ESSAY TOPIC 1: What is the relationship of “African American Literature and Culture” to “American Literature and Culture?”

Assignment

Sample essay:

Essay Topic 1

Culture is learned, shared, adapted, and is believed.  Culture is a way of believing, perceiving, evaluating, and behaving.  Upon my completion of Multicultural Education and also from the texts studied in this course, I have extended my belief and knowledge and significance of the relationship between African American literature and culture to American Literature and Culture.  The process by which members of society acquire characteristics of its culture is through socialization and enculturation.  Socialization is something learned or acquired from birth throughout the duration of a lifetime.  Enculturation is language of the dialect we learn and acquire from our family and friends and our surroundings.  Some of the barriers between the relationship regarding African American Literature and culture and American Literature and Culture are race, religion, profession, gender, and can often be from ethnicity. 

            The dominant macroculture, or the larger dominant American culture leads the way to the American Dream, or so is believed.     In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, minority culture is hopeful of the future when Maya speaks at her graduation.  Maya speaks of setbacks, yet she is hopeful and assertive in her speech.  Maya is again reflective of the African American Minority voice through the example of her sexual assault occurring at age seven.  Along with the sexual assault on Maya, Sandra in Black Girl Lost by Donald Goines also reflects her no choice and no voice through the sexual assault she experiences.  Sandra also unwillingly has the handkerchief put in her mouth to absolutely shut Sandra up and give her no voice- literally.  Martin Luther King makes reference to “poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.”  Dr. King continues making reference to the American Dream through his discussion on the cashing in on, “a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”  Dr. King’s speech is to the black people and the American Dream makes reference to the American Individuals.  Maya makes reference in her graduation speech to Dr. King’s speech of having a dream for the future and to rise strongly from the nightmare from the past. 

            Caged Bird and Girl Lost separate repeatedly throughout the texts on numerous diverse issues.  Sandra’s mother, Sandy allows Sandra to fend for herself instead of providing a stable home with food and peace.  In Caged Bird, Maya’s Mother Dear provides for Maya when she is unable.  The text, Girl Lost, is virtually raw, realistic, gritty, and often leaves the reader with despair at the cost of Sandra.  From the sexual assaults, drug life, experiencing rape, and disconnected family ties there is a strong example of Objective 1A, the American Nightmare, also 1b with Sandra being “Voiceless” and “Choiceless” from early childhood to adolescence, and 1c- Donald Goines differs highly from the sophistication of Maya Angelou’s writing style.  Maya is clearly organized with her thoughts and is obviously well planned and developed as a writer.  The minority experience is completely separated in both texts on the issue of image of the minority experience through economic eyes.  Maya’s text reflects a situation of economic planning with rural planning.  Girl Lost reflects urban destitute and impoverished lifestyles with low social economic situations.  Sandra learns a life of stealing to at first survive.  Sandra gathers close ties with a surrogate family through Sammy.  Maya suggests to her readers a depiction of close-knit but not exactly nuclear ties. 

            Some causes of the severed relationships in history come from the socio-historical experience.  Cultural distinction between racial groups becomes the rationale for an inferior status.  Usually, this concept has been notably historically dependent on society’s perception that differences exist and these differences are important.  Dr. King, in his “I Have a Dream” speech suggests to the black people             through faith, “we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together.”  Dr. King suggests a hope for integrating together the dominant culture and the minority culture.  The dream Dr. King speaks of discusses a need to rise again and to be free.  Dr. King wishes for a minority culture to not detach from your past but to connect together with the American culture and move forward through hope and faith. 

            Of course throughout the texts noted above, there are upsides and downsides to all factors involved.  Two core values of the dominant group in the American Dream are Individualism and Freedom.  The minority groups were oppressed and acknowledged through Dr King’s speech, Sandra’s horrible urban experiences, and Maya’s hope for the future having cultures, yet it was different from the culture of the American dominant group.  The goal of the American dominants is to teach culture patterns of the dominant society so the minority could “fit” in to the mainstream.  Superficial aspects of a culture do not mean to lose who you are as a race or color, and to “fit” into the mainstream yet learn to appreciate the differences through the texts noted above and use Maya’s depiction of her hope and successes and obstacles encountered.  Hope and pray that no other young girl like Sandra is left out in the urban world to have to go through drugs, rape, poverty, and a lifestyle of horrible, tragic situations and not experience life to its fullest.  Dr. King should still be with us today and continuing his journey of his quest for a peaceful world where he could, “go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.” 

            As I review the essay questions and prepare for my final thoughts, I review Dr. King’s words, remember Maya’s hopes, and think of the sad story of Sandra and her encounters with the horrible ways of being let down by her Mother and society in general.  I hope and pray for a larger and broader curriculum where African American and American literature are completely combined and integrated to teach and broaden the knowledge of a child never understanding what is meant by having no choice or voice.  Culture is shared, learned, adapted, and is believed.  I believe American and African American cultures are to be integrated through literature and present a voice through color and narratives strong with power.    Images and stories are not always pleasant and often evoke emotions defining conflict possibilities, yet as a future educator, I feel the African American literature should be integrated into the curriculum and the culture of the dominant American culture. [AR]