ESSAY TOPIC 3: Compare and contrast two or more texts in African American literature to develop a theme of your choice.

Assignment

Sample Essays

Essay Topic Three:

Religious Conflicts

            African Americans were taken from their homelands, taught a new language, new way of life, and a new religion.  The conversion of many African Americans was in a sense reversed missionary style in that they were taken from their land and brought to a new “Christianized” culture rather than the missionary bringing a new religion to their culture.  Equiano, Fredrick Douglass, and Linda, all after being introduced to this new religion and having their old one spoken of negatively, take quickly to the new ideas of one great God, their were times of doubt, and much criticism of the way the whites lived out their own Christianity.

            There is a glimpse of Equiano’s old religion when he gets near the boat full of white men and says, “I was now persuaded that I had got into a world of bad spirits” (57). While the reader thinks little of this statement it does remind them of his background in spiritual belief systems.  In The Life of a Slave Girl the preacher is in one of his traditionally pro-slavery sermons and he says, “Instead of being engaged in worshipping him, you are hidden away somewhere, feasting on your master’s substance; tossing coffee-grounds with some wicked fortuneteller, or cutting cards with another old hag” (517).  This is a direct condemnation of their old beliefs and religion.  It is often the last of what they had from their past home, and also it gave them peace of mind to “know the future,” as their futures were very uncertain.  Voodoo is in the American culture like witchcraft, and being founded on Christian standards they did not well put up with it as a practiced religion.  This forced assimilation is an example of Objective 1a the American Nightmare in that they were unable to willing choose a belief system, rather it was pressed upon them to change their personal beliefs.

            Eventually all three of the slaves read about in our class text showed some signs of conversion to Christianity. Objective 6a talks about the desire for tradition, and community in the African American culture and religion may have been an acceptable way for them to fulfill their desires for “family.”  Equiano is even baptized because one of the ladies told him that he could not go to Heaven if he was not (81).  Apparently his previous master had not wanted him to be baptized; perhaps it would have dealt poorly with his conscience to enslave a fellow brother in Christ. He even had a stand in godmother for the event which gave him a kind of community and kinship.  The assumption is made that Douglass’ grandmother or other slaves may have taught him since he later teaches Sunday school to fellow slaves (401).  He remembers it fondly saying, “We loved each other, and to leave them at the close of the Sabbath was a severe cross indeed” (401). The kinship Douglass felt was with his fellow black slaves, not only through their struggles, but also through their faith. Linda found religion through her grandmother and at her last departure they pray together with her child for mercy and protection, which inspired her to trust God (614).  She had family, but still found an even deeper unity through her religion, and also was able to “carry it with her.”

            All three of the Christian believers saw sharp differences in their faith and that of the white slaveholders.  Their speaking out against the hypocrisy gives them a voice after it had been taken from them as is stated in Objective 1b, and it also allows a way to “teach” us what it was like to be them at the time of slavery and Christianity as it stated in Objective 5a.  Equiano searched to be a first rate Christian, looking into Quaker, Roman Catholic, and Jewish religions.  He finally decided that he was more righteous than the people he spoke with, and simply studied the scriptures (185).  A lot could probably be learned if all Christians would only compare themselves with the Bible rather than following a specific religion. Douglass speaks authoritatively about the contrast of faith saying, “What I have said respecting and against religion I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference” (430).  He is passionate about the hostility held in the hypocrites of America who taught him the true values of a Christianity that they do not practice.  Linda marks the same differences between “Christianity and religion of the south” (524).  She points out the practice of religious activities by a man who has no desire to live rightly according to the Bible (524).  This seemed to help them more than it hurt their faith.  It gave them a superiority in some aspect that God was on the side of the oppressed, and also that they had learned to live out their new faith better than the people who had practiced it for years.

            The belief that American whites were superior and had a right of some kind to rule over those who had no choice, and to take from them community and family and religion is brought to a halt when these oppressed people speak out.  They claimed their voice, bind their families and have even dominated our faith so much that now authors like Lettitia Henshaw are comfortable and well received when writing about their God.  We are now learning from their culture more about our own, and finally allowing them to assimilate by their own free will with out oppression. [THF]

Essay Topic 3

The female experience as a minority

            Even though Maya Angelou and Donald Goines did not live in the time of slavery, their stories are an interesting part of depicting the lives of African American women after slavery has been abolished. Sandra from Donald Goines Black Girl Lost experiences life in a completely different way than Marguerite Johnson does in Maya Angelou’s personal account, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and yet, even Linda in the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl shares this common link with the other girls. This common link is that they are African American women struggling to survive in a world of adversities where prejudice and being sexually assaulted were counteracted by the places the stayed and the family they had.

            Though all three of these characters lived in worlds where prejudice was high all of them experienced it differently. Linda experienced prejudice from her mistress when she is a slave because of the master’s lustful attentions towards her. Later when she has left the world of slavery behind and is a maid and governess to her employer’s child she is treated below her station. She is not served by the white servers like the other maids and nurses and was told to go to the kitchens where she belonged by African Americans waiters. While Linda lived through these horrible events of prejudice, Marguerite shared a similar type of experience and was unable to resist against the discrimination she faced. When Marguerite was in need of a dentist, her grandmother remembered that she had aided a white dentist when he was in need of money and owed her a favor, the dentist refused, saying he’d “rather stick [his] hand in a dog’s mouth than in a nigger’s” (pg 160). Instead of waiting for him to concede, her grandmother argued with him for a minute and then began the long journey to the African American dentist which was farther away. Being called a “nigger,” “negro” or a “spook” was a constant in those times and it was often bantered about in normal conversations when referring to an African American. In Sandra’s story the type of discrimination she encounters is of a totally different nature. Sandra is in an integrated school where teachers and students are both black and white, and the only prejudice there is about her dress. She was called Raggedy Anne and was made to feel low only because of how poor she was, race was never an issue.

            The repercussions of being discriminated against were terrible on the spirit and help from family was one way that people dealt with that. In Sandra’s situation, the reason she was discriminated against was because her mother did not take care of her, so she turned to people who were not her family – the immigrant store owner and the her boyfriend for comfort and relief. Unlike Sandra, Linda couldn’t burden friends or family with these problems, so she sought comfort in the love of her children. While for Marguerite the only person she could really rely on when things got bad was the strength of her grandmother and the love from her true brother Bailey.

            While family was there for love and support, they could not always be there to shelter them from harm. For each woman a similar event of sexual assault was inescapable. Linda being a slave at the time had no choice except to try and avoid the situation which she unable to thwart. For Maya the assault happened when she was eight years old and unaware that anything bad was happening until something hurt and she then tried to stop it. The problem with her situation was there was a threat on the life of her brother and there was no one else there to protect her. For Sandra, she was no longer innocent, but the rape occurred in her home when people broke in to get drugs and her boyfriend was in jail helpless to stop it. For both Marguerite and Sandra there was punishment enacted on the rapist and both men were killed for it. All three women went through this experience and survived it.

            For many people home is a place of comfort and safety but for all these girls home was something different. For Linda she did not have anywhere she really called home, she resided in a cottage as a slave, a roof as a runaway and in the house of her employer as a freedwoman. Home was not really anything special to her other than a place to lay her head or hide away. For Marguerite; her home with her grandmother was a safe place the go back to and hide when afraid. After moving in with her mother a second time she lived in a California Ghetto, became attached to the place momentarily and felt the necessity of staying within it because it was safe and known, while anything outside was frightful and unknown. The opposite could be said for Sandra who lived in the ghetto from the first and tried everything to get away from it, yet no matter what she did, she always went back. The place where these different women lived were never really homes to them, they all share the fact that their home is wherever their loved ones are.

            These women had different lives, different experiences and ending up in completely different lives but they all shared one thing in common. These women faced a double minority situation in which they were both a racial minority and a sexual minority. Comparing their lives has showed many differences and how they all led completely different lives. It also showed that these double minorities were survivors of the first class and would let nothing keep them down. They kept the spirit of the idea that one day their time would come and they would have their opportunities to shine at last. [CJJ]

Throughout the first half of the course on Minority Literature, several themes and objectives have been covered. One theme, in particular, stands out from the others, the idea of an African-American woman being a double jeopardy type of minority. From the readings of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Black Girl Lost, it becomes apparent that although minority males have disadvantages, minority females have it twice as difficult because there is also the element of sex involved.

            In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the double-jeopardy minority appears throughout the narrative. Linda is told that she is the property of Dr. Flint and must “[. . .] be subject to his will in all things” (page, 361). She knows that she cannot go to her mistress because her mistress is jealous of her and will be of no help to her. On several occasions, Dr. Flint tries to have sex with Linda but she keeps getting around it. Although she seemingly has no voice in the matter, she does make the choice to take a lover and have his children. Unfortunately, the children of a slave become the property of the master. Fortunately, the father is able to buy the children and Linda goes into hiding for many years. Like Incidents, Caged Bird also has aspects of the double-jeopardy.

            In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, there are several occasions in which Maya has no voice or choice. One incident is when the “powhite trash” girls come to the store and make rude comments and gestures to Momma. Maya stood in the store knowing she could not say any thing to the girls because she was black. Another incident is when her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, rapes her. After the rape, she uses her voice to tell what happened in court. Unfortunately, when Mr. Freeman is released from jail and killed she feels it is because of her voice and voluntarily stops talking for six years. Later, at her graduation ceremony the black boys were expected to become athletes while the black girls were left out all together.

            As with the previous two narratives, Black Girl Lost also shows the double minority of Sandra in a more modern urban setting. As with Linda and Maya, Sandra is raped. While Black Girl is a modern novel Sandra still finds herself with no voice, being gagged with a handkerchief and no choice because she is overpowered by Tree. This incident occurs due to the absence of Chink, her boyfriend. In all three of these narratives, the women have no one to protect them from the brutality of men. 

These narratives are similar in that the black girl has less of a voice than the black boy but each of the girls portrayed in these stories were able to make choices that seemed appropriate to each of their situations. In Incidents, Linda was able to escape to sexual advances of her master by having children by a free man and hiding in a garret for several years. Maya made the choice to stop talking, thinking that her voice had the ability to kill. Unlike the first two, Sandra had no voice or choice about the sexual abuse forced upon her. Seeing the differences in the treatment of black women to black men through history the reader can assess that being a black woman has twice the disadvantages because sexual assault becomes involved. [RK]

The role of the African American Mother as seen in Caged Bird, Black Girl Lost, and Slave Girl

Mothers and minority culture

Regardless of culture the role of mother is crucial in the development of children.  The ideal mother is the life giver, care giver, protector, teacher, and center of the home.  For the characters Maya and Sandra their experiences with their mothers were dramatically different.  The role of mother in African American culture might not be filled by the biological mother as is the case in Maya and Linda Brent's' lives.  In these cases the grandmothers took on the role as mother at some point.  It seems apparent that if Sandra had had any other family she surely could have sought refuge with them.  We see a stark contrast in the outcome of Sandra's life than in Linda's or Maya's that might have been altered had Sandra had a better mother figure in her life.  The following is an exploration of the mother figures in Caged Bird, Black Girl, and Slave Girl.

Maya's first experiences with her mother as life giver and care giver find her being put on a train with her brother and sent to live with their paternal grandfather at the age of four.  The role of mother is then shifted to their grandmother whom they called Mamma.  Mamma, being a very self sufficient woman, owning a negro store in the segregated south cares for Maya and Bailey as if they were her own.  They always have  food and shelter.  In much the same way, Linda's grandmother takes on the role of mother and although Linda and her grandmother are slaves there is never any doubt that Linda's grandmother cares a great deal for Linda (and later Linda's children as well.  Sandra's experience is much different.  Her mother is an alcoholic and drug addict and one reads her story wondering how she made to childhood.  While Maya's Momma and Linda's Grandmother earn a great deal of respect from their culture as being strong black women, Sandy, Sandra's mother earns equally as much disdain from the minority culture.  So much so, that a drunken child molester, "wished that he cold meet Sandra's mother.  He'd tell the sorry bitch a few things," (Goines, 15).  For the African American culture children and family are the women's business.  Linda's grandmother was put in charge of most of the plantation children while other slaves worked.  For the African American culture whoever holds the role of mother is expected to be a strong black woman.  Just as Maya becomes a teenage mother and her mother expects her to take care of her baby and says, "see, you don't have to think about doing the right thing.  If your for the right thing, then you do it without thinking," (Angelou, 289).  The right thing for an African American woman is to be a strong mother.

Mother's are also the primary teachers of the children for Maya she was educated in ways of commerce, religion, and manners by Momma.  But, from her biological mother and the times when she lived with mother dear she was educated in the ways of men, cards, and gambling.  Mother dear believed in the importance of self sufficiency and this she extended to her children.  Again another strong black woman teaching her daughter to be a strong black woman (regardless of the presence of man or not.)  But for Sandra, she was left without guidance of any kind.  In turn she turned to stealing to stay alive.  While she learned to be self sufficient in this way she was never given any indication by her mother that she was worth anything.  She actually had to fight her mother for food or money that she brought home.  She was forced to hide food and money from her mother.  It is no wonder that she turned to Chink as an alternative family.  Sandra and Chink actually supported Sandy - a rather shameful thing for an African American woman.  The Black investigator notes his disgust for such a woman when he comes to investigate.  For Linda, her grandmother as the teacher taught religion, morals, and manners.  Linda's grandmother was so strict that it took Linda many years to admit that she was being pursued by her master.  When it did come out her grandmother was furious accusing Linda of letting it happen and not staying pure.  For both Mamma and grandmother respect for both your elders and masters was a very important theme.  You would not easily cross either of these two strong black women.

As protectors Maya's and Linda's mother figures tried to protect their daughters.  While we see no evidence that Sandra's mother did.  Although, Sandra does begin her story saying, "Her mother would be furious at her for riding in a man's car," (Goines, 11).  It seems unclear, but Sandra somehow received this warning yet was not given the tools with which to obey.  On the other hand  Maya's mother had someone killed because he had molested Maya.  And Mamma risked her life and reputation (as a non-trouble making negro) taking Maya to the white part of town to a white dentist because Maya had a toothache.  In contrast, Maya's stepmother actually cut her because she was jealous of her father's affections.  For Linda her grandmother would risk her life by hiding Linda from her master - a crime punishable by death.  For all except Sandy these mother figures attempted to protect their daughters, although in some fashion they were all molested by men at young ages.  This hearkens back to Linda's words, "When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had been before....Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own," (Brent, 526).  Born out of experience African American women understand the hardships that Black girls will endure.  It seems no matter their efforts to protect them someone gets to the girls.

 For the African American mother her job as provider, protector, and teacher are compounded with the idea of a double minority.  Girls are subjected to violence from males that for these characters seemed unavoidable.  Yet, like the "Dream" narrative, they do not give up hope that they will emerge as another generation of strong African American Women.  These texts seem to point to the difficulty of raising children in a minority culture.  Much like Louis Simpson's poem The Battle, Over and Over Again, she says,

and I wondered as I squeezed her hands,

how long will the battle be

her eyes opened and looked in mine,

as if she heard my fear ....

I kissed her softly on her mouth, both her sandy cheeks,

 washed her face, and studied the draining water

as if it were the last enemy's retreat

The minority mother struggles to care for her children just as all mothers do, but her job is much harder than those mother's of the dominant culture.  The African American woman is the rock that the African American culture rests. [NL]

            All of the African American texts assigned in this class have been extremely interesting. Comparing and contrasting the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Linda Brent with Maya Angelo’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and Donald Goines Black Girl Lost is an interesting task. All of the stories are set in different time periods but still contain many of the same underlying themes. Many of the types of problems experienced by slaves follow their descendants and are included in the more recent texts. Some of the similarities include the abuse of women requiring vigilante justice, the value of the family, and searching for a home. . . . [SL]

Essay # 3  Topic “Double Minority”

            In coming up with an idea for this essay I found that the topic of the “double minority” that faces African-American women an interesting one.  Many would believe that being a minority has no stipulations or “add-ons” but after reading stories such as Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents in the Live of a Slave Girl”, and Donald Goines’ Black Girl Lost, the realization occurred to me that African American women are and have always experienced the status of a “double minority”.  Not only do they have to overcome the racial barriers and stigmas that come along with being African-American, but they also have to deal with the suppressors and demeaning ideas brought on by being women. 

            In history, women have been viewed as weak creatures that could not deal with things in life, like men could.  Even psychologists agreed that women were often crazy and easily disturbed if faced with any type of problem or situation.  Comically, many psychologists often explained that women should not be sexual beings because it often caused insanity due to the fact that women could not deal with the impact of the act itself.  These views of women as weak creatures has been perpetuated in much of early literature with characters like Ophelia and even children’s characters like Sleeping Beauty.  It has been just recently that literature has offered strong women capable of making decisions and taking charge of their life. 

            With these factors bearing down, African-American women have had to face more ridicule, physical abuse, and emotional distress at the hands of white and black men alike.   Beginning with Harriet Jacobs, we see the atrocities endured by this young slave girl. The question that needs to be asked, when dealing with the concept of a double minority, is whether young African-American men were dealing with some of the things Jacobs was in her life.  Beginning in her youth, Jacobs was subjected to years and years of physical and sexual abuse by her master.  Along with this, Jacobs had to endure the fears that come along with being a slave mother.  After becoming pregnant, by a free African-American man, Jacobs was disappointed and fearful to discover that she had a girl.  As she states, “When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own”.  Granted, many men would feel the same way about their daughters and slavery, but there is something different, when a mother has endured these atrocities that many fathers can not comprehend.  Along with these worries, Jacobs seems to feel guilty about giving birth to a girl.  A mother’s guilt is something that many men don’t seem to fully understand.

            Maya Angelou also experiences many of the physical atrocities Jacobs had to experience, however Angelou was a free black child as opposed to Jacobs in slavery.  Maya’s problems seem to be augmented by the fact that she is African-American in a society where being black is similar to being dumb, stupid and even property.  The resilient girl endures many problems, but the greatest turning point seems to be the sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather.  Upon this moment, Maya retreats into herself and refuses to interact or talk with anyone.  She is traumatized to the point of self induced muteness.  Maya, however does have a few people around her who urge her to overcome her inner demons.  The famous graduation scene gives readers the viewpoint of the Anglo population about the African-Americans, when the speaker at the graduation demeans the young black kids by not giving them much to shoot for in their future.  He basically states that these students can only achieve greatness in sports.  Interestingly enough, he does not give any of the young girl’s aspirations to shoot for, so here again are African-American women being “sold short”.

            Sandra, along with both other girls endures sexual abuse but unlike the other two must supercede all of the troubles in her life without a support system.  This story offers a very side view of the life of an inner city girl with no direction or support.  Her only love, Chink is a drug dealer, and her mother is an alcoholic with no real connection or love for Sandra.  She relies on street smarts to get her through but ultimately falls into the stigma of her race and gender when she helps Chink by escaping jail so he can kill the men who sexually abused her.  Unlike the other two stories, Sandra’s ends in sadness when unable to deal with loosing Chink, her only love, she kills herself.

            In looking closely at Angelou’s and Jacobs’s stories, I found that both women had a strong African American mother figure to model themselves after.  Both women were able to draw upon that strength in later life and overcome many of the adversities.  Maya’s grandmother instilled in her the idea that although she was African American and a woman, that she could still carry herself with dignity and pride.  This is evident in the scene when Maya’s grandmother stands up and endures ridicule from one of the young white trash girls.  It is interesting to note that this young girl felt able to ridicule and elder African American woman.  Not only was she a woman, but she was African-American so that made her just a little bit lower on the totem pole.  Jacob’s grandmother, in her own right was just as strong to endure slavery and then the risks that came along with hiding her granddaughter.  She urged Jacobs not to loose sight of the idea of freedom and the hope that she would be reunited again with her children.

            In contrasts to these, the story that ends in the protagonist’s death is one where the young girl does not have the strong tie to a motherly figure.  Her mother, an alcoholic, seems to be annoyed by her daughter.  Even she exploits the poor girl for money.  Her example of tawdry life living does not give Sandra something to shoot for, but something to run away from.  This can be seen when someone calls Sandra “Sandy” and she explains that that is her mother’s name not hers.  She eventually physically runs away from her mother and her mother’s lifestyle but even in trying to make one for herself, fails miserably.

            The concept of double minority is definitely something worth discussing in detail in any aspect.  Many women feel that they have things bad, but in contrast African-American women have had to endure more than their fair share of grief.  It is very interesting to note that now, many African-American women are strong and insightful people with a lot to share and teach.  As evident with Angelou and Jacobs, these women carried the weight of their gender and their race and became able, strong women with class, dignity and class.  These women are examples of the African-American dream coming true, even when put up against a double minority. [PN]