Many Years Have Passed

 

Greg Downham Mrs. Morrison C.P English III 6/8/2011 Fredrick Douglas and Richard Wright: both use Racism and Slavery as a base for their stories. Many years have passed; a baby is born pure and shows no hate to a certain person or race. People aren¶t born hating different races they are influenced by television or other people. Bigger  Thomas always thought that white people were rich, drove fancy cars and told black people what to do. Bigger learned this from watching watching movies with his friends. He really doesn¶t know about life away from his apartment. Some of the authors we have read or talked about use racism as base fo forr their writing. The authors are Richard Wright and Fredrick Douglas. Both of the these se men show even back then and still today that there is racism. Richard Wright is the author of ³Native Son´. Much of his literature literatur e concerns racial themes especially those involving the struggle of African Americans during the 19 th century. His work helps us see how rare relations back then have affected life today. Richard¶s life began in poverty. His parents could no longer support him. He was then sent off to live wi with th multiple relatives. He learned learned lessons about life and racism in the ghetto streets he grew up in. He learned to read and write because a white gave Richard Wright his library card. Richard Wright also remembers living with ³the sustained expectation of violence´ (Wright, Elements of Literature p. 1012). In his writing he shows the struggles of  African Americans and how racism affects their life. The movie ³Native Son´ really shows what racism does to a soc society. iety. In the story there is is a poor  African American named Bigger Thomas. Bigger lives in a small apartment with his mama in a very very  poor neighborhood. He is very uncooperative, unreliable unreliabl e and was heading down the wrong path. He gets a job working for the Daltons who are a rich white family. Daltons are a nice family that wanted to help Bigger. As a chauffeur, he takes Mary, Mary, the daughter of the Daltons to her university. Instead of going to school, Mary ask Bigger to go and pick up her communist communist boyfriend boyfri end Jan. Bigger believes that like all white people that he has interacted interacted with that Mary will say ³rape´ if he doesn¶t do what she says. Jan and Mary then wanted wanted to be friends with Bigger. Bigger wants no part of it. At the restaurant Bigger tells about his father, and how he was killed by a white man and the white man man wasn¶t punish punished. ed. On their way home his discomfort turns into rage because Bigger thinks that Jan and Mary are mocking mocking him. After  dropping off Jan, Bigger sees that Mary is drunk drunk and must sneak upstairs without being noticed. As he was putting Mary in bed, Mary¶s blind mother mother came in. Bigger tried to keep Mary quiet by putting the  pillow on her head and accidently killed her. So Bigger thought the only way he can hide her was in the furnace. Bigger accuses Jan because he was was a communist communist and at the time the policemen didn¶t think  Bigger was smart enough to think like that. Later in the story the truth is known and because he was  black he raped her her according to everyone. everyone. Surprisingly, Surprisi ngly, Jan defends Bigger and gets him a lawyer. In the end Bigger realizes that not all white people are bad. The second author that shows racism as his his base in his stories is Fredrick Douglas. Fredrick  Douglas was born into slavery in Talbot. Douglas campaigned the abolition of slavery. He wrote about

 

escaped slaves or slaves that were in captivity and was one of the most influential people for the abolitionist cause. Fredrick also worked for the Underground Railroad. His writings have been  published for education for people to learn about slavery and racism.

Fredrick Douglas wrote a book called called ³The Fight with Mr. Covey´. This story was about his own personal life as being a slave. Fredrick in the story gets angry because of his master  treating him very poorly. poorly. He then retaliates and and Mr. Covey is so stunned on wh what at happened. The fight with Covey causes Douglas to´ rekindle the few expiring embers of freedom (Douglas, Elements of Literature p. 430). He never receives a whipping from anyone dur during ing his remaining four years as a slave. Douglas¶s Dou glas¶s years with Covey ends on Christmas Day, 1833. It is normal for  slaves to enjoy a holiday ho liday from Christmas to New Year¶s. Slaveholders typically encourage slaves to spend the holiday ho liday drinking, rather than resting or working industriously for them. Douglas explains that this strategy helps keep blacks enslaved. ens laved. Both the authors I have mentioned wrote about their experiences about slavery and racism. Both men tell of the struggles of African African Americans and how they had to deal with racism. Fredrick wrote ³The ³The Fight with with Mr. Covey´ from from past experiences. He shows slavery slavery is wrong. In Richard¶s book book he shows Bigger change from a man that hated whi white te people to actually seeing that not all white people are bad. Both men have very interesting interesting stories but the  point they try to make is not written in the words. The point their trying to make is how we have to look past the skin sk in colors and enjoy the person for who they are.

 

 

Work Cited:

Douglas, Fredrick. ³The Fight with Mr. Covey´ Co vey´ Element of Literature Fifth Course. Ed. Mescal Evler. Austin: Holt, Rhineland and Winston 1997 pg. 426.  Native son based on the novel by Richard Wright. Cinecom International Films, 1987.

Works Consulted:

Element of Literature Fifth Course. Ed. Mescal Evler. Austin: Holt, Rhineland and Winston 1997 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wright_(author)   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredrick_Douglass