Week 3 Post 3

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Week 3 Post 3
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Week 3 Post 3
The themes of racism are wide-spread in the African-American literature of the
twentieth century. Many writers and poets devoted their works to this important topic.
In many of his poems, Hughes tries to show the difficulties black Americans are
facing everyday in their lives. In Mother to Son, he encourages people to fight for their rights
and not lose hope. He writes, “Don’t you fall now – For I’se still goin” (Baym, 2013). His
poems are really optimistic about the future, and he is sure that one day black Americans
would be recognized as an integral part of the American society. In I, Too, he glorifies
equality, “They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed” (Baym, 2013).
Wright, in his story The Man Who Was Almost a Man, also pays much attention to the
problem of racism. The protagonist of this story, a teenage boy called Dave, dreams of having
a gun though his family is very poor and he cannot afford spending any money on things
other than food and basic clothes. However, his urge to have a gun is really great since he
sees it as a symbol of making him equal to the white owners of the fields. Wright writes, “He
held it loosely, feeling a sense of power. Could kill a man with a gun like this. Kill anybody,
black or white” (Baym, 2013). In fact, the gun appears to be another way of enslaving the boy
and his family. At the end of the story, Wright allows the readers to make their own decision
about Dave’s future. There is a ray of hope that he will be strong enough to combat racism.
To conclude, both Hughes and Wright created powerful images of African-Americans
struggling for their rights. These authors focus on the realistic account of the conditions of the
life under the racist regime and inspire the black people to exert every effort to achieve a
complete equality between the blacks and the whites.
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References
Baym, N. (2013). The Norton anthology of American literature (8th ed.). New York, NY:
W.W. Norton & Company.