Introduction
- Impact of Literature on Racism
- The world has changed a lot as compared to the earlier times, but still we often find people to be distinguishing them on the basis of race and color. We all know about how the blacks were treated as slaves by the whites. On the other hand, there have been several poems and other literature written on racism and trauma. The journey of life for any individual becomes difficult once they are affected with racism (Peters 50).
- Racism and evolution that began
- Racism has been prevailing since ages, and due to which, even slavery existed in the society. Today, however, the world has changed a lot, and even the mindset of the whites has changed. We would observe a huge revolution regarding the issue of racism. After several revolutions against racism all-round the world, people have now recognized this issue to be a deadly evil for the society. And, hence, even the whites have started respecting the blacks in several fields. But, we would like to know the lives of the blacks and the whites during those times. And, hence, to achieve this purpose, we would like to compare and contrast the literature works "Of the Coming oh John" by W.E.B. Dubois and "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by the African-American Poet Maya Angelou.
Thesis: The thesis of this paper will focus upon comparing the two well-known piece of literature "Of the Coming of John" by W.E.B. Dubois and "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou. I would like to highlight the issues of racism and how it has impacted a given society. In addition, I would be determining the status of the blacks in the society during the olden times. I want to highlight the issues of slavery and how blacks have fought bravely to achieve their freedom.
- The factor of Racism
- Racism depicted in Of the coming of John
- In the classic piece Of the Coming of John, we would find the characters of two Johns, out of which, one belongs to the whites and other to the blacks. Both of them seem to be the two opposite sides of the coin. One is patient, humble, and intelligent, while the other one is impatient, privileged, ignorant, and irate. The entire focus of this piece is on how the blacks have put in all their efforts to achieve their objectives in their life (Peters 31-47). Against this, we would find the whites who were not only privileged but were ignorant and were not even trying to achieve something in their life. They just thoughts that, it was their privilege to be a part of the whites' community, and hence, they have rights on each and every thing. There are several injustices shown in the essay piece toward the black community.
- Racism depicted in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- On the other hand, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings describes the life of Maya from the age of three to 17. There have been several struggles faced by her during this course of life, particularly from the racism perspective. It seems that, United States was completely covered with the racism factor. There have been several small issues described regarding how Maya faces several racism encounters during different stages of life. She is even raped by her mother's boyfriend, who is later on found guilty during the trial. The fundamental theme focuses upon why the cage bird sings. It is not the voice of the freedom, but is the voice of the striking of the bars and the prayers that he sends from his heart (Boyatzis 221-222). There have been issues of literacy, criminal justice, and racism discussed throughout the given poem.
- Status in the society
- Society as depicted in Of the coming of John
- In the first literature piece, we find that, even the society is not at all responding to the Black John. Due to the dominant culture of the whites, the blacks are finding difficulty in every direction. The black John is not allowed to attend his education classes, is not allowed to accompany the whites, and is not allowed to think on a creative basis. DuBois has not left a single space to describe slavery in every direction. The society is caught into the hands of slavery, wherein we can find nothing else than racial intolerance and ignorance (Peters 61).
- Society as depicted in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- In the other piece, we shall note that, how a Black woman faces several issues including of rape due to racism. The society does not take any major steps so as to protect her life. She was under the trauma, but she fought bravely with her life to overcome it. She wrote this piece, in order to describe the complexities of rape, wherein the society does not stand with a woman in such occasions. She wanted to prevent such incidents to happen again with some other woman, and hence, she wanted to fight against the society through such literature means. It is quite encouraging and motivating to know the facts provided by the author of this piece. Angelou after this piece was recognized to be a great memoirist.
- Solving Racism on the basis of approach of “Of the coming of John”
- There is nothing specifically mentioned by the author, since he believes that, despite of all the hard efforts put in by the Black John, he fails to achieve justice in his life. He had tried everything for remove all the social injustices toward his community but he could not achieve the desired success. However, we can think of certain questions at this stage not only toward the community, but also toward the author. There were issues of racism prevailing during the olden times. But, were there no support solutions or authors or any other sources available to solve the issue of racism? It seems that, even the government had failed in solving the issue of racism during those times. This piece foreshadows all the racism issues of the modern America. Even, education seems to be acting as an alienating force in the same communities. There were vast differences in the thinking of traditional blacks and educated blacks of those times.
- Solving Racism on the basis of approach of “Of the coming of John”
- This piece is an altogether different one, wherein the author had adapted to an approach that will help in overcoming the issue of racism. There were several issue of racism and lack of support from the society and community to solve it. But, it was more important to have courage within oneself so as to overcome racism. This autobiography depicts several experiences of struggles through natural rhythms, metaphors, and intonations (Boyatzis 221-222). Hence, this piece of literature differs from the first one in many ways.
Conclusion
During last five centuries, humanity has been able to differentiate and distinguish each other on the basis of race. The concept of race concludes that, the differences that we observe in the social and cultural status is actually due to the biologically-based differences amongst the different groups of the society. The idea of racial superiority arises out of the distinction amongst the different groups based on physical and natural traits as well as physical characteristics of an individual (Peters 51).
Both the literature works have clearly mentioned of his views against the racial discrimination and against all the policies of colonialism. There should be no trading of business that
involves exchanging or trading of slaves. The social arrangements should not be changed and one needs to respect the race all around the world. We need to understand the ethnic aspects of the human groups based on culture and history, and not on biology. We need to prevent various inequalities and outbreaks that are hampering the progress of the society in today’s contemporary world. The views of both the authors have clearly challenged the imperial assumptions on the U.S. racial superiority. It is now the moral responsibility of each and every individual to respect ethnicity, race and class of every individual in this world.
References
Peters, J.G. The Cambridge Introduction to Joseph Conrad. Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print.
Boyatzis, Chris. "Let the Caged Bird Sing: Using Literature to Teach Developmental Psychology.” Teaching of Psychology 19.4 (1992): 221-222.
