LITR 4332 American Minority Literature 2013 Student Midterm Samples midterm assignment #2. Long essay

Tara Lawrence

Dr. White or: How I Learned to Start Thinking and Love American Minority Literature

On the first day of our class I asked the question, "Why are we only studying these three minorities groups and not say, Asian-Americans or Iranian-Americans?" Instead of a direct answer, you threw it back to the class and we all sat there quietly pondering for a few moments. I stared at the projection screen and thought, then, finally, the answer materialized: these were indigenous people or people brought to America against their will. The concept of forced participation was borne into my mind and every class since then I have learned something new about the minority experience, or at least a new way of looking at a familiar subject. As the beginning is always the best place to start, I shall start at there and give a full accounting of my understanding, insights and newfound knowledge regarding African-American literature.

            The Origin Story—before, this always seemed a straightforward concept. On one level, I suppose it still is; Adam and Eve, Uranus and Gaia, The Big Bang, all ideas about why man roams the Earth. I have learned that an origin story is not exclusive to the origins of mankind. It can describe the origins of a nation or the origins of a group of people that have landed in a new and foreign place. I understand how the slave narratives become an origin story to the African-American; an explanation of how and why they are here and who came before them. The slave narratives are not the surgical textbook knowledge of the slave trade, but a human chronicle of the slave's experiences, aspirations, and their forging of a new cultural identity.

            The slave narratives also introduced me to the concepts of objectives one and two in our course objectives. The writings of Olaudah Equiano, Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, as slave narratives, inherently display "forced participation" and "voicelessness and choicelessness." To me the real learning occurred in reading the graphic depictions of what Equiano, Douglas and Jacobs endured and what "forced participation" and "voiceless and choiceless" really meant. The episode that particularly illustrated these concepts to me was the brutal time Douglass spent as a slave with Mr. Covey. Jacobs' writings introduced gender and the idea of being a "double minority" into the slave narratives. Jacobs torment at the hands of her master and the added negotiation of unwanted sexual advance by someone you are powerless against was truly heart-wrenching to read and a clear illustration of both course objectives one and two.

            In our poetry readings and The Bluest Eye course objectives one and two fade slightly to the background and course objective three comes into a clearer focus. "The Dream," though similar to the "American Dream" has a few key differences—the dream deferred or a longer, generational timeline by which to measure success, a collective group dynamic and a desire to know the past. Countee Cullen's poem For a Poet seems to speak to the idea of a dream deferred:

            I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth,

            And laid them away in a box of gold;

            Where long will cling the lips of the moth,

            I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth;

Cullen's dream has been put away, but not thrown away. It has been carefully wrapped and preserved for later retrieval. This idea is in line with the longer, generational view of "The American Dream."  In The Bluest Eye we see examples of collectivism. Claudia and Frieda are the defenders of poor Pecola Breedlove. They protect her when the yellow-skinned Maureen Peal is nasty to her and they decide to give up their hard-earned bicycle money to help Pecola's baby live. "The Dream" is also present in the slave narratives. Equiano, Douglass and Jacobs all in their turn hope for a better future for themselves and those who come after them. Douglass in particular makes a case for all African descendants in his eloquent refutation of slavery; his refutation of slavery is looking toward a group goal rather than an individual goal.

            American minority literature has opened my eyes to many new ideas, from the more simple objective of the difference between the immigrant and the minority to the more complex notion of "The Dream." I have had the opportunity to engage in the horrors and joys in the lives of Equiano, Douglass and Jacobs and travel through the evolving minority experience with Cullen, Morrison, Zora Neale Hurst and Maya Angelou. These subjects are hard to talk about in our everyday lives but, there is true merit and important understandings that come out of pushing through our discomfort and having the discussion. Perhaps the most basic thing we can all learn from studying minority literature is that though our experiences may be vastly different at the core our humanity is very much the same.