Aunt Fay writes to her niece Alice in the hope of teaching her about Austen and her writing and what better way to do that than by direct reference to Austen’s most successful text, Pride and Prejudice? Weldon in turn helps the actual reader understand Pride and Prejudice by commenting on the characters’ behaviour and the plot by giving her personal opinion, as well as identifying typical language features and explaining why Austen is valued today. She expresses empathy for Mrs Bennet which encourages the reader to reconsider their own opinion Her use of first person language tells the reader that they are reading a biased opinion, but also helps the reader trust Weldon as she is speaking
Two moments in particular stand out in Janie’s interactions, in Chapter 16, with Mrs. Turner, a black woman with racist views against blacks, and the courtroom scene, in Chapter 19, after which Janie is comforted by white women but scorned by her black friends. We see that racism in the novel play as a cultural construct, a free-floating force that affects anyone, white or black. In other words, racism is a cultural force that individuals can either struggle against or yield to rather than a mindset rooted in demonstrable facts. Last, both self-love and racism play a very important role in Zora Neale Hurston's “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The theme of love with her Granny and Janie brought out the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Janie spent her days looking for passionate love in three different marriages reveals the women in the Era where they did any to find the right one.
It became evident throughout The Book of Negroes, that Aminata enjoys the praise and admiration that she receives, as well as the privileges that came with being literate. “I liked ... recording how people obtained their freedom, how old they were and where they had been born. ... I loved the way people followed the movement of my hand as I wrote down their names and the way they made me read them aloud once I was done” (412). Due to her persistence in wanting to learn she became a well known figure around the world which leads to her come to the attention of an abolitionist who would eventually help disestablish the social norm of 'owning' a slave.
So, it would be interesting to explore how Walker uses this blackness to her advantage. Even the very title of Walker’s essay “Zora Neale Hurston: A Cautionary Tale and Partisan View,” intimates that she goes beyond being a mere Hurston enthusiast, she’s a fervent supporter. The word partisan indicates more. For example, it can also be taken to mean Walker is aligning herself to Hurston in terms of being female, a writer, but also, a sister in blackness. Hurston had this to say in Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Casebook: I dislike insincerity, and most particularly when it vaunts itself to cover up cowardice.
The project of finding a voice, with language as an instrument of injury and salvation, of selfhood and empowerment, suggests many of the themes that Hurston uses as a whole. Zora Neale Hurston draws attention towards her novels because she uses black vernacular speech to express the consciousness of a black woman and to let the reader know exactly how statements are said. This use of the vernacular is particularly effective in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Their Eyes Were Watching God exposes the need of Janie Crawford's first two husbands for ownership of space and mobility with the suppression of self-awareness in their wife. Only with her final lover, Tea Cake, who's interest orbit around the Florida swamps, does Janie at last glow.
Douglas learns this early on and decides that the key to his freedom lies in education. This novel is not only focused on the life of the slave. The text serves as a message about the negative impacts slavery has on slave owners. For example, early in the novel, Douglass discusses being sent to work for a kindhearted woman named Sophia Auld. At first, he is awed by Sophia's presence, "My new mistress proved to be all she appeared when I first met her at the door,—a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings.” (Douglass 44).
Their desire for self-improvement was evident in their quest to be educated. Most were self-educated and they also sought economic autonomy. This was a significant difference between the black and white women of the antebellum era. The white women continued to be taken care of their husbands and family and continued with their comfortable lives; however the black women, survivors of slavery, out of the need for survival, drew strength from the horrific treatment they endured as slaves. The desire to become educated motivated the black women to learn to read, develop an understanding of the white woman’s culture, and work to support themselves as they developed skills that would prove to be invaluable.
Furthermore, it is important to recognize that hair is with out a doubt the most complex signifier African American women and girls use to display their identities in order to take on situated social meanings, and to understand how and why hair comes to matter so much in a Black women’s construction of their identity. Just as mentioned in Chris Rock’s, Good Hair, in Jacobs-Hueys’ book it is also evident that Black women feel the need to conform their natural state to a more common, typical look. It is through the hair salons, and educational seminars that teach individuals when hair is hair, and alternatively when hair is not just hair. These two seemingly contradictory stances hint at just
She donated her correspondence with America’s great black cultural figures to Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Maya Angelou is the unequivocal example of a graceful woman. Her words throughout the years have uplifted women, spoke of courage for families and moved the nation as a whole. She has published literature for the masses there is something to motivate anybody that is anyone. Angelou created easy outlets for people in struggle.
There will always be people who feel a way about African Americans, or any race for that matter. It hurts. I am a person who is very loving and feels like everyone should just learn to not hot and not discriminate but sometimes that’s just life and you have to deal with it. It’s amazing how much white influence has impacted my grand mothers life down to her name! I couldn’t believe her mom named her Jane just because that was hat her plantation owner told her to do.