The Atlantic Exposition Address

Amanda Onalaja

January 12, 2010

AP English – III

Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, has always had, in my humble opinion, a creative way of wanting to establish the African American race. The opposite of W.E.B. DuBois’ “liberal approach”, Washington insisted on a vocational one, whereas give my race work and let us earn our keep; a view that has always earned my disapproval and criticism. However, in the chapter titled “The Atlantic Exposition Address”, from his autobiography, Up From Slavery, Washington illustrates the method behind the madness.

Ultimately at the Atlanta Exposition, Washington wanted to deliver a speech that would, “cement the friendship of the races and bring about hearty cooperation between them”. The reaction to his speech was better than he expected, but I couldn’t help but wonder why else they wouldn’t be. He preached that, “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin and not at the top”, I agree that African Americans should not be ashamed to work, but it’s unconstitutional to have to work for our respect in a Nation that is equally our own. He follows with, “Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities”. In other words Washington believed that, we shouldn’t take a mile when we were barely offered an inch, but it is my argument that that inch and that mile should have been equally ours to claim. Washington harbored good intentions, but he chose the easy way out, and I believe anything worth struggling over, is work fighting for. After two centuries of tolling in soil and being degraded, I refuse to do the same thing over under slightly different conditions.

He was praised for wanting blacks to stay subordinates, “Just as soon as the South gets over the old feeling that it is being forced by "foreigners," or "aliens," to do something which it does not want to do, I believe that the change in the direction that I have indicated is going to begin”, until the whites allow them into civil society. He seemed to criticize DuBois’ theories by stating, “think, though, that the opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in any large degree through outside or artificial forcing, but will be accorded to the Negro by the Southern white people themselves”, rebutting DuBois’ liberal education wants.

All in all I find it wrong to condemn Washington for his peaceful views. His ideal was the succession of the African American race regardless of what his methods were. He was probably right, even though some are too ignorant to take a glance at his perspective.

Of the Black Belt

Amanda Onalaja

January 11, 2010

AP English – Pd. 3

“Of the Black Belt”, is the seventh chapter of W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk. The Black Belt is the southeastern region of the United States, extending from southwest Tennessee to east-central Mississippi and then east through Alabama to the border with Georgia. Known for its poverty and low education system, the Black Belt is an abundance of the Negro dilemma during the 20^th century. However, the area has negative effects for all races which inhabit it. The early 20th century brought a general economic collapse, among the many causes of which were agriculture depletion, the boll weevil invasion and subsequent collapse of the cotton economy, and the socially repressive Jim Crow laws. What had been one of the nation's wealthiest and most politically powerful regions became one of the poorest.

DuBois’ writing seems more to inform than to persuade. His use of rhetorical examination is clever. By filling chapters with tragic events such as those experienced by the residents of the Black Belt, he allows readers to draw upon their own conclusions, causing emotional turmoil. One can’t help but pity the poor man whose furniture was unlawfully repossessed at the chapters end. Cotton, one of the most old time successful crops no longer shared its abundance of fluffy softness, deepening cotton farmers in debt. DuBois recounts, “you may stand on a spot which is to-day the centre of the Negro problem,—the centre of those nine million men who are America’s dark heritage from slavery and the slave-trade”. True enough Georgia had a large population of African Americans.

Of Booker T. Washington & Progress

Amanda Onalaja

January 10, 2010

AP English III – Pd. 2

In the third chapter of The Souls of Black Folk, “Of Booker T. Washington and Others”, DuBois writes about the disadvantages on what may seem the opposite of his “liberal approach”. That is a vocational one; who better than Booker T. Washington to express this approach. I’ve always considered Booker T. Washington and DuBois as opposites. DuBois believed African Americans needed higher learning in order to make their way into a civil society, whereas Washington believed African Americans should seek economic leverage and then equality would come later. This very chapter discusses the “subtle” rejection DuBois feels for this approach.

The Tuskegee Institute to this day is a place where hose can learn a craft and perfect a skill. This approach is created with good intentions. Washington believed men and women should excel at their skill, which helped their movement as a people, however DuBois argues, “… nor Tuskegee could remain open a day were it not for teachers trained in Negro colleges or trained by their graduates”, ultimately stating education is the root to all success. It is the life water which can nourish the African American race if applied the proper way. Civic equality is what blacks needed, and being able to craft the sturdiest steel, won’t accomplish that. While complimenting Washington for his ideals, DuBois still politely discouraged them.

The fourth chapter titled, “Of the Meaning of Progress”, DuBois recounts his travels; meeting several families and persons along the hills of Tennessee. He illustrative each character from homely to rough, retelling the story of their demise or survival. The interesting thing, is that there is a moral to his madness, more than just a tale of strangers, inside lies the tale of progress. The children of those hills were eager to learn, but a string of mishaps, including the departure of their teacher Mr. DuBois, caught up with them along with life. “My log schoolhouse was gone. In its place stood Progress; and Progress, I understand, is necessarily ugly”. How can one progressive if a forward step are never taken, never even dreamed of being taken. Ambition is just a tool of progressivism.

Of Our Spiritual Strivings

Amanda Onalaja

December 9, 2010

AP English III – Pd. 2

The Souls of Black Folk is a collection of essays written by W.E.B. DuBois and other this influential persons. The first chapter, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”, centers on DuBois coming to terms with our race’s role in America. A definite example of social realism, this chapter previews what many men and women of the African American brand had to search and sacrifice in times of slavery, how in many ways our liberation was truly not freedom, and how America would handle losing a resource it violated and humiliated.

DuBois makes a powerful statement when describing the “veil” he felt whites put up about him, “….no desire to tear down that veil… [I] lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows”. He chose to overcome the limitations placed upon him by exceeding expectations, “that sky was bluest when I could beat all my mates at examination-time”. He compares his decisions to and actions to those of his peers, “their youth sunk into tasteless sycophancy or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white”. A positive versus negative approach is used, both in an attempt at pathos. DuBois’ felt knowledge is the greatest weapon against the mercy of their “superiors”; he believed a liberal education was the key to our race’s success. While others scorned the majority, he took academic action.

Being ashamed of who you are is highly discouraged, “He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows the Negro blood has a message for the world”, as stated by DuBois. How can one be African and American? “Two souls, two thoughts… two warring ideals in one dark body”. It was a battle amongst yourself, being a Negro slave. He goes on to illustrate how badly people wanted to bring these two different worlds together. Americans are always thought of as patriotic with fair skin, but why couldn’t Negro’s just be the ebony version? With the arrival of the emancipation came a bigger issue, suffrage. In order to uphold their freedom, Negro’s had to enter the government that corrupted them in the first place, lest suffer the chances of being enslaved again.. All in all, their freedom truly wasn’t freedom, “he felt his poverty; without a cent, without a home…” they were a handicapped people living with the little they had managed to secure.

The Minister's Black Veil

Amanda Onalaja

October 20, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

“The Minister’s Black Veil”, another short story written by Nathanial Hawthorne is an appeal to pathos. The narrative aims to stir emotions, especially those surrounding religion. The main character is Mr. Hooper, “a gentlemanly person, of about thirty, though still a bachelor, was dressed with due clerical neatness, as if a careful wife had starched his band, and brushed the weekly dust from his Sunday's garb”. Overall he’s depicted to readers as a well rounded preacher whom the congregation adored. He’s described as being good repetitively, “…good Parson Hooper… good Mr. Hooper… if good Mr. Hooper's face”, the story begins somewhat positively. Until readers are informed of the change in Mr. Hooper’s appearance, “There was but one thing remarkable in his appearance. Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil”. The symbolic black veil is the focus of the entire story.

Coincidently, just as the congregation in the story, reader’s are not given too much information regarding the reason for the veil or the events that lead up to its obviously unexpected arrival, however immediately the church members become flustered and afraid, “Such was the effect of this simple piece of crape, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them”. The man the community once loved and praised has suddenly become suspicious of Mr. Hooper all at the sight and mystery of his veil. For example, at the funeral of a young woman, Mr. Hooper leans over in her casket but quickly retracts and grabs his veil as if afraid the corpse might see his face. This action was seen by a member and others begin conversing, “‘Why do you look back?’ said one in the procession to his partner. ‘I had a fancy,’ replied she, ‘that the minister and the maiden's spirit were walking hand in hand.’ ‘And so had I, at the same moment,’ said the other”.

Finally at the story’s end, when Mr. Hooper’s on his deathbed, readers get an understanding of the veil’s purpose, “Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil”. With his last breath, Hooper claims the black veil was like the sin of the world, which he felt he should take on, he also criticizes the people of his hypocritical community, for shunning him like a monster because they feared the unknown. However Hooper tried to prove his point, and suffered with the weight for years, one wonders why he continued to wear the veil in the afterlife.

Young Goodman Brown

Amanda Onalaja

October 19, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

“Young Goodman Brown” is a definite Puritan tale that appeals to pathos and ethos. Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the story depicts a protagonist named Goodman Brown, a man of great religious faith. Likewise, his entire town is of Christianity, the perfect setting for a Puritan narrative. The events that take place, while fictional, happen around the time of the Salem witch trials. The trials were historic because nearly twenty men and women were accused of witchcraft and executed. This short story doesn’t focus on Puritan life, but the actual struggle as a Christian, wherein Goodman Brown’s faith is tested. The story also has a lot of symbolism, beginning with Faith, Brown’s young wife.

As the story opens, readers are introduced to Brown and his wife, whose one distinct feature is repetitive, “pink ribbons”. The emphasis of the pink ribbons led me to pay special attention to her character and what she represented. Just as her name entails, she is Brown’s faith, his faith in God and Christianity. Actually, when Brown was about to enter the forest and he met the mysterious figure he assured my assumption, “Faith kept me back a while”, was his response when the figure said he was late. Her name has two meanings; it could be his wife or his actual Faith in what he is doing. Another symbolism is the forest in its entirety, it’s said Puritans associate God with light and things holy, but the forest adventured by Brown was described as, “…a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest…It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude”. The forest must represent the devil since it’s described as lonely and dark. Not to mention the forest is the path Brown takes where he meets the witches and other evil people on his way to the dark meeting.

The appeal to ethos in the story are the biblical references, “was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent… So saying, he threw it down at her feet, where, perhaps, it assumed life, being one of the rods which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian magi”. The staff like a snake is from the Bible’s Book of Exodus where Moses directs Aaron to throw his staff before the Pharaoh’s throne. When he does, it transforms itself into a snake. The reference is ideal for a story with a Puritan setting since Puritan’s had the strict fear of God in them. It gives Hawthorne’s tale a more significant and religious standpoint instead of just being a fictional work of art.

The symbolism of “Young Goodman Brown” is the most important element of the story. When at the end, readers see that the “dream” Brown had, that depicted the evil sightings, actually changed his life. “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream”, Brown no longer enjoyed life for fear of the vision he saw. It was as if the forest represented the devil and also the Garden of Eden, and when Brown dreamt and saw all the evil of the world, he was cast out, forever to live in misery.

The Devil and Tom Walker

Amanda Onalaja

October 15, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

Washington Irving was a Gothic writer who wrote short stories such as “The Devil and Tom Walker”. The narrative is about a man so caught up in riches and wealth he sells his soul to the devil only to be condemned in the end. The protagonist, Tom Walker, is first described as, “a meagre miserly fellow”, one who is so poor and unhappy. Miserable to the point were he and his wife conspire against each other, each pining for avarice, “they were so miserly that they even conspired to cheat each other…and many and fierce were the conflicts that took place about what ought to have been common property”. The status of the couple’s marriage is seemingly important since it takes on a connection with their surroundings, “They lived in a forlorn looking house, that stood alone and had an air of starvation. A few straggling savin trees, emblems of sterility, grew near it…The house and its inmates had altogether a bad name”. True to the Gothic style, the entire setting of the story is depressing and gloomy, a direct appeal to pathos.

Aside from the eerie setting, our Tom Walker is also a shifty character himself. He and his wife often don’t get along, however when he has news of the immense wealth he could possibly earn from dealing with Old Scratch, the “black” man who symbolizes the “devil”, he tells her, “He was not prone to let his wife into his confidence; but as this was an uneasy secret, he willingly shared it with her”. This is an example of pettiness on Tom’s part. He tells his wife only to reassure himself he has gotten the better of her, but when she realizes she too will gain wealth Tom pulls back, “However Tom might have felt disposed to sell himself to the devil, he was determined not to do so to oblige his wife; so he flatly refused out of the mere spirit of contradiction”; thus driving her to see Old Scratch herself, never to return.

The death of Tom Walker’s wife was but short-lived as readers didn’t get much depth or information as to the events or reason why she dies, just a justification, “it was said a great black man with an axe on his shoulder was seen late that very evening coming out of the swamp, carrying a bundle tied in a check apron, with an air of surly triumph…for he recognized his wife's apron, and supposed it to contain the household valuables…Tom seized the check apron, but, woful sight! Found nothing but a heart and liver tied up in it”. The entire passage is ironic and cynical. It’s the greed and self-indulgence Tom constantly exhibits that leads him to suffer his ultimate fate in the story’s end, “The black man whisked him like a child astride the horse and away he galloped in the midst of a thunder storm…On searching his coffers all his bonds and mortgages were found reduced to cinders. In place of gold and silver his iron chest was filled with chips and shavings; two skeletons lay in his stable instead of his half starved horses, and the very next day his great house took fire and was burnt to the ground”. The story holds a satirical message to those who withhold greed.