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Lilly Roberson
Kris Whorton and Seth Epstien
Western Humanities and World History
22 November 2016
Surviving Themes in African American Literature
America has had a public history of discrimination against African Americans. Starting
with slavery all the way up to today, African Americans have been beaten, tortured, and
murdered, all because of the color of their skin. American literature has reflected the countrys
changing views about African American citizens over the years, but novels and prose written by
black authors has reflected the core of the harsh treatment. When looking at black literature in
America, one can see how it has evolved over the years around on certain central themes, such as
racism, history, and individuality. All these themes are rooted in the impact slavery had on
American culture and its continued impact on black communities. By looking at examples of
books and poems set in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, one can clearly find
an established pattern of themes through these African American authors, and how the aftermaths
of slavery have imprinted American literature.
One of the foremost themes in African American literature is racism and how it affects
the main characters. Racism often presents itself by dehumanizing characters, such as in Toni
Morrisons Beloved, where she wrote: White people believed that whatever the manners, under
every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping
snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood (Morrison 229). Black people were viewed
as savages, characterized as less than human. In Beloved, Morrison shows how that
characterization can affect her characters: Sethe was raped and tortured, and Stamp Paid was

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forced to give up his wife to his slave owner. Paul D developed a tobacco tin heart, where he
learned to store his emotions to protect himself from further heartbreak after leaving Sweet
Home (Morrison 86). These characters who had seen slavery were forced to give up parts of their
humanity simply to keep surviving.
Racism has also been used as a tool of dehumanization in black literature post slavery. As
seen in Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man. The unnamed narrator was forced to physically beat other
black men to win a scholarship to college. He is sent to New York City later with a letter of
recommendation that simply says "To Whom It May ConcernKeep This N*gger-Boy
Running" (Ellison 33). Throughout the book, the narrator was either attacked for his skin color or
used as a token black man, which is the twenty-first century equivalent to Im not racist, I
have a black friend! The racially driven dehumanization of the narrator was a constant driving
force of the plotline, and the importance of the discrimination he faced makes it impossible for
this story to be told with anything but a black man as the main character.
However, not only black men have faced racism in American society. Malcom X once
stated that The most disrespected person in America is the black woman, and twenty-first
century poet Ebony Stewart knows this to be true. In her poems, she openly speaks about the
discrimination she faced as a black woman in modern America. In her poem Hairitage, she
tells us: I am nappy around my edges saying my roots havent always been free (Stewart).
Stewart references the racism modern black women face surrounding their beauty. Nappy has
become a pejorative word for natural black hair, which has been considered unprofessional, and
there continues to be cases of young black girls being sent home from school or black women
getting in trouble at work for being outside of a dress code. And while positivity campaigns and
hashtags have been set up to teach African American women to love their heritage, Stewart

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expresses that it is still a struggle for black women to learn how to love themselves despite all the
hate.
These heavily racist attitudes that have evolved in the United States can be traced back to
slavery. American slavery was justified by white slave owners who painted black men and
women as a subcategory of human. By characterizing them as less than human, scarier, less
intelligent or more violent, they defended their actions while abusing and mistreating millions of
black people. However, even after slavery, the stereotypes remained and opened the door for
racism and discrimination against African Americans, and such discriminatory processes in
education systems, prisons, even housing markets are still being used in modern America.
Another prevalent theme in black literature is history, whether it be personal history or
the national history. Morrison, in her book, puts a heavy emphasis on Sethes personal history.
She uses Sethes past to explain the story, and slowly reveals her backstory as the book
continues. Sethes inability to let go of the past caused Beloved to come back and haunt her.
Similarly, Beloved cannot forgive Sethe for her death, which was caused by Sethe reliving her
traumatic past at Sweet Home, and attacking her children when Sethe believed they would be
taken back. Morrison makes sure her readers know that the past is not necessarily behind them,
and that it can continue to haunt people. Sethe says that Some things just stay, (Morrison 43)
and the scars on her back are representative of that.
While the past continues to resurface in Sethes story, a similar occurrence happens in
Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man. Unwanted pieces of history keep appearing in the narrators story
as well. Slave cabins are still standing down the road from the narrators black college, and a
reappearing sambo doll in New York City represents outdated stereotypes that black people can
be bought. Like Sethe, the narrator tried to deny elements of his history. However, the only way

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to move forwards was to accept his past, but also his heritage. The narrator bought a yam on the
side of the road, and was instantly transported back to his southern home. He had worked so hard
to erase his southern boy personality and fit into the big city that he was overcome with bliss
once giving in to simply purchasing a yam. He becomes more accepting of himself and his
ancestry as the story goes on. I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I
am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed (Ellison 1).
A focus on the past also appears in Stewarts poetry. She pulls inspiration from her own
past for many of her poems, but she also has written a poem called Eve which retells the
biblical history of Adam and Eve that represents modern women and modern feminism, but that
also heavily parallels her own life. Stewart writes Eve with a high degree of respect for
women, and speaks about a time before women were disrespected. In this poem, women existed
first and men came from her womb, not her from his rib. Stewart writes: In the beginning, God
told Eve she did not need a man to exist. It is he who keeps hissing to be born. It is he who only
has a rib to give You have all the ribs you need God said. This will only be balloon acting as
bone. And Eve said, yo let it flow. Ill teach him how to protect me. Then after, man will have
purpose (Stewart). Stewart switches between modern slang and traditional English, blurring the
lines between a historical retelling and a modern tale. She also includes timeless situations
between Adam and Eve, such as the sexual encounter she describes between the two. However,
Adam treats Eve with respect asking before he so much as touched her. When Eve said no, he
stopped. (This scene parallels to Stewarts own sexual assault, which she openly speaks of in her
other works.) Stewart makes a point to include biblical details as well as making the story a
modern narrative. For example, when Eve gives birth, Adam praises God instead of her. When
Adam tries to declare the baby a boy, Eve tells him to let the baby decide. By recounting a well-

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known biblical story with timeless events, a greater respect for Eve, and including pieces of her
own personal narrative, Stewart shows how we remember Eve as an afterthought. She leaves
listeners to wonder how much our culture could have changed had we been told her version
instead of the traditional one.
This focus on history also has its roots in slavery. When slaves were forcibly brought to
the United States from Africa, they struggled to keep a hold on their culture. This is especially
evident in areas which used to have a heavy slave population. Sometimes the languages of the
slaves and their captors would blend, as seen in Haiti, where the common language is a mixture
between French and Creole. Sometimes they would keep a hold on their religion, which is why
places like New Orleans have a blending between the regional Catholic and Vodun faiths.
However, history in African American literature also can serve as a metaphor for the continuous
effects of slavery after abolition. African Americans are far more likely to be impoverished in the
United States than white Americans because of cycles of poverty and institutional racism that
prevents black people from advancing as quickly as white people. While feeling a connection to
ones history or heritage is part of the human experience, black authors use it to symbolize how
America cannot seem to let go of her racist roots.
The last major theme in black literature is individuality. In Beloved, the spirit of Sethes
baby is slowly sucking the life and independence from everyone who lives in their house.
Denver, while under Beloveds control, laments when she believes Beloved has left. Denver
states This is worse than when Paul D came to 124 and she cried helplessly into the stove. This
is worse. Then it was for herself. Now she is crying because she has no self (Morrison 145).
Beloved sucks the life out of Denver and Sethe, causing them to wither away. Denver begins to
leave the house more, slowly gaining her strength, independence, and sense of self back.

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However, Sethe believed Beloved was the best thing in her life. By sacrificing herself to keep
Beloved there, Sethe had given up part of herself. Sethe would not have recovered without
believing Paul Ds words of wisdom. You your best thing, Sethe. You are" (Morrison 273).
In addition to Sethe, Ellisons unnamed narrator also struggled with his identity. This is
most symbolized through the narrators lack of a name. Throughout the book, he is unnamed and
has no sense of self, and constantly lets the way other people see him define who he is. He
admits: And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyones way but my own. I have
also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called
myself (Ellison 573). At the ends of the book, he separates himself from society so that he can
find himself without influence from others. In those state of enlightenment, he makes the famous
declaration that he is the invisible man, not because he cannot find himself, but because others
refuse to see him.
The story of coming into ones identity is also a common theme in Stewarts poems.
Specifically, her poem, Transparent is the story of how she comes to terms with who she is.
Stewart writes: I speak in thunder and lightning, bring brass knuckles and fistfights. I knew
heart when she met pain. I speak in puzzle pieces and land mines, jungle on my tonsils. The same
little girl, who ran out of paper and started writing on the walls (Stewart). She tells listeners
about her flaws, her contradictions, and her history. It is a story of maturing and self-acceptance.
I am still learning how to love myself, she repeats numerous times. To Stewart, finding who
she is and learning to love herself is the most important thing shes done.
The reason identity is such a prominent theme in African American literature is also a
result of slavery. The first slaves were ripped apart from their homeland and culture, and their
children after that were separated from their families and grew up apart from their history. Slaves

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were not permitted to read or write, and were discouraged from forming opinions. For going
against the slave-owners, they could be whipped or killed. They were expected to be perfect
machines without any sense of self. Even after slavery, the way racism presented itself affected
the way black men and women saw themselves. Ellison shows his narrator as constantly trying to
please the white men, letting them tell him what he does, trying to separate himself from other
black people, all in hopes of moving up in the world controlled by white men. In modern times,
the same criticism of black people still exists. Many people still have a media fueled stereotype
as their basis for how all black people are. This can appear when people ask African Americans
why they arent more black, when they dont match the stereotype, or this harmful thinking
can also present itself when the media or police officers assume that black people are thugs by
default. Black men and women are expected to fit into a certain box of blackness, and the issue
of developing your identity around the prejudice is still prevalent in America today.
Despite how often Americans claim that the effects of slavery in the United States are
long over, the influence of American slavery still exists everywhere from judicial systems to
schooling to literature. African American literature has grown to revolve around the themes of
racism, history, and identity, which all stem from American slavery, but also from the
discriminatory treatment of African Americans since. By looking at pieces of literature written by
black men and women, set in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first century, the reader gets a
clear picture of how these themes reappear and why they continued to be prominent central
themes in African American literature.

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Works Cited:
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Random House, 1952.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Random House, 1987.
Stewart, Ebony. Eve YouTube. YouTube, 18 September 2016. Web. 15 November 2016.
Stewart, Ebony. Hairitage. YouTube. YouTube, 15 November 2016. Web. 15 November 2016.
Stewart, Ebony. Transparent. YouTube. YouTube, 4 December 2012. Web. 15 November
2016.
X, Malcom. Who Taught You to Hate Yourself? Funeral of Ronald Stokes, 5 May 1962 Los
Angeles. Web. 15 November 2016.

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