These events help to show the slow acceptance and influence of African American culture on white America. ... (Rhodes, Page 64)) Musicians like Buddy Bolden, Clarence Williams, King Oliver, and Kid Ory laid the groundwork for jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington who followed them and helped produce the Jazz Age. These musicians helped the African American culture by producing a type of free music that was a culture strike to many whites in the United States. ... The Harlem Renaissance changed forever the dynamics of African American arts and literature in the United States. ...

• Word Count: 1092
• Approx Pages: 4

She attended the Academy for Negro Youth, a school run by her uncle, until the age of 13, and then found local work in a Quaker household, where she had access to a varied amount of literature. She also helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad and wrote several articles for anti-slavery newspapers, receiving her reputation as the mother of African American journalism. ... After reading this African American Literature piece, it showed me the horrible conditions of the slaves were and which pain and sorrow they had to live with. These past few weeks, I have be studying and analyz...

• Word Count: 748
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Alan Paton is often known worldwide for his large success in literature. ... His parents both from europe offered a strict childlife, but brought him into his love for literature and helped him to be an educated young man (South). ... (Paton) His love for literature kept the process of creating "Cry, the Beloved Country" alive. ...

• Word Count: 511
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Gwendolyn Brooks is a prominent African American poet of the twentieth century, and is known for her indelible impact in African American literature. ... This experience helped at a young age distill Gwedolyn with an intense knowledge of racial dynamics, which will later come out full force in her writings. ... Gwedolyn Brooks died in the year 2000, after leaving a huge legacy on the face of American literature. ...

• Word Count: 431
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

FINAL Toni Morrison once said that race is a central, defining feature of American literature. ... Furthermore, Mark Twain is one of the key components historically that make up American literature by using an outsider in Huckleberry Finn to define race in slavery. ... Rowlandson, Twain, Ellison, and Hemingway assert that we define our own race in American literature by defining what we are not. ... Mark Twain is able to define the changes in race by showing a boy who refuses to act as his white southerners and help free a black to slavery. ... Using this method in his literature brough...

• Word Count: 1155
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Langston Hughes a famous writer and poet, presented ideas in his works that helped to define his perception of the American dream. ... In the second grade Langston was introduced to books and soon became fascinated with literature. ... "Not without Laughter, which was published in 1930, was the novel that won the Harmon gold medal for literature.""(I wonder as I wander) Langston Hughes who became famous for his poetic passion that he carried deep within himself that helped him endure the hardships confronted by himself and his black nation. ...

• Word Count: 758
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Although somewhat unappreciated by the general public, this work is held to be a classic work of literature despite its taboo themes and figurative language for its time period. ... It demonstrates how maintaining a stable character and possessing a strong passion for literature can help conquer racism and internal trauma. ...

• Word Count: 673
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Ernest Hemingway wrote that "all modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.... ... Another author to approve of this novel is David Bradley, who says "Huckleberry Finn must be taught because it is a specific point of intersection between White American Literature and Black American Literature" (Zwick 1). ... Its opponents dwell on the fact that Huck helped a runaway slave and that they committed robbery together. ...

• Word Count: 1219
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

This man's main mission was to help enlighten people on the racial issues that were before them (Berry 5). ... Hughes then decided to attend Columbia University in New York with the help of his father (Berry 12). ... He then began greatly influencing society with his works of literature. ... Over the next few years, Hughes wrote many books, recorded a jazz album, and wrote many other works of literature (Harper 4). ... Langston Hughes helped shape the culture that we live in today through all of the great things he has done....

• Word Count: 1218
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In the years following Martin Luther King Jr's death, the civil rights movement and the African American community both underwent a series of changes that would find their way into literature for years to come. ... Through closer examination of this piece of literature I found that several characters and situations were not only believable in the context of the novel but also found representation in our nation's history. ... s death had on the African American community and it's faith in the civil rights movement would help the reader realize that it was not only in fictional ...

• Word Count: 916
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In a town where most children "had chopped cotton and fed hogs from the time they were able to walk," (Lee, 16) Scout and Jem value literature, and Scout is already extremely literate by the time she starts school for the first time. ... Each theme helps create a complete picture of this rural Alabama town, one not shaped solely by gentility and southern belles, but by bigotry, ignorance, and cowardice. ...

• Word Count: 591
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Pecola's mother, Polly, when she was pregnant and often went to the movies because of the beautiful movie stars that exemplified "white" qualities and help her forget her own ugliness. ... Morrison depicts many descriptions throughout the book, which helped me build up the characters. ... All of the critics have said how beautiful and poetic the language is through out the book, which would have to be true because Morrison has won a noble prize in literature. ... This novel you need someone else who has read it to help you interpret it. ...

• Word Count: 877
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

All throughout history, there have been times in which a moment or event nearly summed up a generation: what happened during that time period, what the people were experiencing, the emotional state of a country, the impact of a single person all merely examples of stories that helped share a larger one. ... Along with several literary awards throughout her career, three years after Gordimer released the titled short story, she would go on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1991), forever showing the importance and impact on the world of literature through her work. ...

• Word Count: 1018
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In Maya Angelou's I know why the caged birds sing, the authors purpose was to show how marguerites strength of character helped her overcome her tragic encounter with sexual molestation and racism. ... After the rape trauma, Maya went silent, but Mrs.Flowers helped her open up again through literature and poetry. ...

• Word Count: 736
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The Harlem Renaissance helped artists Langston Hughes, and Claude McKay achieve recognition for their talents during this significant period of cultural growth. ... Claude was very consistent in various writings with stories of black life in Jamaica and America to more firm literature speaking intelligent separation. ... Widely known are Claude McKay's views on the "double-consciousness" of black people which helped them survive in an unfair society filled with racism so rooted in political and public consciousness. ...

• Word Count: 764
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Tobias Wolf's short story "Say Yes", found in Discovering Literature, edited by Hans P. ... Wolff uses many different elements to help convey the meaning of the story such as characters, setting, and, style. ... His use of detail helps him to portray the emotions and personality of both Ann and her husband. ...

• Word Count: 669
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

African American poetics as well as all kinds of art and literature blossomed in a ghetto of New York called Harlem, where black artists began to write and make art of the subject of African Americas" share of the apple called "America". ... However, we can still get the sense of hope and expectations by the help of time from his lines saying: "Darkly I gaze into the days ahead, And see her might and granite wonders there, Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand, Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand." ...

• Word Count: 750
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Although the racial hatred wasn't even close to being forgotten, those changes and many new things really helped the African Americans in society. ... This is when African American literature, art, music, dance, and social commentary began to flourish in Harlem, which is an area of New York City. ...

• Word Count: 840
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

There free blacks helped them to find jobs and shelter and to begin life over again as free men and women. ... By the 1830s abolitionists had created their own informal network to help runaway slaves. ... People who helped the fugitives, leading them to safety and often offering them transportation in rowboats, wagons, or other conveyances, were "conductors" or "stationmasters." ... Aphra Gehn captures the market of literate women and gives them a different experience of literature. ...

• Word Count: 928
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In After Action Report by Phil Klay, the main character, Timhead, runs away from his problems and expects others to help him get through them. ... In After Action Report, Timhead runs away from his problems by shutting down and depending on Ozzie to help him get through them. ...

• Word Count: 786
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

They made sure I received the necessary help I needed to succeed in school from tutoring to academic focused summer programs. From birth I was exposed to literature, art and other cultural activities. ... The cultural capital I inherited from my family has and will continue to help me navigate in a Eurocentric world. ...

• Word Count: 1150
• Approx Pages: 5

Then Momma introduced her to Bertha Flowers, a beautiful and educated black woman who brought Maya out of her cocoon by giving her special attention that focused on love of the human voice in the recitation of literature. ... Then, when fourteen-year-old Bailey was ordered by a white man to help carry the corpse of a lynched man into the jail, Momma decided that the children must rejoin their mother, now living in San Francisco. ... Angelou ends her story with the birth of her son, Guy, and her discovery, with her mother's help, that she could trust herself to care for her child....

• Word Count: 1226
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

When used in this context, such as describing a book, it persuades the reader to examine the novel further to discover what makes this piece of literature so memorable to people who have read it. ... These messages and others help to show why this novel is considered a "classic." ...

• Word Count: 941
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Many of the stereotypes of African American women oriented form popular literature. ... The legend was not the only selling point of this product, sure it helped but what did the legend and the Aunt Jemima "mammy" really represent? ...

• Word Count: 1143
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

In addition to narrative structure, the structure and composition of the novel itself help to illustrate how much and for how long white ideas of family and home have been forced into black culture. ... The importance of this book goes beyond its value as a work of literature. ...

• Word Count: 1112
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School