In last Thursday’s post, I wrote about the image of dirt in Lillian E. Smith’s Strange Fruit (1944). Today, I want to continue looking at Smith’s novel. Instead of focusing on Tracy Dean as I did in the last post, I want to take a moment and examine the ways that Nonnie and Bess Anderson, along with Dessie, react to what occurs in the … Read More “Everything would be the same–as it always was.”
+ american literature, blues for mister charlie, huck finn, interracial intimacy, interracial marriage, lillian e smith, Literature, of love and dust
Lillian E. Smith’s Strange Fruit (1944) has been on my shelf for a few years now. Right now, it sits back in the United States, untouched and locked away in a box in a storage room. When I purchased it, at a book sale, it was one of those books that I had heard about and that looked relevant to my research. I bought … Read More Dirt in Lillian E. Smith’s “Strange Fruit”
+ a gathering of old men, african american literature, american literature, bloodline, copper laurent, ernest j gaines, frank laurent, interracial intimacy, interracial marriage, louisiana literature, of love and dust, southern literature, Uncategorized
As I read Ernest Gaines’ “Bloodline” recently, the interactions between ‘Malia and Frank Laurent stood out. The story, essentially, centers around Copper, the son of Frank’s brother Walter who raped Copper’s mother. Copper has returned to the Laurent plantation to claim what is his, by birth. Essentially, he arrives to overthrow the system that denies him an existence due to the fact that his … Read More Interracial Intimacy in Ernest Gaines’ “Bloodline”
+ african american literature, american literature, Americans Want to Believe Jobs are the Solution to Poverty. They're Not, caribbean literature, drown, Junot Díaz, Literature, matthew desmond, yunior
Reading Junot Díaz’s “Drown,” my mind constantly kept going back to texts such as Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and James Baldwin who said, “Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.” Along with these items, I also thought about the power structures that keep Yunior de Las Casas in subjugation and essentially strip … Read More Education and Poverty in Junot Díaz’s “Drown”
+ african american literature, american dream, american literature, big walter younger, lena younger, liesl tommy, Literature, lorraine hansberry, ruth younger, walter lee younger
Throughout Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, one character hovers over the entire play as a specter of the past. This character is Big Walter, Lena’s husband and Benetha and Walter Lee’s father. Even though he does not appear on stage in the script, he exists as an important part of the narrative. His death, which we do not see, causes the action … Read More Big Walter in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”
Interminable Rambling 