Booker T. Washington Lit. Response

At the Atlanta Exposition, Booker T. Washington delivered a great speech that became the talk of the South. He addressed his speech to white southerners and to the President as well. Washington wrote this speech to “cement the friendship of the two races.” He wanted the whites to accept black people and treat them like one of their own. Racial unity was very important to Washington and that’s what he tried to get his audience to realize. He connected to them by pathos. He left it in the hands of the south whether this country would be racially unified or separated by color-blindness.
In this speech, Washington starts by addressing his audience immediately, and telling his purpose for giving the speech. This informs the audience on what they’re about to listen to and keeps the audience’s attention. Washington’s speech is very understandable. He explains his theory through a story, which is also another way for the audience to connect to him as a speaker. Washington makes this speech somewhat personal. He talks to the white southerners and blacks directly and tells them his views and what he thinks they should do. He tells the white southerners to give his people a chance to make something of themselves other than just being work hands. He tells blacks to not let the slavery crisis get them down. They can still to make something of themselves. Slavery shouldn’t be an excuse for blacks.
The way Washington delivered his speech grabbed the attention of many people. He related to them by emotion in which they were able to relate. People appreciated his speech, and he was congratulated for it the next day. He even said “…to an extent which embarrassed me so much that I went back to my boarding place.” This speech also helped him gain his audience through ethos. His character attracted people because he was an educated African-American who delivered an exceptional speech. People wanted to hear more of what he had to say and his opinions due to the knowledge he had on certain subjects.
Booker T. Washington was an inspiration to many people in the United States, especially the South. He tried to bring the country together with his powerful speech. He was a great speaker and appealed to everyone, including the President. President Grover Cleveland wrote a letter to Washington addressing his speech. Booker T. Washington is known as a powerful African-American Speaker.

The Souls of Black Folk Chapter 7 Lit response

Life for blacks in the United States was still rough even after the Civil War. Once slaves got their “freedom”, they had to try to make it with many factors going against them. Discrimination was a huge factor that held back many blacks from live the normal, American life. In chapter 7, W.E.B. Du Bois talks about many situations and experiences he has witnessed with black people, mainly in the South.

Du Bois main focus is the treatment of black people in the South. He calls it the Black Belt which is the deep southern states, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, etc. White people were very racist there and it was hard for them to accept blacks in the society. As hard as blacks worked, they were still pushed back steps as soon as they took one. Du Bois talks about a twenty-two year old black man who had recently got married and got a home for him and his wife. They rented the home, however the cotton industry was falling so they had no way to pay for their home. Their house was seized and they were left with nothing. This is a good example on how black people back then tried to make it, but they had little to depend. The plantations ended up being a part of their lives even if they were free or not.

For the South, cotton was everything. Cotton made their economy, and whites needed the help of slaves to keep their plantations running. Without slaves, they would be losing out on money. “…the merchants are in debt to the wholesalers, the planters are in debt to the merchants, the tenants owe the planters, and laborers bow and bend beneath the burden of it all” (Du Bois, 154). Either way, blacks were never really able to leave the plantations. They were never able to really get a life outside the plantation because the whites needed them and blacks needed the low wages they got paid so they can try to make it on their own.

The way blacks got treated in the south was unfair and wrong. They were never able to really have a stable life and be able to raise a family like it’s supposed to be done. Blacks got paid little for their labor and were beat in return. In chapter 7, Du Bois points out several experiences to get his readers to feel and see what slaves had to go through back then.

The Souls of Black Folk (chap 3-4) Lit.

In W.E.B. Du Bois’ book, The Souls of Black Folk, he discusses African American’s role in the United States and how they are viewed by society. The thoughts of this book takes place after the civil war, when slaves were free and now have a way of life. Blacks fought for their freedom in the Civil War, whether they were soldiers or help with war supplies and ammunition. Also, he talks about the thoughts of Booker T. Washington and his take on the African American lives. Washington believes black people should give up three things: political power, insistence on civil rights, and a higher education of Negro youth.

I somewhat agree with Washington’s theory. Though I don’t believe in the way it was said. Blacks never gave up and they fought for what they believed in. When Du Bois says Washington distinctively asks black people to “give up”, it gives black people no hope for these things. Yet, later in the paragraph it says that even though we gave up those things, we still gained in return. We gained “the disfranchisement of the Negro, the legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro, and the steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro.

Though African Americans males were able to vote their vote was less effective than a white males vote. Washington maybe was trying to make a point saying that African Americans won the right to vote, but it really doesn’t count as anything. He might not have wanted Blacks to get worked up and think they won the fool privilege when they really didn’t.

After the civil war, blacks were actually counted as a whole citizen, not just three-fifths of a person. Washington says that Blacks have won a status of civil weakness. Whites treated blacks like garbage and even after the civil war, they were treated the same. The Civil war never really won them any citizenship. Blacks were still viewed as weak in the American Society.

Africans Americans were looking for a way of education and it was hard for them to find it. It has actually always been hard for Blacks to get an education. No white man wanted to see a black person smarter than them. They made it hard for them to seek and education. Some African Americans won an education through the civil war but it wasn’t for all. There were not many schools that would accept blacks.

W.E.B. Du Bois incorporated some of Booker T. Washington’s thoughts into his book which really gave different points of views. Washington makes good points. I never looked at it that way. He tries to protect his fellow Americans by not letting them get their hopes up on something that may take a while to achieve.

The Jumping Frog

Throughout the short story of The Jumping Frog, the author, Mark Twain, relates to realism and uses a great deal of imagery. He paints out a clear picture for his audience. Twain deeply describes the characters to get the audience to relate more to the story. “…I noticed that he was fat and bald-headed, and had an expression of winning gentleness and simplicity upon his tranquil countenance.” This quote is used to describe one of the main characters of the story, Simon Wheeler. It gives the audience a physical description and a bit of his personality.

Twain’s diction also stands out to me. Unlike other authors, Twain uses diction to emphasize Jim Smiley’s gambling problem. Twain refers to him as the “uncommonly lucky” man. In many of the examples that he listed, it is inferred that Smiley is indeed lucky. Twain uses the example of Smiley gambling horse races, the health of Parson Walker’s wife, the winning of his handicapped dog in dog fights, etc. to show the extent of Smiley’s gambling problem.

Due to the great use of imagery and diction, the audience was able to paint out a vivid picture of what occurred in the story. This story also contains irony. At the beginning of the story, Ward was looking to find information on Leonidas W. Smiley and Simon Wheeler ends up giving him information on Jim Smiley the whole time. It is not understood why Ward stuck around to hear the story of someone he didn’t know.

Learning to Read and Write Lit. Response

“Education and slavery were incompatible with each other” is a quote from the excerpt, Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born a slave in 1818. Back in those times, a slave being able to read and write was like a crime. For Frederick Douglass to be able to do both tells you a lot about his character before you even read the passage. It tells you that he’s a very ambitious and strong-minded man. He found ways to accomplish his goal to learn how to read and write. In his writing, he appeals to the three parts of the rhetorical triangle: ethos, logos, and pathos.

Douglass appeals to ethos in this passage. His character can be determined through the title of this excerpt and even the first sentence of the story. “I lived in Master Hugh’s family about seven years.” This implies that he is like every other slave though he still managed to go beyond and find a way to learn. This sets the tone of the story. His reason for writing was to show how he had goals but went beyond what any other slave had done to try to accomplish them. He tells about his experience and journey of coming to literacy. Also, this grabs the attention of his audience and makes him as an author credible and trustworthy.

The reason for writing this story is was to show the audience the steps he took on learning to read and write thus appealing to logos. He gives examples on what he had been through to get to where he’s at. “The plan which I adopted…was making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of them as I could, I converted them into teachers” This is an example of a step he too to reach his goal. He makes it clear to his audience that this is what really happens to him and what he had to do.

I feel this passage mainly appeals to pathos. Because this is a true story, it grabs the audience’s attention. At one point in the story, he tells about himself finally learning to read. You would think this would be a big accomplishment for him and he would be proud of himself. Douglass says that he found himself regretting his own existence and was wishing himself dead. This is the turning point of the story. The audience would not suspect him feeling this way at all. By Douglass learning how to read, he has found out so much information about slavery and what the whites have done to his people. He is appalled by some of the information he has found out but soon realizes that he can’t do much about it because if anyone was to find out he could read it could “injure” him. It took many steps for Douglass to be able to read and write. His mistress, who was said to be kind and tender-hearted, was the one person who supported him and even taught him the alphabet. Ironically, there was a change in her character. She stopped teaching him things and even hated to see him with a newspaper.

I feel this was an inspirational story. I feel the message was to inform the audience that anything is possible and to never let anything hold you back. This story was filled with emotion and I really enjoyed reading this passage.

Spontaneous Me Lit. Resp.

Spontaneous Me, written by Walt Whitman, was a very metaphoric poem. Throughout the entire poem, he compared a human’s (man) sensuality to the beauty of nature. In the very first line in the poem, it says “Spontaneous Me, Nature”. I think he purposely made that the first thing the audience knew about the poem. As the audience continues to read, it is apparent that he is comparing two types of nature: the sensual human side of nature to the beauty of non-human nature.

Whitman definitely appealed to pathos throughout the whole poem. This poem is about the passion in a man. Whitman grabs the audience’s attention by the abundance of emotion within the writing. He focuses on the sense of touch the most. For example, the quote “Two sleepers at night lying close together as they sleep, one with an arm slanting down across and below the waist of the other” implies a sexual experience between the two lovers and explains the way they touch.

Throughout this poem, there is an ample use of figurative language. This poem basically consists of metaphors, or it can even be said that there is a use of personification. Nature is compared and is given human characteristics. For instance, the line “The hairy wild-bee that murmurs and hankers up and down, that gripes the full-grown lady-flower, curves upon her with amorous firm legs, takes his will of her, and hold himself tremulous and tight till he is satisfied” shows sensuality in a human-like way.

Whitman used diction to show imagery in his poem. Every noun in the poem was described by many adjectives. The audience got the exact picture and knew what happened and how it happened just by his choice of words. “Dead leaf”, “Hairy wild-bee”, “limpid liquid”, or “vigilant eyes” are all examples of the way he thoroughly described things to keep his audience’s attention.

This is a really passionate poem and I think it is even better because it was written by a man. It shows the softer and more sensual side of a man and not just the hard core. Whitman got his message through to his audience well because of his use of diction, which painted a visual picture. This is an easy piece to read and I found this poem to be very interesting.

Desiree's Baby Lit. Response

The story of Desiree’s Baby, by Kate Chopin, is a short story filled with ironic twists and turns. The story starts off with her mother reminiscing on times when Desiree was a little girl, and now she’s a young woman having a child. But they run into a problem. People start to notice the baby’s skin color is starting to look like one’s of a quadroon. This imposes a major conflict in the plot of he story. It also relates to the theme of the story, which is mainly race and the mixing of racial groups.

Kate Chopin appeals to pathos in this story. The plot is emotional throughout the story. Chopin shows how passionate and caring Desiree is in the sentence “. She did not just neglect her baby when she found out the baby was perhaps a quadroon. She remained loving and cared for the baby. Though, the father, Armand, starts to not care for the baby anymore. At first, it was said that he was really excited, and now that he has found out the baby is a quadroon, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with it. This takes a major toll on Desiree. The sentence “Desiree was miserable enough to die” shows how bad she hurt and feels about the situation. It also shows how she reacts to certain situations and what type of person she is.

Also, you can say that the theme of this story is also feminism. I believe it’s another one of the main themes because Desiree was the first to be blamed for being black. Why couldn’t her husband have been black? In this story, Chopin made her the underdog because she is a woman. Though, we do have clues that could suggest that her husband was actually the one who was had black in them. The quote “But Armand’s dark, handsome face…”gives the audience a clue on how he looks. But later on in the story, Desiree tries to prove to him that she’s not the one who’s black. She tells Armand to look at her hair, which is described as “long, silky brown hair that hung about her shoulders”. She also describes her eyes as gray, her skin fair and being whiter than his. These are not physical features a black person would have. You can assume that her husband was actually the one who was black but didn’t get blamed for it because he’s a man. That also had something to do with the time period they were in.

Chopin’s diction throughout the story was sometimes vague though she did use a metaphors and similes to express imagery to the audience. There were times where I was unclear on something. For instance, throughout the whole story, the baby never had a name. It was always referred to as “baby”. I think she may have done this to imply that the baby was not worthy enough to get a name because he was a quadroon. Another reason may have been to show that they baby was not going to stay long. “The blood turned like ice in her veins, and clammy moisture gathered upon her face” is an example of a simile used to show the audience the emotion she was feeling.

Desiree’s Baby was a very interesting and ironic story. At the end, it turns out the husband was actually the one who was black. Chopin definitely grabbed the audience’s attention by her use of pathos. She also created imagery for her audience using similes and metaphors. This was a great story and really opened my eyes to how the world used to be (or is) and what was accepted and what was not.