe is opened by the remembrance of the heroic act of Okonkwo when he bought honor to his village, Iguedo, by beating Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling contest. Okonkwo is a wealthy and respected warrior of the Umuofia clan, a lower Nigerian tribe that is part of a consortium of nine connected villages. He is haunted by the actions of Unoka, his cowardly and spendthrift father, who died in disrepute, leaving many village debts unsettled. In response, Okonkwo became a clansman, warrior, farmer, and wealthy enough to support three wives and eight children, and each wife having her own hut. Okonkwo also has a barn full of yams, a shrine for his ancestors, and his own hut, called an obi. He has a twelve-year-old son named Nwoye whom he beats often because Nwoye is a lazy kid and Okonkwo fears that he might end up a failure like his father Unoka. In a settlement with a neighboring tribe, Umuofia wins a virgin and a fifteen-year-old boy. Okonkwo takes charge of the boy, Ikemefuna, and finds an ideal son in him. Nwoye likewise forms a strong attachment to the newcomer and looks up to him as an older brother. Despite his fondness for Ikemefuna and despite the fact that the boy begins to call him “father”, Okonkwo does not let himself show any affection for him. Not just that, there also has been incidents where Okonkwo doesn’t show his affection towards his other childrens (like Ezinma, Ekwefi’s only child) because he considers doing so show a sign of weakness, which he refuses to tolerate in himself or others. Throughout the first few chapters, we also see that how much Okonkwo hates lazyness and irresponsible people. This could be seen when he beats his youngest wife, Ojiugo, of negligence during the week of peace. His beating breaks the peace of the sacred week and is asked to make some sacrifices to show his repentance. The beating didn’t stop there, he also beats Ekwefi, his second wife, during the Feast of the New Yam just for the heck of it.

It is clearly seen that in order to become something his father couldn’t, Okonkwo has adapted a personality where he is strictly against lazyness and he would do anything to keep it away from his family.

A Madman’s Diary

A Madman’s Diary by Lu Xun is a story about a crazy man and his belief that everyone around him is a cannibal. Not only this, but he believes that they intend to eat him. This causes him to become paranoid and not trusting anyone, even the animals.

The story begins with the narrator’s visit to the two brothers who were close friends of his during his school years. The older brother informs him that the younger one suffered from a mental illness but got better and took a job in the city. During the time of his illness the brother kept a diary that the narrator is allowed to read. This was the “Madman’s Diary” and its text constitutes the bulk of the story. The diary records his gradual slide into insanity. The diary tells of the protagonist’s growing obsession with the cannibalism which he believes is routinely practiced by those around him. He is convinced that sooner or later he will be eaten. He also believes that his younger sister who had died at the age of 5 was also eaten and by none other than his own elder brother. As his paranoia increases, and with it his sense that cannibalism is widespread and prevalent even within his family, he despairs of saving himself.  The story ended on the note “Perhaps there are still children who have not eaten men? Save the children. . . .”, his plead to save those innocent children who could become a prey for the cannibalists.

Search for Identity

A Doll’s House was written during the movement of Naturalism, which commonly reflected society. Ibsen acknowledges the fact that in 19th century life the role of the woman was to stay at home, raise the children and attend to her husband. Nora Helmar is the character in A Doll House who plays the 19th century woman and is portrayed as a victim. She is not happy with her marriage, because she feels that she is being treated like a childish, playful doll, and does not get any respect from her husband, Torvald and goes on a hunt to find her true self.

Torvald is a bank manager and with his job arrives a lot of responsibilities. He often treats his wife as if she is one of these responsibilities. Torvald is very authoritative and puts his appearance, both social and physical, ahead of his wife that he supposedly loves. Torvald is a man that is worried about his reputation, and cares little about his wife’s feelings. Torvald sees Nora’s only role as being the subservient and loving wife. To him, she is only a possession. Torvald calls Nora by pet-names and speaks down to her because he thinks that she is not intelligent and that she can not think on her own. Whenever she begins to voice an opinion Torvald quickly drops the pet-names and insults her as a women.

Nora and Torvald’s relationship, on the outside appears to be a happy.  But is totally different from inside. Nora is treated like a child in this relationship, and as the play progresses she begins to realize how phony her marriage is. Nora is a dynamic character in this play who dares to defy her husband and forsake her “duty” as a wife and mother to seek out her individuality. She goes through many changes and develops more than any other character. From being a grown up pampered woman to a person who realizes that she doesn’t have her own identity. Nora, in the beginning of the play, was depicted as a person who would do anything to satisfy her husband and family as for her they were everything. She had a passionate and devoted heart that was willing to do almost anything for her husband. Until she realizes that the marriage is fake and mutually beneficial because of their social status. This was the time when Nora’s character was forced to seek out her individuality. When she realizes that responsibilities for herself are more important, Nora slams the door on not just Torvald but on everything that happened in her past.

It took time to evolve into a new person, but after she did she became a person who could not stand to be oppressed by Torvald any longer. Nora ends her doll life by leaving her doll house to learn and explore on her own. She is no longer a doll under the control of her master.