last blog

I think that it is still worth while to learn about the Harlem Renaissance in the 21st century because it is part of history. It is still worth while because we can learn about what the artists went through in the past. If you don’t learn about it today you will not know how the African American artists progressed in the arts. The Harlem Renaissance is very interesting to see all the different artists that emerged in the 1920’s. If you don’t learn about it you will not able to understand the rest of history after it. This time in history is very important to artists today so if we don’t know about it we wouldn’t understand who inspired them. Learning about the Harlem renaissance helps you understand how the music , poetry, literature, and painting are connected with different themes. So the Harlem Renaissance is very important and still worth while to learn about today in the 21st century. Overall i really liked learning about the Harlem renaissances.

ending of their eyes are watching god

In the beging of the book i thought that i wouldnt like it but i began to like even though it was still hard to read. i think that janie being with tea cake made her become herself she finnaly had a voice. Tea cake definitly was a questianably character the way the town was talking about him. But after reading all the gentlemen things he did with her. LIke the first the thing when he played checkers with her treated her as equal. Then when they talk about all the things they did together like in chapter 12 where they list the things tea cake and janie dance and tea cake and janie gone fishing. Tea Cake wasnt the man that peopel thought he was he loved janie and i think by the end of the book i think she finally found who she really was she found herself.
Something that caought my attention was when tea cake said "Ah i reckon you wish now you had stayed in yo' big house 'way from such as dis dont yuh?" then janie says that Naw.Naw? yeah, Naw. People dont die till dey time come nohow, dont keer where you at. Ah,m wid mah husband in uh storm, dats all." i think this was a time in the book where janie showed her strong side. i dont think she could have done it without tea cake becuase he let her be herself. tea cake and janie were the match that i think that she was looking for throughout the book. The ending of the book was good i think he defined who janie really was she was strong after all she had been through.

Their eyes were watching god 6-12

The second part of the book janie begins a "new" life after jody dies. Right before he dies when he is weak she finally gets the strength after all these years to stand for her self and speak her mind. She finally tells him that he never let her express her emtions. She can express this to him now because he is to weak to do anything about it. So after jody dies she mourns for a while just to please the people in the town so they dont gossip about her. She begins to wear her hair down in a braid which i think defines who she is gives her a sense of identity. Then she meets Tea cake a very repectful man but not wealthy man but she finds him interesting because even though he is not wealthy he does have respect for her and that is what janie wants in a man. I think that janie has finally found her match that she has been loking for all her this time. This when she begins her "new" life she is living the way she wants not the way nanny wants her to live. A part in chapter 9 that caught my attention was when it said on page 89 " She hated the old woman who had twisted her so in the name of love." I dont how she could think this about the woman who rasied her. I dont think she blame her grandmother for not loving the way she wanted because she did what she wanted with tea cake, so she could have changed any time she wanted too. I think that she just wanted to blame someone for not being happy. In these chapters janie begins to live life the way she wants to not like everyone else wants her to live.

their eyes were watching god

The first thing i thught about the book was that it finally of poetry and it would probably be easier to read this book.But then soon as i opened it and starting reading i was wrong it was not as easy as i thought it would be. When i started reading I had to stop and reread things to understand it. The southern dialogue is ahrd to understand but i think it help the reader get into the book more see the picture clearer of what is actually going on. The first thing in the book that made me think of autobiography of a excolored man was when janie didnt realize that she was black until she saw the picture of her self. In the excolored man he did not realize he was black either until he saw it for himself.
As far as janie goes she is a confusing character i feel like janie wants to find that perfect love but cant find all the things she wants in one man well not yet a least. She is settling for a man that has some of the qualities that she wants. hen she will go onto the nest man when she cant take that man anymore and he is not meeting her needs anymore or not cutting anymore. I think that janie is a weak person because she lets men be in control of her but then again when she gets feed up with it she leaves them like with logan so she is strong women in some ways.
the themes that i see i the book that are repeating are reference to nature and the reference to god.An example of this was on page 8" janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with th things suffered." this reminds me of cane becuase he refers women as nature.
So overall i like the book i just wish it was a little easier to read.

hughes

The Hughes poems are very different from Cullen. I like the Hughes poems they are easier than Cullen poems to read and understand. I like that they are related to jazz and the blues. The poems that relate to jazz because they are upbeat and simple. The poems don’t have a heavy message they have a simple message and are easy to understand. I like Hughes the best out all the reading that we have done so far.
In reference to his essay The negro artist and racial mountain he is saying that his poetry talks about everyday African Americans. The way he talks about African American people I think he is stereotyping the them. I don’t know how Hughes is suppose to be talking about the culture of African American’s, then he stereotypes them that’s something I don’t understand about Hughes. ANother part in the essay i dont understandis the part where he talks about Cullen as wanting to be like a white poet. I dont think hughes has any room to judge cullen when he's sterotyping blacks. Besides those two things i like hughes poems.

cullen Poems

The Cullen poems are a little hard to understand because they are traditional style. What I do like about the poems are that they do all have they similar style unlike McKay that was all over the place. I also liked how the poems had the color imagery it helped you to paint a picture of what he was talking about. The poems that I liked were “Tableau”. I liked how he compare/contrast the black ad white boy. Using the “golden splendor of the day” and “the sable pride of night”. He makes a positive reference to both black and white boy which is different from other poems where the make the white boy or man bad.

Another poem that I liked was “A brown girl dead”. I liked this poem even though it was about a dead girl it was positive about her. Again in this poem I liked the color imagery. The white is usually not used to reference a brown girl. This poem had another positive attitude about African American people. Even though the poems are hard to understand I still like them just takes a little longer to interpret it.

The Brownies' Book

The Best Of The Brownie’s Book I liked the stories in it. I liked reading the grownups corner about the little girl that was asking her mom have colored folks done anything in books. I think that was a good part of the Brownie Book that helped the parents put their input in the magazine. A story that I like in the magazine was “The Heritage” when mother mason helped Julie understand that it wasn’t only herself that she was letting down it was the whole generation. Julie didn’t really understand that she was affecting a lot of people and what her parents have done so she could go to school. It was inspiring to children that were going through the same thing to keep doing what they were doing. Another story was “Dolly’s Dream” I think that was very interesting about the fairy godmother that she dreamed to be the a little girl with golden curls, pale skin, and blue eyes. I think this was a story that could relate to all children in those days that they didn’t like the way the looked because they were portrayed as ugly. In this story it tells them that they should be happy the way they looked.
Another thing that I found nice about the brownie book was the pictures of the children they were so cute. The pictures related to the story “Dolly’s Dream” because in the pictures the children are portrayed as beautiful and cute probably something different from what they see. Like for example in the cartoons that we saw in Ethnic notions how the children were portrayed as darky or with crazy hair. The little people of the month was very inspiring to the children that they could do what ever they wanted to if they try hard enough. I really liked the Brownies’ Book it was good for children at this period in time.

After reading the first part of the book Passing it is similar to ex-colored man because they are both passing. Having a sense of self is in both in Passing and Ex-colored man. I think the book is also focused on women in general. The relationship between Clare and Irene is the focus I think. Irene only passes when she needs to and Clare does it all the time. When I found out that Clare was married to a white man surprised me I didn’t think that she would go that far. Then the scene on page 54 surprised me when Clare husband called her nig as a nickname. That’s when it said something about Clare that she would Anything to pass she would take racist nickname from her husband. I would that she would at least married a man that wasn’t racist. Irene is married to a black doctor and she only passes when she has to unlike Clare. Irene is still in touch with her African American side because of her husband. She doesn’t not disclaim from her African American side. I think that the book is a good book so far and is a change from the poems. I think it shows a good comparison between two women in the same world but two different ways they live their lives in the world. Clare and Irene have a whole different way of looking at the world and how to live it.

film

The film was interesting to watch it was a nice break from reading. I do think that eh images were harmful to African american people. The images were protraying the as ugly big lips blaky, and that they were happy on the platation. Which was all the things that they were not. So i thnk that is was most harmful ot the people that had never seen African americans before and were shoed this images of happy black and mammy which was not true at all. The images were harmful to children of both races. The part of the film that caught my attentiopn was the ryhme with the african american chidren being killed i think that was the most harmful to the children in both races. Another thing that caught my attetnion was that statue of the "mammy" pushing the white child, so it was like showing society that the African American women were taking care of the white chidlren. The film was interesting to see all the way that the Africna American people were percieved by the white people.
I do think that the it does ahve an impact on today still. Like on the food in our markets Aunt Jemania syrup and uncle bens rice. Not until wathcing this film i didnt look at things like food like being a way of the africna American poeple were being protrayed. So this images are still present today it makes me look at things twice.

new negro

The task of negro womanhood had a positive mood to it. It is more on the positive note rather the other things that we have read like Cane where it talks about women in a negative way. One thing i read in the passage by mcdougald speaks of African American women as "a colorful pageant of individuals, each differently endowed." That ever women has something to offer they are their own individual. That was very positive look at African American women and what they can offer. Unlike in Cane where all the women have bad things that they offer to men most of the time. Then after explaining that each individual women has something to offer she puts the women in groups of different working status. There four different groups leisure group the more fortunate ones that get to stay home. The next group which she speaks very highly of is the professional women. She thinks that teachers even though they don't get paid a lot they have a lot in their hands the "future". Another profession she speaks very highly of is the librarian she thinks that they can help the world to read and they can create branches everywhere. So looking at this passage compared to other reading first this is nonfiction and others like Cane fiction. Looking at all the reading i think this one is the most positive about women in the working world. The Cane stories talk about the women depending on men. This passage talks about the women in the working world taking care of the home and working. Even though it is a struggle it is better for them in the aspect of getting ahead as a race and gender in the society that they lived in back then. So overall it was a lot easier to understand then other reading like Cane that were hard to understand.

mckay poems second half

The last of the makay poems were as interesting as the first set. The poems for the second set were about the hertiage was one of the themes in this set of poems selected. "Outcast "was one of the poems that was talking about his hertiage he was talking to his ancestors the songs of his ancestors are there but canot express them. Another poem that talked about hertiage was "Heritage" he looks at himself and sees his anceastors in his face adn wants to go back to his heritage. He was proud of it but can not go back so embrasses what he has left. I think those are very interesting poems about the good things that he has about his black heritage. A theme that i thought appeared was "women" the harlem dancer how he embrasses her asa tree swaying in the storm she is a strong black women that has been through alot.He protrays her as a beautiful black women with strength. Another one where he talks about a women is "Memorial " he says he is very much in love with her he doesnt know if he can go on with out her. He makes sexual refernece to her and how passionate for her. I think that these poems show a passionate side of him and the soft side of him instead of the mad and upset side of him. Theses poems were interesting poems to read in understanding racism in Mckay's eyes.

claude mckay

The Claude Mckay poems were very interesting to read. The poems that i found the most interesting was " The Dominant White" the interpertation of the poem was that obviously he is saying that the white is dominant and he explains it in the poem like "God gave you power to bouild and help and lift" so the white have the power then he says that they use it to hurt the black people without saying white people and black people. Then at the end it says that "God shall humble you down to the dust". So he's saying punish "them" (white people) who hurt and slay the african america people. Another poem was "Negro Dancers" wasa more positive poem about the African American people dancing is waht makes them happy and the only thing tht keeps them together with their people. The dancing is the only true joy of their life. So even though most of the poems that i read were about the bad things. The "Negro Dancers" is the postive thing that african american people had to share their joyand laughter that they did have. Mckay poems are have interesting ways of telling about the thing that the african american people had to go through.

chapters 6-9

The first Blog about The autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man. The character that caught my attention was the “widow”. She was explained in detail as being beautiful. The narrator was pretty much studying the widow and her companion both explained in detail. Then the scene that caught my attention about the “widow” was when she insisted him to come over and have a drink. The "widow" tried to get her companion jealous but sitting with the narrator. What surprised me was when the companion walked in he was not happy to see the narrator sitting in next to the "widow". When he came over and shot her in the throat i was very surprised. She did everything for him bought him the things that he wore, so that's why i suprised the he would do that to her. The things that bother me about book is that none of the characters have no names but are explained in detial. So the book is good so far but thats what i dont like about the book that there is no names.

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hi my name is athena