In the 1960s many movements were taking place dealing with civil rights. Many court cases were brought up by the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Many people protested through sit-ins, marches, speeches, and campaigns. Some of the movements were the Freedom Rides of 1961, the integration of the University of Mississippi in 1962 and Birmingham campaign of 1965 all to press for integration of restaurants, public transportations, and institutions.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a novel by Maya Angelou that recounts her childhood which takes place in Stamps, Arkansas during the 1960's. The main character is a young, African American girl who was abandoned by her parents and lives with her grandmother, uncle, and brother. The town is segregated to such an extreme extent to where neither race has knowledge of what one another looks like. On a visit to see her mother, she is sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend. After this incident, she struggles with her sexuality and gets pregnant at the age of sixteen. Throughout the novel, she believes she is uglier than others and can't measure up to white or black children and is marginalized by white people. The novel connects to the 1960's through the main character. She is a black woman, which was a difficult position to be in during this era. To be an African American alone came with consequences, and to be woman had its own trials. Maya had to deal with both, as did every other African American woman in this time period. The book mentions the fact that she couldn't go to the dentist because they refused service on account of her skin colour, and her brother Bailey finding a dead, rotting African American man in the ditch with a white man smiling at him. These circumstances were not uncommon in the 1960's, but through hard work African Americans proved themselves equality and rights.
The Color Purple
The Color Purple was a beautiful story about two sisters who loved each other dearly. They grew up in Georgia and did not have a healthy relationship with their dad. Basically throughout the book Cellie is separated from her loving sister because she had to marry a man and to grow up and have babies. Towards the end of the book many out breaks go on Cellie loses all of her hope then she makes a friend who is friends with her husband but hates him, and finally after all the beating she stands up for herself and says she is leaving and never coming back she is going to return to Georgia and be with her dear sister.
The Color Purple expresses modern times. Black Americans lost their jobs and that’s stressed in book. War was going on and people were singing or making lectures on how they felt about things that was an important thing to them. In the book everyone from the town went to the church that was the number one thing that they based their day around. Everyone was running out of money America was in debt, just like how Cellie could not afford buying a dress or any type of fabric that she wanted, and her husband was not going to give her money for it. The 1980’s was a hard time for black American women their life was just get married and make babies to help them work on their land for money that they did not have the more the kids the best you had it. The Color Purple ties to the times and the history of the 1980’s through beliefs, the way they lived, and showing the power of black African women.
The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison in 1970, is about a young African American girl named Pecola Breedlove. Pecola goes to live with the MacTeer family in the beginning of the novel because her father is in jail and her mother is living and working with a wealthy white family. In the beginning of the book Frieda explains that as children they were constantly being given baby dolls with blonde hair and blue eyes. She says that when they are given the dolls they are told how cute they are. This leads the girls to relate beauty to the lightness of their skin, hair, and eyes. Throughout the book Pecola is told that she is ugly, which causes her to wish she was a caucasion with the bluest eyes in the entire world. As the book progresses a series of horrible events happen to Pecola – she is raped by her father and becomes pregnant, but the baby is stillborn. As a result of these traumatic events and Pecola’s longing for the bluest eyes causes her to mentally insane.
The Bluest Eye was written in a time period when it became acceptable for authors, especially women authors, to write about subjects that may have been considered “taboo” before. Some of the taboo subjects Morrison writes about are when Pecola first gets her period, when her father rapes her, her pregnancy and the death of the baby, and her mental state as a result of traumatic events that happened in her life.
A Raisin in the Sun
A raisin in the sun is about an African American family in the 1950s. The Youngers are recieving a check for 10,000 dollars because the father has died and its from the insurance company. Everyone in the family has a different idea of how the money should be used, the mother wants to buy a house, her son wants to start a liquor business, her daughter wants to go to nursing school. Throughout the book all the characters have dreams that they want to persue but are unable to because the color of their skin.
The history is linked in a few ways. The first way is shown through the character Joseph Asagei. He is the character in love with the daughter Beneatha and tries to show her that to be proud of her African heritage and to get excited for their independence. In the 1950s many Africans were trying to reach independence and many political parties were formed. This time gave much hope to black Africans as they began to emerge. The Civil Rights movement was taking place during the 1950s as well. Many black Africans were now not only fighting for their independence but also for their equality. This shows in the book because the Youngers were segregated for things such as where to live, and what jobs they were able to do. During this time in history many protests, court cases, and speeches to get their rights across.
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Catch-22
Catch-22 takes place during World War II. Captain Yossarian is an American bombardier stationed off the Italian coast. He thinks everyone is out to kill him. He wants to be medically diagnosed with insanity so that he does not have to keep going on all these missions. "Truly crazy people are those who readily agree to fly more missions." After a great deal of time Colonel Cathcart tells Yossarian that he will be sent home if he promises to praise his commanding officers. He refuses to sell-out. Yossarian runs away to Sweden with his former tent mate who has just been found after being lost after a mission. "Yossarian escapes to Sweden, determined to stay alive."
Being written during the 1960’s, Joseph Heller was able to experiment with new forms of literature, which in turn made the book a little more confusing. The setting takes place during World War II, but was written in the 1960’s so that the author could use these new forms of writing.
Works Cite
(Layman,Richard) American Decades. New York:Gale Research Inc. 1995
(Moss, Joyce) and (Wilson, George) Literature and its Times. New York: Gale. 1997
Lupton, Mary Jane. Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998. 5-6. Print.
Alice Walker."Alice Walkers Garden". Alice Walkers garden.com.n.p.Web.2009.
How Do Literature and History Interact?
1960s/Modern:
In the 1960s many movements were taking place dealing with civil rights. Many court cases were brought up by the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Many people protested through sit-ins, marches, speeches, and campaigns. Some of the movements were the Freedom Rides of 1961, the integration of the University of Mississippi in 1962 and Birmingham campaign of 1965 all to press for integration of restaurants, public transportations, and institutions.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a novel by Maya Angelou that recounts her childhood which takes place in Stamps, Arkansas during the 1960's. The main character is a young, African American girl who was abandoned by her parents and lives with her grandmother, uncle, and brother. The town is segregated to such an extreme extent to where neither race has knowledge of what one another looks like. On a visit to see her mother, she is sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend. After this incident, she struggles with her sexuality and gets pregnant at the age of sixteen. Throughout the novel, she believes she is uglier than others and can't measure up to white or black children and is marginalized by white people.
The novel connects to the 1960's through the main character. She is a black woman, which was a difficult position to be in during this era. To be an African American alone came with consequences, and to be woman had its own trials. Maya had to deal with both, as did every other African American woman in this time period. The book mentions the fact that she couldn't go to the dentist because they refused service on account of her skin colour, and her brother Bailey finding a dead, rotting African American man in the ditch with a white man smiling at him. These circumstances were not uncommon in the 1960's, but through hard work African Americans proved themselves equality and rights.
The Color Purple
The Color Purple was a beautiful story about two sisters who loved each other dearly. They grew up in Georgia and did not have a healthy relationship with their dad. Basically throughout the book Cellie is separated from her loving sister because she had to marry a man and to grow up and have babies. Towards the end of the book many out breaks go on Cellie loses all of her hope then she makes a friend who is friends with her husband but hates him, and finally after all the beating she stands up for herself and says she is leaving and never coming back she is going to return to Georgia and be with her dear sister.The Color Purple expresses modern times. Black Americans lost their jobs and that’s stressed in book. War was going on and people were singing or making lectures on how they felt about things that was an important thing to them. In the book everyone from the town went to the church that was the number one thing that they based their day around. Everyone was running out of money America was in debt, just like how Cellie could not afford buying a dress or any type of fabric that she wanted, and her husband was not going to give her money for it. The 1980’s was a hard time for black American women their life was just get married and make babies to help them work on their land for money that they did not have the more the kids the best you had it. The Color Purple ties to the times and the history of the 1980’s through beliefs, the way they lived, and showing the power of black African women.
The Bluest Eye
The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison in 1970, is about a young African American girl named Pecola Breedlove. Pecola goes to live with the MacTeer family in the beginning of the novel because her father is in jail and her mother is living and working with a wealthy white family. In the beginning of the book Frieda explains that as children they were constantly being given baby dolls with blonde hair and blue eyes. She says that when they are given the dolls they are told how cute they are. This leads the girls to relate beauty to the lightness of their skin, hair, and eyes. Throughout the book Pecola is told that she is ugly, which causes her to wish she was a caucasion with the bluest eyes in the entire world. As the book progresses a series of horrible events happen to Pecola – she is raped by her father and becomes pregnant, but the baby is stillborn. As a result of these traumatic events and Pecola’s longing for the bluest eyes causes her to mentally insane.The Bluest Eye was written in a time period when it became acceptable for authors, especially women authors, to write about subjects that may have been considered “taboo” before. Some of the taboo subjects Morrison writes about are when Pecola first gets her period, when her father rapes her, her pregnancy and the death of the baby, and her mental state as a result of traumatic events that happened in her life.
A Raisin in the Sun
A raisin in the sun is about an African American family in the 1950s. The Youngers are recieving a check for 10,000 dollars because the father has died and its from the insurance company. Everyone in the family has a different idea of how the money should be used, the mother wants to buy a house, her son wants to start a liquor business, her daughter wants to go to nursing school. Throughout the book all the characters have dreams that they want to persue but are unable to because the color of their skin.
The history is linked in a few ways. The first way is shown through the character Joseph Asagei. He is the character in love with the daughter Beneatha and tries to show her that to be proud of her African heritage and to get excited for their independence. In the 1950s many Africans were trying to reach independence and many political parties were formed. This time gave much hope to black Africans as they began to emerge. The Civil Rights movement was taking place during the 1950s as well. Many black Africans were now not only fighting for their independence but also for their equality. This shows in the book because the Youngers were segregated for things such as where to live, and what jobs they were able to do. During this time in history many protests, court cases, and speeches to get their rights across.
Catch-22
Catch-22 takes place during World War II. Captain Yossarian is an American bombardier stationed off the Italian coast. He thinks everyone is out to kill him. He wants to be medically diagnosed with insanity so that he does not have to keep going on all these missions. "Truly crazy people are those who readily agree to fly more missions." After a great deal of time Colonel Cathcart tells Yossarian that he will be sent home if he promises to praise his commanding officers. He refuses to sell-out. Yossarian runs away to Sweden with his former tent mate who has just been found after being lost after a mission. "Yossarian escapes to Sweden, determined to stay alive."
Being written during the 1960’s, Joseph Heller was able to experiment with new forms of literature, which in turn made the book a little more confusing. The setting takes place during World War II, but was written in the 1960’s so that the author could use these new forms of writing.
Works Cite
(Layman,Richard) American Decades. New York:Gale Research Inc. 1995
(Moss, Joyce) and (Wilson, George) Literature and its Times. New York: Gale. 1997Lupton, Mary Jane. Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998. 5-6. Print.
Alice Walker."Alice Walkers Garden". Alice Walkers garden.com.n.p.Web.2009.