Pls note that this is all crap
A 1) Langston Hughes was born in 1902 in Missouri and was raised by his grandmother. He came to New York and attend the Colombia at 20 and after that he was always on the move. He contributed greatly to the Harlem Resistance.
Langston Hughes poetry was all about the plight of the Afro-American and the oppression they were under. His early poems contained elements of Jazz and blues. Later on hs poems also incorporated bebop rhythms. His poetry has a lot of irony in it (The Ballad of Landlord) and some have anger (Will V-Day be Me-Day too).
Q 1) Evaluate the poetry of Langston Hughes (and about the Harlem Renaissance)
A 1) In the poem I, Too Sing America by Langston Hughes. The poem was written in a time when African-American were oppressed by the majority Whites. This poem is a proclamation of Langston Hughes against this oppression.
The poem is of the plight of a Afro-American servants who are made to eat in the kitchens and not the dining hall. As the poem proceeds we see Hughes refusing to this, refusing to in kitchen to eat.
He shows a challenge to his oppressors by laughing at them.
In the second verse he dreams of a better tomorrow where he will have his rights and no one will dare to tell him to eat in the kitchen for he to is American.
The poem makes am indirect reference to the Constitution of America that says that all men and women are equal, but yet just before they are darker they are discriminated against.
Hughes wants to point out that they are all equal. That all American belong to the same family and humanity.
This poem reflects the collective states of minds.
The Harlem Renaissance: This was culture movement of Afro-Americans that 1918 and blossomed in the 1920s. It took place at Harlem in New York. The literature developed was informal and incorrect. Afro-American writers twisted the English language to be appropriate for their culture. There was an acceptance that America was now their homeland and Africa became the idea of a lost paradise. Now they had to look to the future and forge for its identity in America.
Q 2) With reference to Mack and the boys, how does Steinbeck subvert the idea of the American dream.
A 2) To answer this question we must understand the concept of the American Dream. The American Dream is a traditional idea in the USA. The people of America were tired of war (1914-1918) and were looking for many people just wanted to have a settled, have a family and a successful job. There was also a high rate of migration of people into American. Everyone wanted this piece of prosperity. Everyone wanted this piece of American Dream. Simply American Dream is an idea in the United States that everyone has a chance to achieve prosperity and success.
Mack and is boys are exactly the opposite. They don’t want to prosperity and success. Mack could be the President but he does not want to. They just want to live day to day. They don’t need success to have be happy. They are happy just by having each other. They don’t think of tomorrow but only today. They don’t want to settle down and have a family.
Probably the point Steinbeck is making that there are some people who don’t want the American Dream or maybe the American Dream was stereotypical. That there is a lower underlining group of people who do not want this dream.
Q 3) Would you characterize Steinbeck as a realist? Discuss.
A 3) Steinbeck’s novel Cannery row is about a bunch of lower income group people and their life in a community. So is this account, is this story realistic. I think it is not that simple. It is a hybrid of utopian and a realist. Firstly to point out there is a Chinese shop owner who gives a credit without any limit. The fact that he gives the Mack and the boys free without any rent is questionable. To cap it of Chinese businessmen have a very good economic sense and are hardly the people who give a lot of credit. Also how does most people have not paid back the money how does he continue running the shop. Secondly are people so good? Are people always so good natured in a community?
However there is the realistic part of the story also. That there exsists a group of people in society that live the way as described in the book. There are bums and there are blah.
The Steinbeck has written a Utopia Realist. Utopian in a sense that the novel idealizes the values of the lower classes and insists that good fellowship and warm-heartedness are all that are needed to create a paradise anywhere on earth, even here on run-down Cannery Row. The characters in the novel are accordingly stereotyped at times: the gruff madam with the heart of gold, the grocer who is a tough and even extortionary businessman but who nevertheless keeps the Row going and is capable of extreme generosity, the shiftless man who can't hold a job but will tenderly nurse a puppy back to health.
Realitist in the sense that the weight of current events sometimes breaks through: This novel is set immediately following the Depression and World War II, and for many on Cannery Row, the war did little to end the Depression. In all these ways, the "real world" intrudes
Q 4) Evaluate Cannery Row as a novel based on Place and Community rather than Plot and Action.
A 4) Cannery Row is a story of people and place. It has no story. Steinbeck shows how a bunch of people are living together in this community. There is no main story, but every chapter tells us little of the characters and their life in the community. The starting description of the story gives a vivid description of Cannery Row.
For the characters in Cannery Row may be more than they appear to be-more
than obscure storekeepers or drifters-but they, like the humanity which they
represent, are far less than perfect. Neither their happiness nor their means
of achieving it is simply the "good" way compared to the "bad" way of the rest
of the money-grubbing world. Mack and the boys, like the rest of us, often
break when they wish to build, hurt when they want to love; and, like the rest
of us, their immediate appetites often distract them from their deeper need to
give of themselves.
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