Imamu Amiri Baraka\'s \"Dutchman\" is a play rooted in symbolism. It can be traced throughout the entire play: the language, the setting, the plot, the movement, the dialogue, and even the title. Baraka does a good job intertwining both the realistic and symbolic in effort to get his theme across....

While reading the September 1999 issue of Social Work: Journal of the National Association of Social Workers, I came across an article entitled "Symbolic Interactionism, African American Families and the Transracial Adoption Controversy". It was written by Leslie Doty Hollingsworth PhD, the assist...

Exploring Symbols in O'Conner's "Revelation": God's Grace The Bible teaches that God's grace is received through faith alone. Jesus gave his life for the salvation of mankind, but he asks that mankind must believe in him to enter into heaven. In Flannery O'Con...

Ralph Ellison\'s \"Battle Royal\" is symbolic of the African American struggle for equality after the abolition of slavery. The various hardships that the narrator must endure in his quest to deliver his speech represent the many hardships that the blacks went through in their fight for equality. Th...

There are many symbols in Ralph Ellison's story "Battle Royal." Ellison's story is full of excellent symbolism of how African-Americans have struggled throughout history to fight for their equality. The narrator starts off the story by describing his grandfather's dying ...

Cry, The Beloved Country Cry, The Beloved Country was written in 1948, by Alan Paton. It is a novel written about South Africa, like Paton's Hope for South Africa, and The Land and People of South Africa. This was a realistic book because of its exceptional setting, symbolism, and character dev...

Nowa days, the adolescent culture is strongly represented through the use of video clips. One singer in particular, Madonna, can be seen as a cultural symbol. She reflects female's rights, rebellion and sexuality. This can strongly be seen in the video clip "Like A Prayer". Also in th...

Ralph Ellison wrote Invisible Man in 1952, when the post-modern writing style dominated American literature. Post-modernism is displayed in this novel by several metaphors that literally and symbolically challenge Emersonian and Whitmanian models, which consider social equality for all beings in Am...

The Negro Speaks of Rivers: An Analysis Langston Hughes, a poet in the early twentieth century is known for his poems about urban life and racial affirmation. In the poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Hughes tells a story of the black man's evolution to America. The poem illustrate...

The theme of the story " As I Grew Older" by Langston Hughes is, no matter what stands in your way fight for your dream. Hughes showcases the fact that racism and discrimination can hold African Americans back from accomplishing their dreams but, through the struggles they can triumph ove...

In the story, A Raisin in the Sun, one of the main characters was Walter Lee. His super objective in the story was to be able to provide a better life for him and his family and also to prove to the world that black men could be successful at life. Walter Lee had many reasons for his super objecti...

A vision of equal opportunity becomes difficultly written as described by the images of symbolism in Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal." Throughout the story many different characteristics explain in detail as the symbolism unfolds. But the nude girl, the rug covered in coins and the racial inequality r...

To Kill a Mockingbird: Symbolism of the Mockingbird "I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (Lee 90). Harper Lee, a creative novelist, uniquely quot...

A Childs SafetyThe "Ballad of Birmingham" wrote by Dudley Randall was about a church that was bombed in 1963. This ballad was wrote by an African American man who was forty-nine years old when the bombing occurred. This ballad features irony, symbolism, and discrimination.It is very ironic that th...

The film "Pleasantville" portrays the changes that have occurred in American society over the past 50 years. The movie describes changes in sexual relations, violence, and family matters and roles. Viewers are shown how the racial and sexual equality began. It shows there is no "pe...

The lady that appears after the first 100 pages of the book turns out to be Vivian, Grant's secret lover. Grant and Vivian take a walk and after their walk they visit Grant's aunt, aunt Emma. Aunt Emma and her friends are very fond of Vivian and they give her many compliments. Aunt...

Communication is the act of sharing information. Most of the time it involves the use of oral or written symbols and on other occasions, it implicates various types of nonverbal symbols such as body language. Communication is the medium for instruction, assessment, family and public relations, and g...

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not a racist novel, nor was Mark Twain a racist author. The novel was written as a satire on slavery and racism, which raised social awareness; it is considered by many to be one of the greatest American novels. Since it was first published in 1884, the story ha...

"The story "Going Home" by Archie Weller is about a young mixed Aboriginal and white descent boy, William Woodward, and his struggles to find his place in society. Being of mixed descent, Woodward is confronted with many difficult conflicts of culture. The coming-of-age-story about Wo...

Native Son, by Richard Wright is a novel primarily about Racism, and its effects on both blacks and whites in the 1930's. Wright creates an environment in which racism permeates every level of society and, through his main character, Bigger Thomas, creates a sensation (the murder of Mary) that ...

How Do You Like Them Apples? A Critical Analysis of Amiri Baraka's Dutchman Composed during the writer's so-called Transitional Period, Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka's Dutchman is a work that has confounded audiences with its political allusion to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, sin...

Faith Ringgold’s \"God Bless America\" is an expression of the emotional and physical torment of black Americans prior to and during the Civil Rights Movement. This piece of art movement had a lot of cultural ties to the population during the 1960’s that also can be applied today in the year 200...

Ralph Ellison\'s Invisible Man is the epitome of oppression of the black race. It is the story of an educated black man who has been oppressed and dominated by whites all of his life. Within the covers of the book lie themes and episodes which support the idea that the white race is the supreme race...

William Blake's "The Little Black Boy" William Blake writes "The Little Black Boy" from Songs of Innocence- a time when we are young and have not experienced much of life. In "The Little Black Boy," I believe Blake is writing about racism and the treatment of bla...

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but...sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (p. 90). A mockingbird is a symbol of innocence. Boo Radley represents the mockingbird in the sense that he is good and never hurts anyone. It would be a sin...