Langton Hughes, an acknowledged poet of the Harlem Renaissance, dedicated his poetry to highlighting the inequality plight and racial discrimination of African American people. His literary works were focusing on every day life of African Americans, as well as on the hardships they had to overcome on the way to freedom and equality. Specific attention should be given to three poems – “The Weary Blues”, “Harlem (Dream Deferred)”, and “I, Too”. These poetical pieces embody Hughes’s great concerns with the future of black people living in the United States. Despite the adversities, the poets’ works reflect his hope for the better future of his people, as well as for his aspiration to liberate black people from the constant pressure of the prejudiced society.
The tone and spirit of the poems display the author’s frustration with the fate of African Americans. In particular, the poem “The Weary Blues” emphasizes the importance of music in lives of ordinary people. The unique combination of music and poetry uncovers the musician’s frustration with his societal disposition. In the poetry, the difficulty and ambiguity of the language denotes the speaker’s depression and inability to fight with the unjust treatment: “Ain’t got nobody but ma self. I’s gwine quit my frowin’…I ain’t happy no more” (The Weary Blues 19-20; line 29). The plight of poverty and social instability of African Americans, therefore, is closely associated with poem’s deliberation on the historical past revealing the eternal confrontation between white and black. The symbolic representation of piano’s white and black keys highlights the complex relations between the two peoples. In addition, because the poem is the brightest example of Harlem period, the presence of musical elements contributes to the genre and mood of the poem. The work looks more like lyrics that should be set to music.
The presence of jazz rhythm endows Hughes’s poems with African-American spirituality and hope that dreams should come true. In Harlem, the author emphasizes the importance of dreaming of better future because this feeling ignites people’s aspiration to fight against racial discrimination and stereotyping. At this point, Hughes wishes the residents of Harlem to continue dreaming and strives to ignite their ambitions in order not to provoke social unrest. At the same time, the poem provides negative comparisons of the deferred dreams with “fester like a sore”, “raisin in the sun”, or “rotten meat” (Harlem 2, 3, 4). In such a way, the author signifies the delay of dreams and the depression among the African Americans concerning the inevitability of social pressure, poverty, and discrimination. The author recognizes that his people is captured in the cage of stereotypes and prejudices and, as a result, it reveals his disappointment through the poem.
The dream theme is also represented in Hughes another literary masterpiece called I, Too revealing Hughes’ deliberation on the problem of slavery and liberation of the African Americans from pressure of the whites. Despite the presented hardships, the poet desperately believes in a happy and just live, as well as the birth of democracy that will make black people continue a challenging and complicated way to their dreams. Hughes is fully aware that there will be a time when all people will be equal in society and there will no any division according to racial principles: “Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table/ When company comes/ Nobody’ll dare/ Say o me,/ “Eat in the kitchen/ Then.”” (Hughes lines 8-14). In addition, despite the pressure, the author is confident that the African American people is strong and independent enough to survive under these unequal conditions. The first part of the poem reflects the readiness of the African Americans to confront the challenges in order to move on believing in the American Dream: “They send me to eat in the kitchen/ When company comes, / But I laugh,/ And eat well,/ And grow strong” (Hughes, lines 3-7). The poet stresses that black people will be able to endure the violence and segregation and there will be a day when white people will have to reimburse for the challenges they pose on the African Americans.
In conclusion, all the poems under consideration highlight the plight of poverty among African Americans in a two-folded way. One the one hand, the authors desperately describes the extreme challenges and encounters the blacks had to surpass on the way to their dreams. In the context of racial discrimination, inequality, and suppression of human rights and freedoms, the African Americans continued believing in their dreams for a better future. One the other hand, each poem contains as a glimpse of hope igniting people’s aspiration to ignore the difficulties and continue their path to freedom and liberation. In addition, all the poems contain references to the historical past so as to see the differences and improvements with regard to the conditions under which Hughes’ people lives. In such a way, the poet endows confidences in black people for happy future.
African American literature has been looked to as a means of illuminating for the modern world the development of a sense of identity out of a culture so fragmented and oppressed it seemed non-existent within the American system. When writers such as Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks presented their material, they illuminated some of the problems inherent within their society, including lack of education, lack of appreciation for their own value and lack of opportunity for the future. All three of these writers worked to capture the important concepts of their society within the figurative elements of daily life, urban or rural, as they are defined from within rather than without. In doing so, they were seeking a sense of identity for their race that did not depend on the definitions of the outside culture. By comparing works such as Walker’s “Everyday Use,” Ellison’s “Battle Royal” and Brooks’ “We Real Cool,” one begins to understand the unifying theme of the black community as a constant struggle between attaining higher social status and more comfortable conditions while still remaining caught within the bounds of an oppressive social system.
At the time Gwendolyn Brooks wrote her poem “We Real Cool”, jazz was becoming popular in the urban north and black people were becoming more expressive of their own identities within the greater public. In this poem, though, Brooks is talking about teenagers who had opted to identify themselves with the white stereotype of dangerous criminals. As she says in her poem, these kids would get together in gangs and do nothing but hang out on street corners, like the white man expected them to, causing trouble and getting involved in crime. Placing herself in their position, she says “We real cool. We left school” (1-2) which leads to them participating in small crimes, beginning with lurking late and then learning to ‘strike straight.’ This same three word sentence structure continues through the remaining two stanzas of the poem to indicate how the boys then begin to associate sin with their inner selves, drinking and partying until they die an early death as a result of their actions. Because each line except for the last one ends with ‘we’, which is the first word of the next sentence, Brooks emphasizes that many black people are falling into the trap of identifying themselves with the white conception of them rather than taking strength in the voice of jazz and black strength that was emerging in the rhythms of her poem and elsewhere. Talking about this ending ‘we’, Brooks said she opts to “say it rather softly because I want to represent their basic uncertainty, which they don’t bother to question every day” (Stavros, 1970). This emphasizes her intention to express how the black identity is uncertain and unconscious in their actions.
Ralph Ellison makes the search for identity one of his major themes in his telling of the Battle Royal. In this story, the narrator points out that the boys who fight in the battle wear blindfolds which hides their identity as tools of the white men from themselves. Just as they don’t ‘see’ that they are being used in a cruel and dehumanizing way, they also don’t realize that they are contributing to the overall stereotype of black boys as servile (in that they would fight with blindfolds for mere coins) and humble. The blindfolds enable the boys to hide the truth of their identity from themselves during the fight, but their identities are further warped into acceptance of white domination and black suppression as they scramble for the change thrown to them on the electrified carpet and are denied the sexuality paraded in front of them in the form of the nude white woman. These boys have formed their identities on the idea that this is the ‘normal’ way of things to such an extent that the narrator expresses extreme gratitude for the white men’s scholarship. “When, dazed and bloody, he finally delivers it [his speech], he is completely ignored by the drunken men” (Griffin 1969), yet the narrator swallows his own blood and sense of importance, demonstrating that he was among those who would “know your place at all times” (Ellison 1964 p. 33). It is up to the reader to be angry at how appallingly racist these white men have proven to be and how much the black boys have come to identify with a subservient identity. Through this scene, the reader can see that stereotype and prejudice often determine and manipulate the individual’s sense of self as well as how this serves to manipulate the entire society.
The wisdom of seeking success as defined by the dominant white society is not without its own brand of loss and hardship as is explored in Walker’s short story “Everyday Use.” In this story, the author places two sisters side by side for an afternoon of visiting as they are compared by their mother. In doing this, the author illustrates how different the girls are in their sense of identity. In the story, both girls have formed their identities based on their past, but each approach this past from a different perspective revealing the depth of one and the near-emptiness of the other. In this comparison, “Walker depicted the true essence of culture and heritage which are not to be found in the objects or external appearance but reflected by attitude and lifestyle” (Curzon, 1974). Dee’s identity is that of an outsider looking in to try to find understanding. She even acts like a tourist with her camera: “She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me. She never takes a shot without making sure the house is included. When a cow comes nibbling around the edge of the yard she snaps it and me and Maggie and the house.” While she seems to love her mother and sister, she also has no desire to identify directly with their way of life. Maggie’s identity, on the other hand, is formed through her intimate connection with the ways of life of her ancestors. Although Dee wants to collect the things of the house, Maggie actually still uses them. For Maggie, the value of the objects is not only in the memory of who once used them, but also in their ability to be useful in her life. Toward the end of the story, Maggie makes it clear that her identity is more solidly based than that of her sister when she tells her mom “I can ‘member Grandma Dee without the quilts.” Although Dee has managed to attain a degree of the white man’s success, she has done so only by sacrificing the kind of deep connection to her identity and her heritage that makes Maggie strong.
In all three of these literary works, the concept of identity for a black person in a white world can be seen to be subservient, weak or sometimes even non-existent. The black person automatically understands the elements of their own society to be meaningless and unimportant in a practical sense, worthy only for gawking or spiteful entertainment. They buy into the concept that the white man’s ways are the ideal while their own innate sense of self is somehow flawed and unimportant. Throughout their writing, though, there is a deep call for black people to wake up and embrace their beauty. These writers are able to convey a greater empathetic understanding of the circumstances of their people, urban or rural, and how these circumstances have come to shatter or build the individual’s sense of self and belonging. Brooks mourns the loss of self to the white man’s expectations in her poetry while also emphasizing the potential strength and beauty of her culture within the words and rhythms of her poem. Ellison demonstrates the danger of buying into the white man’s impressions as this only serves to reinforce attitudes for both whites and blacks. Walker provides the strongest argument for retaining a separate identity as she shows how one sister has lost her sense of self in the world while the other is strong enough to give up everything material without losing herself. The constant struggle of the black community to develop a strong sense of identity while being battered by internal and external attempts to subdue it is a constant theme throughout black literature.
Works Cited
Brooks, Gwendolyn. “We Real Cool.” The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. 3rd Ed. Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann & Robert O’Clair (eds.). New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2003: 145.
Curzon, Gwendolyn. “Everyday Use by Alice Walker.” African-American Fiction. 2009. Web.
Ellison, Ralph. The Invisible Man. New York: Random House, 1964.
Griffin, Edward M. “Notes from a Clean Well Lighted Place: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.” Twentieth Century Literature. Vol. 15, N. 3, (1969), pp. 129-44.
Stavros, George. “An Interview with Gwendolyn Brooks.” Contemporary Literature. Vol. 11, N. 1, (1970).
“African American Literature is a thematically arranged, comprehensive survey of African American literature” (Gilyard 1). Gilyard notes that “the unique thematic organization of the anthology allows for a concise and coherent assessment of African American literature” (1).
An important tactic of African American literature is parody, a form that allows the writer to take on important qualities of a prior text or a literary tradition, and modify them with subversive intent.
This tactic has been employed by Ralph Ellison and Ishmael Reed to parody the work or earlier writers thus, making important cultural points. This paper examines how the use of parody is symbolic in the African American literature.
Hutcheon argues that “parody is repetition, but repetition that includes a difference; it is imitation with critical imitation distance, whose irony can cut both ways” (37). Parody utilizes two ironic versions that include trans-contextualization and inversion, in its formal operatives.
Pragmatic ethos of parody ranges from scornful ridicule to reverential homage (Hutcheon 37). On the other hand, the English Oxford dictionary (1182) defines parody as “a composition in prose or verse in which the characteristic turns of thought and phrase in an author or class of authors are imitated in such a way as to make them appear ridiculous, especially by applying them to ludicrously inappropriate subjects; an imitation of work more or less closely modeled on the original, but so tuned as to produce a ridiculous effect”.
“A critical distance is implied between the original text being parodied and the new in cooperating work; a distance usually signaled by irony” (32). The pleasure of parody’s irony comes not from humor in particular but from the degree of engagement of the reader in the intertextual bouncing between complicity and distance (as cited in Foster).
Thus, parody is an imitative work written to comment upon the original work, trivialize or mock at it. Humorous, ironic and satiric imitations are used in a parody. Parody is an important tactic of African American literature, a form that allows the writer to take on important qualities of a prior text or a literary tradition and modify them with subversive intent.
Bright examples of parody may be observed in the works written by Ralph Ellison namely “Invisible Man” and “Mumbo Jumbo” written by Ishmael Reed. It should be noted that the parody used in Reed’s and Ellison’s works is primarily parodic narration or internal polemic.
Through reviewing Ellison’s “Invisible Man” and Reed’s “Mumbo Jumbo”, this paper demonstrates the general peculiarities of African American literature where parody is skillfully used and plays an important role. The review of secondary sources allows for a deeper understanding of the peculiar characteristics of Reed’s and Ellison’s parody by black writers.
In his book titled “The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism”, Gates Henry takes into account the parody in African American literature. Gates argues that at the time when the study of literature is characterized by what many scholars feel to be undue concern with literal theory, parody should not lead to a drift from the original text.
He suggests that the primary aim of parody should be elaborative. Gates quotes the Russian scholar, Mikhail Bakhtin, who observes the use of parody through double-voiced discourse subdivided in parodic narration and internal polemic. These two types of double-voiced discourse are merged together in Ellison’s “Invisible Man” and Reed’s “Mumbo Jumbo”.
The author points out the correlation or as he calls them “the direct black lines” which connect Ishmael Reed with Ralph Ellison, Hurston and Toni Morrison (Gates, 111). Reed uses two autonomous narrative voices, which is the parody of two simultaneous stories of detective narration. The narrative of the past bears an ironic relation to the narrative of the present.
Criticism of the text is a sort of self-parody which is extensively used in Reed’s works. In addition, Reed imitates the dualism used by Ralph Ellison in his “Invisible Man”.
Gates notes that novelists such as Ralph Ellison and Ishmael Reed created texts that are double voiced in the sense that their literally antecedents are both black and white novels, but also modes of figuration lifted from the black vernacular tradition.
Gates further argues that black tests are “mulattoes’, with a two toned heritage. These two texts speak in standard Romance or Germanic languages or literally structures.
Thus, to locate and then theorize about, these formal differences are to utilize certain tools of close reading that facilitate explication. Gates notes that the black tradition has theorized about itself, explicitly.
Whereas Reed seems to be about the clearing of space of narration, Walker seems to be intent on underscoring the relation of her text to Huston’s in a joyous proclamation of antecedent and descendant texts.
Benard Bell in his book entitled “The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern Literary Branches” critically analyzes the works of African American writers including Ralph Ellison and Ishmael Reed.
Parody is one of the ethic forms of oratory, the black vernacular, which is first developed by boys in play to assert masculinity among people and to achieve the sense of security in their contact with the hostility of a larger society (Bell, 79).
These ethnic forms of speech are used by a number of black novelists such as Charles W. Chestnut, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Ishmael Reed, John O. Killens and others.
Benard wonders whether race class or gender is the dominant issues in Afrocentric, Eurocentric and Americentric cultural theories. Bell agrees with many black African feminists who contend that race, class and gender are inseparable matrix (13).
Bell argues that in practice the social, cultural and literal criticism of popular black feminists like Bell Hooks, invariably privileges the empowerment of women over the two. Benard Bell agrees with Bell Hooks’ idea that patriarchy is the arch enemy of social systems.
Bell also agrees with his peers including Reed and Ellison that race, ethnicity, class and gender are intimately linked. However, Benard Bell stresses ethnicity and race over class and gender for three reasons.
First, Benard Bell questions the authority of post colonial discourse on immigrant groups crossing boundaries and assimilating into a nation that misleadingly stresses surface similarities over historical, geographical and cultural differences.
Second, Benard Bell challenges the authority of agency of the implied authors, narrators and characters who believe that man corrupts everything and that the feminization of men is the panacea of patriarchy as system of male domination.
Third, Benard Bell feels compelled to respond to narratives and discourses by black feminists, critics and pundits that reinforce and perpetuate negative images of black males. Such black feminists see black males as drug addicts, domestic abusers, moral degenerates, sex-crazed dogs and dead-beat dads. Ellison narration shows how he had hated his grand father.
He believed that his misfortunes were caused by the grandfather. Bell seems to parody Ellison’s work by distancing himself from ‘tainting’ the image of black men as he puts it. Benard Bell puts it clear that his neither an Africanist nor Egyptologist and that he is not concerned with the African discourse on the ancient civilianization during pre-colonial, African past.
Instead, he is concerned with renewing and reinvigorating discourse on the liberating impact of cultural and literally production by Americans of African origin (Bell14).
Page is another author who points out the role of parody in the development of African-American literature. In his book titled “Icons of African American Literature: The Black Literary World”, Page uses parody in evaluating various authors of African American literature.
Apart from this, the book is devoted to the bright representatives of African American literature who have influenced the history of this literature. Ralph Ellison’s works are observed particularly, namely “Invisible Man”. Ellison uses the background voices of various strains of Black Nationalists, Marxists, and religious leaders in his “Invisible Man”.
Page provides basic motifs covered in African American literature and the use of parody to reinforce the actuality of these topics. Page argues that iconic authors like Ralph Ellison and Ishmael Reed and their works, have played a significant role in the canonization of African American Literature.
Page argues that although Ellison was given a National Book Award, he could not escape from the fact that in many circles, he was a black writer who had written what many considered another facet of the black experience. In fact, white publications and publishers’ sought Ellison’s pronouncements, on the latest black novel. However, Ellison invariably refused to do so.
Page indicates that Ellison believed that the racial novel did not exist and that black writers should stay away from racial polemic. This opinion has been seconded by Page. Page notes that the literary legacy of Ralph Ellison continues as successive generations have evaluated and reevaluated the breath and scope of his literal intellect.
Page appreciates the recognition that Ralph’s work gets. Every year, a new perspective of the Invisible Man in the form of dissertations and critical essays and a scholarly appreciation of Ellison’s work essays on Jazz and African American Culture occurs. Page clarifies that biographer Rampersad also analyzed Ellison’s work.
Rampersad notes that Ellison pointed antipathy directed towards the emergence African American female writers during the 1970s. The African American female writers severely criticized the depiction of black women in the Invisible Man especially his depiction of the wife and daughter of the incestuous sharecropper, and the Mummy like figure of Mary Rambo.
Page argues that Invisible Man, perhaps, makes more sense today than it did in 1952 because its scope and structure were an unknown territory for African American writing. Page notes that although the work has been hailed as an exploration universal modern man, it is unmistakably black in its use of signification, African American folks and musicality (34).
On the other hand, Bruce and Zemliansky argue that the most controversial and innovated novelist of African American literature is Ishmael Reed. The two writers parody nine novels written by Ishmael Reed.
They observe Reed’s Neo Hoodoo aesthetic, which combines parody and satire, fantasy and comedy, myths, history, African and American religions, and other forms of culture. They observe double-voiced discourse in reed’s works and its role in passing to the reader the main ideas.
Observing the parody used by Reed in his works, the authors highlight how the use of parody is important in the African American literature. Bruce and Zemliansky argue that Reed has emerged as the most innovative and controversial African American writer despite his belief that he and other black male writers have been misinterpreted and virtually ignored in the press (2).
In addition, Nadel Alan points out the role of parody in Ellison’s works in his book titled ‘Ralph Ellison and American canon: invisible criticism’. Ellison employs modernist techniques such as the use of parody to establish his ethnic identity and the more we examine his text as a modernist one, the more it reveals that black American identity.
Nadel refers Ralph Ellison to the American literature canon demonstrating that allusions from “Invisible Man” changed readings of such American writers as Twain, Emerson and Melville (4). Ellison uses the parody, which does not mock at other literary works, but he imitates the style of writing of many writers of the American canon.
Nadel argues that the issue of canon formation has elicited a great deal of attention, a phenomenon not incidental to the influence of literary study of post structuralism, feminism and, ethnic consciousness. These approaches mandate modes of thinking which urge distance and skepticism.
Applying such modes to the realm of literature makes it hard to take it for granted the great authority canons have wielded over the last century. Nadel notes that the problem of speaking form invisibility and making the absence visible pertains not only to the public functions, but also to the speech itself.
Nadel points out that Ellison demonstrates this memorably when his invisible and nameless narrator speaks to an invisible and nameless audience, attempting to uncover in their shared otherness the voice which had encoded into silence, excised from the canon. Nadel narrates that the aim of the Ellison’s work, Invisible Man, is deeply informed and framed by the issue of canonicity.
The phenomenon enables a writer to speak to, and through tradition without sacrificing the speaker’s voice or denying the tradition it tries to engage. Nadel argues that this engagement with tradition is necessitated by a complicated interaction of historical and critical events which affected the erasure of the black’s role in the crucial parts of American history and literary history (1).
According to Nadel, Ellison used allusion, consistently and effectively to engage the issue of canonicity. In Nadel’s parody of Ellison’s work of the Invisible Man, the systematic use allusion exploits literal critical potential and creates a coherent subtext of literal criticism.
The subtext created by Ellison is one that engages the issues of marginality and decentering, of ethno- and logo centrism. This allows for encoding and interpretation in ways which anticipate much more contemporary European theory, and much American ‘rehistoricizing’ in regard to the role of the black in the American canon as the sense of canonicity itself (2).
Moreover, Braman parody of reeds work suggests that in Mumbo Jumbo, there are fundamentally two sides of humanity. One side is familiar to any reader and is, in essence, the society in which one lives.
Characterized by organized, serious, characteristically white people, this side of humanity populates most schools, governments and industries. Those who live in a controlled society habitually go through life as if it were a business transaction. As the title, Controlled Society suggests, people who survive this way are very controlled as well as petty.
Rarely happy, these people believe in absolute truths that lack an innate, humanistic foundation. This was the life style of the black community in the pre-colonial period (Braman 1). Brahman argues that this phenomenon has been illustrated by Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo. Thus, organized and monotheistic religions reign absolutely.
They are untrue to themselves and contain their genuine emotions, wants and needs. It seems that people who live under a controlled society voluntarily sacrifice their human natures for the ‘greater good,’ but it becomes apparent that they are simply unable to have a human nature in the first place. These people treat art as they would treat a religion; they are happy to be simply in its presence.
This lack of depth is represented in Mumbo Jumbo’s art heist, and supports John Locke’s theory in Two Treatises of Government that people who comprise a society voluntarily forfeit a portion of their freedom to maintain a common public authority (Braman 1). They do not live, they merely subsist.
Ishmael Reed’s and Ralph Ellison’s lists of published, stirring works are impressive and their stylistic, fervid writing has become a critic’s reverie. Not only Reed and Ellison are notorious authors, but their proficiency of professing their knowledge is known in various schools like Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth.
What their students do not know is that most of Reed’s and Ellison’s novels and poetry are brimming with satirical representations of American religion and government, calling to question the ideals that existed in America hundreds of years ago.
Conclusion
The paper has elaborated the importance of parody as a tactic in African American literature. The paper has discussed how the parody of Reed’s and Ellison’s top work has been used to make important cultural pints.
The paper has used Hutcheon’s definition of parody. Hutcheon argues that “parody is repetition, but repetition that includes difference; it is imitation with critical imitation distance, whose irony can cut both ways” (37).
The paper first examined “The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism”, in which Gates Henry parodied African American literature. Gates pointed out parody should not lead to a drift from the original text. The paper then examined Benard Bell’s book entitled “The Contemporary African America.
Bell argued that Parody is one of the ethic forms of oratory, the black vernacular, which is first developed by boys in play to assert masculinity among people and to achieve the sense of security in their contact with the hostility of a larger society (Bell, 79).
The paper also examined Page’s book titled “Icons of African American Literature: the Black Literary World”, in which the author indicated that Ellison believed that the racial novel did not exist and that black writers had to stay away from racial polemic.
The paper also illustrated how Bruce, Zemliansky and Nadel parody Ellison’s and Reed’s work in their books titled “The Critical Response to Ishmael Reed’ and Political Philosophy of John Locke respectively. Moreover, it concluded by examining Braman’s parody of Reed’s top creativity as illustrated in Mumbo Jumbo. This paper has demonstrated how the use of parody is symbolic in the African American literature.
Works Cited
Bell, Benard. The Contemporary African American Novel: Its folk roots and literary branches. Massachussets: Massachussets University Press, 2004. Print.
African Americans have often felt as minorities or outsiders in America. As a result, their literary works capture this notion.
This essay explores the works of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use and Langston Hughes’ The Negro Speaks of Rivers, as they focus on blacks as a traditionally ‘marginalized’ race in the American society, in order to highlight their position as ‘outsiders’ or ‘others’ in the society in such a way that they reach out to create awareness and understanding among black mainstream members.
Hughes uses rivers to highlight the position of blacks in the society. Rivers provide imagery of roots. In this poem, roots show the timelessness and history of blacks. One can observe the familial and historical aspects of blacks, which Hughes attaches to the rivers. Clearly, Hughes addresses the entire black community in the America.
Hughes notes that African American history is deep and ancient, and it will continue to grow, run, and provide new lives. One can understand that the early civilization surrounds African Americans in the society as they struggle for their identity. The poem relates to the history and heritage of African Americans as Hughes compares them to some of the greatest rivers of the world.
Rivers were among the first sources of civilization in the history of man. Hence, Hughes introduces a long journey of the black community and relates it to the civilization of the society. In addition, one can notice tales of struggle, freedom, and fight for identity among African Americans as they use their strengths and wisdom (Hughes 1).
The Negro Speaks of Rivers remains one of the iconic poems of Hughes because it shows and celebrates the triumph and voice of the minority African Americans at the period when racial discrimination, injustice, and social inequalities were rampant in the American society. At this time, the poet attempted to encourage and unite African Americans when the White community did not recognize them.
Arnold Rampersad points out that Hughes brings the black community back to life by using rivers and faith in the race (Rampersad 3). A sense of kinship is prominent in the poem. The muddy rivers represent the black community.
Rivers become the main source of inspiration in which the black race is born again in ‘muddy bosom’. The poet captures how the sun changes mud into gold in order to reflect the endurance of African Americans as minorities in the society. Hughes uses simple language in the poem to encourage African Americans.
Walker writes about heritage and history in her short story, Everyday Use. The two hand-stitched quilts attract attention and become the source of conflict in the family of Mama and her two daughters. Walker also relies on these quilts in order to develop symbolism of heritage.
She demonstrates that different views and events shape people’s lives and beliefs in different ways. In the short story, one can observe conflicts within the family of Mama and her two daughters as they try to assert their identities in a racial society.
Walker tells the story about a family conflict because of difference ideologies about the black heritage and history. She presents the conflict through Maggie, Dee, and their mother. Walker’s characters show differences due to unlike experiences and beliefs in life. Mama has led a simple life based on her cultural heritage of the black community.
This is a fulfilling life for Mama because she believes in a simple life. Hence, Mama disapproves Dee’s materialistic habits, particularly how Dee relates to her culture. Conversely, Maggie is shy and submissive just like Mama, but she still holds her heritage.
Dee expresses a modern way of life, which is out of touch with her black culture and heritage. Dee’s character traits and actions show that she only sees her culture and heritage in terms of artistic appeals.
Walker wrote Everyday Use in the 1970s when African Americans were fighting to find and control their identities. However, a number of African Americans could not match the social, cultural, and political situations that developed. This resulted in confusion among many African Americans in the society.
The author recognizes contributions of African Americans through their arts as a way of protecting their roots and identities. Pieces of artworks linked modern generations to their past. In fact, artworks survived through generations to generations and served as important pieces of heritage.
Dee reflects the fight among many African Americans who wanted to develop their own identities by tracing their original roots in Africa. Nevertheless, such attempts often failed because African roots remained vague to many African Americans.
The African history inspired many blacks to trace their ancestries in order to grasp and reconnect with their roots. Generally, Walker’s short story highlights a section of blacks who did not understand the concept of the black consciousness or its ideals.
Hughes and Walker are African American writers, who wrote their works in different periods, but they all captured the struggle for identity and recognition among the black race in the predominantly white society.
The writers celebrate the rich African American heritage and history in their works in order to inspire and elevate the black race in a racially marginalized society. They serve as voices of the minority black community in the society and use their heritage and history to reflect the black pride (Tracy 142).
Works Cited
Hughes, Langston. The Negro Speaks of Rivers. 1922. Web.
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. Print.
Tracy, Steven. Langston Hughes and the Blues. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001. Print.
Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Making Literature Matter: An Anthology For Readers and Writers. 2nd ed. Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 382-389. Print.
Despite the fact that African American Literature does not have the same long history as the literatures in the Old World, it has already created a solid basis for its own further development. The works by multiple African American authors prove it to the point. The significance of the African American literature is undeniable, and that is what makes its studying so important. Since the questions it raises concern not only the African people, but also the whole wide world, it is a subject to be studied closely and attentively.
The significance of the article called African American Literature Digest Continued is undeniable. It gives a retrospective to the date of the African American literature beginning and briefly describes the stages of its development.
The principal theses of the article are easy to enumerate; these are the origin of the African American literature, the stages of its development, its most famous writers and their impact on the literature and society. The question that underlies the whole article is whether literature could change the course of the matters in real life, or whether it can influence the situation only slightly.
The central points the article discusses are now in the limelight as well, even though the related issues have been long discussed and have been resolved for several times. It must be the importance of the issue that makes people go over and over it until there could be a certain compromise made. These problems concern the ignorance of Africa, its underdevelopment which writers depict in the most picturesque and convincing way; the second issue that the article touches upon is the phase of enslavement and slavery that the US have passed trough; though the wound has been cured for several centuries, it is still aching, and it is only time that can help making t not so painful. The third idea that the article is related to is another humane bondage, the racism and its consequences in the modern society. this one continues even now, however well the racial issue has been discussed. Though it might sound sad, the racial discrimination still exists, and each time people are trying to make it vanish, it takes a shape of something else, something philosophical and harmless. And as people notice the concept under its well-thought disguise, it is too late again.
The article is very significant, since it explains a lot of things previously unknown or known only slightly and unconsciously. It makes the old prejudices come in the light, and as they do, they vanish once and for all. It creates a clear idea of what the African American literature has been all this time, where it has started and what it has led to. The article also gives a hint to its further development, explaining that literature knows no stopping and it will continue its triumphing way even as the people who have written it fade away. Giving a brief outline on the American writers whose works were related to the issues described above, among them Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Howard Griffen. Their novels that further on became classics and won the hearts of million people not only in the USA, but also all around the world, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Black Like Me, have shown all the miseries of the outcasts of the American society in a most persuasive way. Sincere and meaningful as they are, they teach people in the humorous way, which is the best one when a person needs to inhale a couple of moral rules and principles. Not a bit annoying or calling for yawning, the novels open a new world to the reader, a world where the troubles and small pieces of happiness make a big life pattern, where the powerful and the neglected are of the same importance and live very similar lives.
The article has had a great impact on me, explaining several points that I have been dwelling upon and making me think of the new issues which have never occurred to me before. What I want to emphasize is that the article made me finally understand that the battle between the just and the unjust has not been won yet. It is still going on, with all racial and other important social questions still on the agenda. It has become clear to me that however good the result of the battle is, the moral principles and rules that one has drawn from it must not be forgotten, and otherwise this all will start over again. Basically, however productive the world development might be, people should not forget about the humanity and the rules that it prescribes. The core idea is that there must not a single society that has outcasts in it. The cast of the neglected is not to be created on any account. The miserable life these people lead is something that any society should be ashamed of, understanding that this is the fault of the incumbents, and not anyone else’s. The strongest must think about the weak, and then a change for better might happen.
The article now has made it clear to me that there is something that any of us can do, and that each person can contribute to the injustice vanishing for good. I also think that this process will unfortunately last much longer and will touch upon the other spheres of people’s lives, since it has not been solved yet. The story so far is to continue, and no one knows what it will end like. But still our world is not the right place for injustice and other inhumane things.
The article leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and yet the readers feels that they can handle these questions themselves. African American Literature Digest Continued is a kind of a revelation to the people who think that the problematic issues of the beginning of XX century are to be forgotten. It makes people understand that if they want the world develop, they must not forget the lessons they have learned during the process of the world getting older. We have passed certain stages of development, but there is a heavy lot ahead, and the knowledge that we possess must not be lost.
Reference
“African American Literature Digest Continued”. The Free Library by Parlex. (2008) n.p. Web.
Communication is a very important aspect of humanity. Without communication, several processes would be broken down completely. According to Poplack (56), communication ensures that people stay in harmony as one individual is able to express himself properly to others. Through this expression, two individuals are able to share their mind and work as a unit. Communication among humankind dates back to the early Stone Age period. During this stage of development of humankind, there was need to cooperate during such occasions as hunting and gathering, and when with their families. They had to warn their young ones over the dangers that lurked in the forest. Man had not developed language then; hence, they had to use drawings, signs and gestures to pass desired communication (Paul 65).
The evolution of man saw him evolve in various other aspects. One such aspect was language use. Man started making sounds to pass specific information to one another. Communications evolved until that time language was developed during the late Stone Age. Further development of the language would occur during the developmental stage of humankind. As man developed, language became clearly defined. Humans could use language effectively to express the ideas he had.
One intriguing fact about language that man is yet to comprehend is the existence of numerous languages across the world. It has been difficult to explain how the current numerous languages came into existence. Marzec (70) points out the fact that within such a small geographical location as the United States of America (as a nation), there are several languages that are in use. This is very evident in developing countries. As Pollmanns (22) notes, it is common phenomena to find that within one country, there are over sixty different languages in use. However, in some countries like Britain, English has been accepted as the main language. Almost all Britons know this language as their first language. However, even within the entire United Kingdom, there exists some difference in the languages’ dialect for example Welsh. One language that has managed to dominate the world is English. This is the most common language in the world, in terms of the number of countries speaking it, and the second most spoken language, in terms of the number of people. Spread during the reign of the Great Britain as the world power, this language is spoken in several countries across the world.
The Emergence of African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English is one of the widely spoken languages in the United States of America. The origin of this language can be traced back to the times when slave trade was practiced. During this time, it was realized that the blacks in Africa had special characteristics that made them better laborers than other captives from other parts of the world. They were strong and could withstand long hours of working in the large plantations in America. Besides, they were immune to some of the common diseases like malaria which was one of the leading causes of death by then. Given the fact that they did not have strong armies to protect them at home making their capture easy, there were huge numbers of blacks who were captured and moved to America. The trans-Atlantic slave trade saw Africans from various regions around West Africa taken as slaves in various parts of America. Once in America, there was need to communicate. The whites in America spoke English. The blacks did not have a common language they could identify with. They spoke in varying languages, depending on the locations where they were captured.
Communications was highly necessary among the captives. The captives needed to communicate amongst themselves. They could see that they had some resembles amongst themselves as slaves in terms of skin color. They needed to share their experience. On the other hand, there was also need to develop some communication with the captors. They needed to communicate with their masters so that they could receive instructions or give explanations to their actions. Many theorists have tried to explain how this language emerged among these slaves. These slaves developed what many scholars have referred to as pidgins. This was a mixture of various languages. The languages included the African vernacular languages, and English. The whites had to adapt to this language because it was clear that the slaves could not learn Standard English. By 1720, it was clear that pidgin had become one of the languages spoken in the United States. Daniel Dafoe brought this language to literature when he wrote a book, The Life of Colonel Jacque in 1915. This language was gaining root at very fast rate. This language is common in the modern American state. It is common in songs, poems and many other forms of literature in this country.
Comparison of African American Vernacular English and the Standard English
African American Vernacular English and Standard English have a lot of stylistic difference some of which make the two languages completely different. Although Standard English and African American Vernacular English share a number of common characteristics given that African American Vernacular English borrowed heavily from Standard English, they exhibit striking difference in structure and form. African American Vernacular English language is less rigid as compared to Standard English. It is simple in structure and rules guiding its sentence formation are less restrictive as Standard English is. Skordos (85) says that Standard English is one of the most popular languages in the world, and has a rich vocabulary. She however laments that when compared to African American Vernacular English, Standard English has less vocabulary. This is specifically so, because besides using the vocabulary from the Standard English, African American Vernacular English uses vocabulary from their indigenous languages. Take for example the word finale which is very common in African American Vernacular English. In Standard English, this world would be final. This points out that the two languages share a lot in common, especially in some specific words. In fact the word finale would be an acceptable Standard English word used as final.
Differences between African American Vernacular English and Standard English
Despite the above striking similarities between African American Vernacular English and Standard English, these two languages have a number of differences in various fronts. In African American Vernacular English, there may be several words that can be used in expressing the same feeling, some of which Africans retained from their indigenous languages. Mona gives the example of the word love. In Standard English, although adore or like may be used to express love, the other two express different magnitudes and therefore may not be universally used. In African American Vernacular English however, this word can be expressed in many words to mean exactly the same thing. According to Rickford (90), most of the vocabularies used by African American Vernacular English may be considered as vulgar when taken in its Standard English form. For instance the word love talked about above may be replaced by the word fuck (Ray 21). In Standard English, this word is extremely offensive and may not be used to express any positive emotions. However, this scholar says that, although this has changed a great deal, most of the African Americans did not know how to express romance. That would explain why such a romantic word would be expressed in such an offensive manner. This can be demonstrated in a sentence as shown below.
Am gonna whack this fucking bitch (African American Vernacular English)
I love this girl because she is beautiful (Standard English)
These two sentences vary a lot. In the first sentence, the word love is used to express deep emotions that the speaker if the word has towards the girl in question. In the second sentence, the word whack is used instead, to express the same emotion. The two words vary a lot when taken in their literal meaning. Whack cannot be used in place of love because they mean two different things and will always be used in two different contexts. To whack means to hit or strike with the intent of causing some pain to the individual. It is not logical to harm someone you have strong emotional love towards. In the first sentence, the word girl has been used. In this context, the word girl may not necessarily mean that the lady is young. The speaker uses it to demonstrate how the beauty of the lady makes her so pure and charming. In the second sentence, the word girl is replaced by bitch. The two words do not carry the same connotation. The word bitch is always used as an abusive word to express anger against someone. The word beautiful used in the first sentence justifies the reason why the speaker lovers this lady. In the second sentence however, fuck-ing in place of beautiful.
The morphological structure of the two sentences, which are meant to pass the same communication, also differs. In the first sentence, the speaker uses simple present tense, which is the appropriate sentence for the message being passed across. The second sentence however, uses the participle tense. Finally, the message being passed by the two sentences are very different if they are to be taken in their literal meaning. Given to a person who did not know the context under which they were spoken, one would state that the two sentences have two different meanings. In the first sentence, the meaning will come out clearly, that an individual is in love with a beautiful lady. In the second sentence, one would interpret that the speaker is annoyed with the lady (bitch) and is planning to hit (whack) her very hard whenever they will meet. Taken in this form, the message will be completely distorted.
Phonology
There are some phonological features that make African American Vernacular English different from the Standard English. According to Cukor (73), these features are best expressed in speech. There are some sounds that are common in Standard English, but common in African American Vernacular English. Some of the sounds are given below.
Cab
Cap
The Standard English will clearly bring out the meaning of the two words. However, African American Vernacular English will pronounce the two words as same. One listening to the two may not find a clear difference between a cap and a cab. The p and b sounds come out as same. The sentence below also shows difference in pronunciation of the consonant sound.
Month (mʌmf) (African American Vernacular English)
Month (mʌnt) (Standard English)
The two words have the same meaning and same spelling, but with different pronunciation. It would require the listener to know the context under which the speaker is talking. This will enhance confusion in the meaning that will finally come out.
According to Poplack (89), there are a number of other consonant sounds that African American Vernacular English pronounces differently. This scholar also notes that the difference is not only limited to consonant sounds. The difference also comes in the vowel sounds. The following is a demonstration of how the two languages differ in their vowel sounds.
Coach (koɪtʃ) (African American Vernacular English)
Coach (koʊtʃ) (Standard English)
The word below has similar spelling. They also have the same meaning. However, the pronunciation of this word is different in the two cases. The first sentence is a typical pronunciation of the word in Africa American Vernacular English. The second pronunciation is of the Standard English. Although the variation in the two sentences may not create serious confusion in getting the meaning of the word, it has some degree of difference that may be a recipe for confusion if not taken seriously.
Differences in the use of verb
Both languages vary in the use of the verb. As Vinay and Darbelnet (74) state, the two languages vary a great deal in their usage of verb. According to these scholars, Standard English is far more rigid in its usage of verb as compared to African American Vernacular English. It is grammatically correct, and a very common phenomenon for an African American Vernacular English sentence to be complete without the use of verb. However, in Standard English, a verb is an important aspect of a sentence, without which a sentence would be considered incomplete.
Consider the sentence below:
Hay Men, That girl big hipped.
Hallo, I think that girl has big hips
Given the context of the two sentences, they have the same meaning. However, the difference comes in the fact that the first sentence lacks a clear verb usage. This makes it very difficult to tell the real meaning of the sentence for a person who does not know the context of the speech. The table below presents this difference
Comparison of how African American Vernacular English and Standard English Uses Tenses
Aspect
African American Vernacular English
Standard English
Continuous Aspect
Jane be working Fridays
Jane always work or frequently work on Tuesdays
Habitual
Martin stay working
Martin works always
Perfect progressive
Alex been reading
Alex has been reading
Intensified Continuative
Moses steady running
Moses keeps on running
Possibility
Joan finna do the homework
Joan is about to do the homework
The table above shows some striking differences between the two types of languages in their written context. As shown above, the difference is not only in the spoken form. The difference comes very clearly in the written form. As such, it becomes very difficult for one to understand what one is saying. According to Paul (121), while a speaker of African America Vernacular English may understand what a speaker of Standard English may find it difficult to understand African America Vernacular English. This scholar notes that this can be more complex when African America Vernacular English is spoken to another individual who has limited understanding of English. It is easier to understand Standard English for an individual who, English is a second language, than it would be to understand African America Vernacular English.
Verb Agreements
In Standard English, a sentence will be considered grammatically correct if there is verb agreement with subject that is used. The subject in Standard English can always be considered as first person (I, we), second person (you) or third person (him, her, it and them). The Standard English has a clear structure of how the sentences should use the verb in order to reflect the verb being used. The following sentences demonstrate this.
Mary walks to school every morning (Standard English).
Mary walk to school every morning (African American Vernacular English).
The two sentences vary a little (in the use of the letter s to show the continuous form). The first sentence is grammatically correct. The subject Mary is a third person. Because Mary is an individual and therefore will be considered in its singular form, the verb must use an s in its structure in order to demonstrate two facts. The first fact is that Mary is an individual. The second fact is that Mary does the action of walking to school every morning.
The second sentence is correct when it is considered as African American Vernacular English. In this language, the most important fact is that one understands the message that the speaker is passing across. The verb walk may only be used in its present form to show habitual action only if the subject is in the form of the first person, second person or the third person. The following sentences with therefore be considered grammatically correct in Standard English
I walk to school every morning.
We walk to school every morning.
You walk to school every morning.
They walk to school every morning.
Sentence b above therefore, may not make any sense in Standard English, but makes a lot of sense in African American Vernacular English.
Another striking difference comes in the use of plurals in a sentence. African American Vernacular English does not have any restrictions when it comes to ensuring that the verb clearly agrees with the subject in terms of singularity or pluralism. The following sentences demonstrate this.
The Use of Has and Have
In Standard English, there is a clear distinction on how has and have are to be used in a sentence. If this standard rule is not followed, then the sentence would be considered grammatically wrong. The following sentences demonstrate this.
He have gone to the hospital (African American Vernacular English).
He has gone to the hospital (Standard English).
As shown in the two sentences above, the first sentence is not grammatically correct. As was explained above, when dealing with singular subjects, then the word have may not be used because it is only used when dealing with subjects in plurals, the first and second persons. This means that this sentence is grammatically wrong when taken in the context of Standard English. Below is another demonstration that African American Vernacular English does not have a clear rule governing its structure in the usage of the two words.
You has completed the assignment given by the teacher. (African American Vernacular English)
You have completed the assignment given by the teacher. (Standard English)
As explained above, you is subject in its second person form. This means that it cannot be used as the third person, as the second sentence tries to purport. This is grammatically wrong.
The Use of Is and Are
The two words is and are, are always used to show singularity or pluralism respectively. It is a common knowledge that when talking about subjects in their plural forms, it is mandatory that are will be used. This helps in demonstrating that the action was not done by a single individual, but a group. It demonstrates that the sentence is not referring to an individual, but a number of individuals. The following sentences demonstrate this.
The green ball are mine. (African American Vernacular English)
The green ball is mine. (Standard English)
The ball is a subject in its third party form. It is singular and therefore should take the verb is, not are. However, in African American Vernacular English, this is acceptable. The following is a further demonstration of how the two words differ in their usage in the two languages.
John and Jane is sick and could not make it to the tournament. (African American Vernacular English).
John and Jane are sick and could not make it to the tournament. (Standard English).
In the first sentence, are, is used, when the most appropriate word should be is. The subjects in the sentence are two individuals, John and Jane. The verb used should reflect this. Comparing the first set of sentences (about the green ball), and the second set (about John and Jane), one fact that comes out clearly is that African American Vernacular English lacks strict rules to govern its sentence structure. Words can be used interchangeably, as long as they can convey the intended message. This is very different from Standard English where words have their specific meanings, and they must be used in a context that will bring out their meaning without any possibility of confusion. Every word in Standard English has its purpose, for which it must serve within the sentence.
The Use of Was and Were
In a Standard English, there is a clear way in which the verbs was and were must be used in order for them to make sense. Was, is always used as a past tense when the subject is singular. On the other hand, were, is always used when talking about subjects in the plural form, also in the past. African American Vernacular English does not have a clear restrictive rule on how the two words may be used. The following are some of the sentences that can help clarify this.
If I were you, I would be a happy man. (Standard English)
If I was you, I would be a happy man. (African American Vernacular English)
The first sentence is the correct sentence of the two sentences. As illustrated above, the use of the word were, is meant for subjects in their plural forms, the first and second persons (Marzec 45). The use of was will therefore, not be appropriate when dealing with the subject I. The following sets of sentences also demonstrate how African American Vernacular English further confuses the words.
Peter and Pamela was in the hospital this morning. (African American Vernacular English)
Peter and Pamela were in the hospital this morning. (Standard English)
The first sentence, in its current form is grammatically wrong because we are talking about two individuals, Peter and Pamela. The first sentence can only use the verb was, if it is modified to mean that although both went, the emphasis is on one of the two individuals. This can be demonstrated in the two sentences below.
Peter, and Pamela, was in the hospital this morning. (Standard English)
Peter and Pamela were in the hospital this morning. (Standard English)
The two sentences above are grammatically correct. Their meaning is also closely related, only that the emphasis is different. In the first sentence, the emphasis is on the two individuals, Peter and Pamela. In the second case, the emphasis is on one individual, Pater. The second individual in this case, is just a further clarification that when Peter was going to the hospital, he was accompanied by Pamela. This validates the use of the singular verb, was. This clarity lacks in African American Vernacular English. The two sentences could be put haphazardly to give basic meaning without giving emphasis on how to avoid possible confusion. The sentence below shows possibility of how the above sentence could appear in African American Vernacular English.
Peter, and Pamela, were in the hospital this morning. (African American Vernacular English).
The above sentence would not bring out the desired meaning of the emphasis needed in the sentence. The sentence is brings the impression that both the subjects were of the same importance, which is actually not the case.
Use of Negatives
Standard English differs from African America Vernacular English when it comes to the use of negatives. The following sentences demonstrate this.
I ain’t going to school (African America Vernacular English)
I am not going to school (Standard English)
The African America Vernacular English has used the word aint instead of ‘am not’. This is common among the speakers of African America Vernacular English within the United States and other South American nations. The negative word ain’t, is also used in various other incidents in the African America Vernacular English as a negative sentence. The following sentences demonstrate this scenario.
The use of haven’t/hasn’t
He ain’t gone home. (African America Vernacular English)
He hasn’t gone home. (Standard English)
Use of aren’t
We aren’t going to the field. (Standard English)
We ain’t going to the field. (African America Vernacular English)
Use of isn’t
John ain’t sick (African America Vernacular English)
John isn’t sick (Standard English)
As the above sentences demonstrates, the word ain’t can be used in various forms as a negation in African America Vernacular English. However, Standard English is guarded by very strict rules that must be followed in order to pass its message to the audience. Standard English is very strict with its words. Every word has its specific usage. A little twist in the usage, or structure of the word would result in complete change of the meaning of the word. This is not the case with the African America Vernacular English. The word ain’t an archaic Standard English. According to Pollmanns (43), English has evolved for a very long time, and the evolution still continued. There are word that were used some years ago to give certain meanings, but due to the changes that are taking place, this language has changed and some word
Use of double negatives
In Standard English, double negatives are not acceptable. This is because when a double negative is used, the sentence becomes positive. As such, it is always better to use the positive aspect in the sentence otherwise the sentence will be considered wordy. However, African American Vernacular English allows for the usage of double negatives in a sentence. The sentence below demonstrates this.
I really don’t know nothing on the issue at hand (African American Vernacular English).
I really don’t know anything about this issue. (Standard English)
The first sentence will not be acceptable in the Standard English because it is considered repetitive. Given the context, one would assume that at least the speaker is admitting that he or she knows something, by not knowing nothing. The following sentences below also demonstrate the double negatives in a sentence.
Ain’t nobody gonna help me?
Use of personal pronouns
As stated above, African American Vernacular English differs a great deal from Standard English. For example, in the use of noun, one would witness a marked difference because of the difference in semantics in the two languages. In African American Vernacular English, some personal pronouns take different forms from Standard English. The word you will be pronounced as ya. This difference can be expressed in the two sentences below.
I will go with you to school (Standard English)
I will go with ya to school (African American Vernacular English)
This difference may create a lot of trouble when passing information to a group that does not understand the twisted pronunciation. This is because the word ya (used in African American Vernacular English to mean you) is pronounced exactly as yeah (used in Standard English to mean right). This can result in a great confusion when one is trying to grasp the information that is passed across. The second sentence will be interpreted as,
I will go with right to school.
This does not make sense at all. One would be wondering what the speaker is talking about. The communication would be halted completely.
According to Pollmanns (27), this difference in morphological structure of English caused a lot of tension in the early life. The African Americans could not just speak the Standard English that was common among other Americans. They preferred using African American Vernacular English. This language (or dialect as many would refer to it) was gaining popularity among the youths. It was considered as rebellious language and was gaining acceptance among youths across ethnic groups, especially in the informal dwellings. As demonstrated above, the main difference between Standard English and African American Vernacular English was the fact that African American Vernacular English was very offensive even if one was talking about normal interesting things. This was attributed to the culture of the African Americans. This is discussed in details in the section below.
Cultural references
Culture is probably the best explanation why there is a big difference between Standard English and African American Vernacular English. By the time Africans were taken from their cradle land in West Africa as slaves, they were lesser romantic, because their world was controlled by the wish of men. A man would kidnap a girl she considered beautiful, pay the dowry to the parent and proclaim her as a wife, regardless of the wish of the girl. When they were taken to America as slaves, things were not any better. In fact life became very frustrating to them.
They got used to the abusive language. Their lives revolved around abusive languages from masters. Their children grew up learning the abusive languages instead of the standard language. A master would refer to their mothers and sisters as bitches as a way of rebuking them. They internalized that women were generally referred to as bitches. Skordos (49) explains that when masters were not happy with the performance of the slaves, they would use such abusive language as ‘fuck you’, while hitting the slave. Children were internalizing this language. This scholar notes that it was not just the parents who were internalizing this language. The parents were also getting used to the language. It was becoming common to see a father and a son referring to each other as bullshit or just shit. To the father, he does not understand the real meaning of the word because it was not in the vocabulary of his native language. To the child, this is a normal language that the whites use on a daily basis, and therefore it is acceptable. This would bring a scenario where two individuals would innocently be using an abusing word without realizing that it is an offensive word. The mother would be brought on board and this would become the language in the family. Because of the variation of cultures, and language, this new language promised to unite everyone within this society. A new culture was being born in America without the realization of the white Americans. To the whites, these were just slaves who would never get to impact the ‘main stream’ Americans.
When slave trade was abolished, it was apparent that this language had become very common among the local African Americans. It was a new culture that was complete with its own language. Because of the rough treatment given by their former masters, these people had become very rough in most of their actions because that was the life they were used to. This explains why the whites came up with discriminatory policies immediately after the abolition of slave trade (Skordos 81). They might not have resented the blacks as it was thought. However, it was clear that they hated the culture that this group had developed. They did not particularly like the language that this group had developed. It was a whole new culture.
In Media and Literature
A number of American scholars have tried to depict African American Vernacular English in their works. Most of these works have been in poems and, songs, and oral narratives among others. There was a rising need to reflect this literature in their literary works. African Americans realized that it was necessary to present literature in their own language. William Wells was the first African American to author the first book which was titled Clotel. Alice Walker later authored a book titled, the color purple, which was purely written in African American Vernacular English. Other others would later come with other literary works such as poems, short stories and novels in this language.
Music as a Means of Presenting the Difference between Standard English and African American Vernacular English
Music is one of the best ways that helps bring out the difference between African American Vernacular English and Standard English. In his book, Paul (39) says that he misses the time when Dolly Parton and Kenny Rodgers would electrify the crowd with good country music that presented love in its purest form. This scholar articulates that the music then would be presented with respect, and in a way that would make one believe in love. This scholar however, laments that this has changed. He says that the current society if full of music which uses language he describes as offensive.
Blues, R & B, Jazz, and hip-hop are genres of music related to African Americans. They bear the language, and one can easily detect the fact that some of the words they use are not Standard English. Although the interaction between different cultures is making this difference diminish, it is still clear in some of the music. The table below shows this.
Artist
Song
Lyric
Feature Demonstrated
Nina Simone
It be that way at times
It be that way at times
Habitual
Vera Hall
Troubles so hard
Don’t nobody understand my problems but God
Double negative
Texas Alexander
Rising Sun
It look like bat
Omission of the letter sin the verb
Conclusion
Culture has a very strong influence on language. Paul (43) argues that language will heavily be influenced by cultural values and practices. Cultural values would help define structural form of a given language. African American Vernacular English, just as Standard English, is based on cultural values of the societies where they are spoken. It is important to note that Standard English, just as African American Vernacular English, has undergone a lot of transition, since the time of Shakespeare (Cukor 76). It has evolved differently in different regions of the world due to differing cultural values, although the language has maintained its form across all these cultures. Cultural value that determines how African American Vernacular English uses diction is different from that of Standard English (Paul 47).
Cukor (90) says that African American Vernacular English is comparatively rich in its language (especially given the fact that it brought together many cultural groups), a fact they relate to the rich culture of the African American Vernacular English. Skordos does not seem to agree with the fact that this group has a rich culture (78). He points out to the fact that these group tend to act in a manner that may not be considered as culturally rich. However, he agrees that African American Vernacular English has had huge impact on to the American society, especially in music and other related works.
List of References
Cukor, Patricia. The Evolution of Aave in a Rural Texas Community: An Ethnolinguistic Study. New York: Cengage, 1995. Print.
The major outstanding and pivotal event that greatly influenced the African American literature in the 1764-1865 was slavery and its anti-movements. This fact is buttressed by Krise (3) in succinctly stating that “Early representations of opposition to slavery tend to be overlooked or disregarded in sweeping accounts of the rise and success of the antislavery movement – particularly in accounts that focus on literary representations of opposition to slavery”. African American literature during this turbulent period in the lives of African Americans was heavily influenced by the rise in radicalism, enlightenment and the advent of industrialization.
The earliest surviving works of African American literature date from the mid-1700 and were written by Africans brought to America as slaves. These include the poem “Bars Fight ” by Lucy terry about the raid in Massachusetts and a number of poems recorded by Phillis Wheatley in 1773. The most important factor is that all these literal works touched on slavery in their themes. Rise of anti-slavery movements characterized major themes of these Literatures. Krise (5) portrays that “The antislavery movement of the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is often associated with progressive movements and ideas: radicalism, enlightenment, natural rights, as well as sensibility, nascent industrialism and the simultaneous decline of the master–servant relationship and the rise of wage labor”. The most documented article of the seventeenth century that centered on slavery as its theme is the Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, also referred to as the Royal Slave. This is a true story that was later published in 1968. Centering on the theme of slavery during this period and its influence on the African American literature, it focused on other aspects of slavery such as enslavement and the relationship between the master and the servant.
Another notable literature that portrays the influence of slavery on the African American literature was “A Discourse in way of Dialogue”. This is a literal work that details the social life of an Ethiopian or Negro-Slave, and a Christian Master in America that was documented by Tyron in 1942. A synthesis of the dialogue as documented here reveals themes that captured social existences and relationship between the servant and the master. Calls for freedom and equality for all regardless of race and color marked the early part of the 18th Century. This was precipitated by nascent industrialization and the growth of knowledge and rise in wages. Changes in the lifestyles and decline in the master to servant form of slavery brought with it the understanding that African Americans could make their lives better if they wished so. The African American literature thus centered on the better living conditions and the struggle to achieve high social status measured by the level of living standards.
Historical events from other parts of the world
Lastly, the historical events from other parts of the world notably the political, social and economic events in the European countries were easily imported to the United States. Political instabilities such as civil wars in the European countries and changes in ruler ship often found their way in to the themes of African American literature (Carretta, 4). This was due to the fact that slaves in European countries had their roots in Africa and shared a common ancestry with the African Americans. A good example is demonstrated by Rosenberg (17) in stating that “The characters of George III, the circumstances accompanying his accession to the throne, and the forced abandonment by France of her colonial empire in America were probably the chief causes of the struggle between the practically unconnected American colonies and the mother-country heavily had an impact on the literal works”.
Works Cited
Carretta, Vincent. Equiano the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2005.
Krise, Thomas W. An Anthology of English Literature of the West Indies, 1657-1777 Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
Rosenberg, Philippe. Thomas Tryon and the Seventeenth-Century Dimensions of Antislavery. The William and Mary Quarterly 3rd Series, 64:1. 2004.
“Gwendolyn Brooks, an African American poet who was the first black author to receive the coveted publisher prize, was born in Topeka, Kansas, but she was bought up in Chicago. Her father was a janitor and mother was a school teacher.” (Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 – 2000). As a child, she had seen the ugly side of racial discrimination and such practices had remained an influence in most of her writings. Luckily for the author, her parents were both supportive of her reading and writing and they encouraged her in her endeavors. (Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 – 2000). Her poems are known to reflect real experience, mostly derived from her life.
Besides, her poetry enjoys particular popularity because they deal with the issues of the present time and are upbeat, containing the themes of the wayward nature of youth and its drastic consequences. Thus, the author always sought to forewarn the youngsters of the negative results of their thoughtless actions and tried to motivate them to gain education and become successful in life.
Gwendolyn’s poem, “We Real Cool” can be seen as a creation triggered by the deep insight that she gained into human lives through her personal experiences. It is a fact that the youth of the modern-day does not have any clear sense of morality and they do not care much for the values that their previous generation has cherished. They seldom recognize the significance of education and skip classes without any valid reason. The author in this poem narrates the saga of some such teenagers who do not have a clear sense of purpose in whatever they do. The seven boys who leave school and go to play pool are examples of the carefree nature of the young generation in the modern world.
As a result of ignoring their education, some of them become dropouts from school and finally leave the institution without even getting a high school diploma. Ultimately, they do not even get a good job and in the end, become failures in their lives. Obviously, by writing this poem, Gwendolyn Brooks intends to reach out to her audience and wants to impress upon them the importance of education and leading a disciplined life. Therefore, she shares her poem so that the youngsters will take the correct decision and choose the right path in life.
Gwendolyn’s poem is a reflection of the thoughts of the youth. They think that they are cool and can do anything they want to. Once they leave school they start acting like adults and think that the world is in their hands. They roam around late at night, have parties, and drink a lot. They do as they wish. But this is not what should happen. Youngsters should not have this feeling in their minds. The poet ultimately says “We die soon,” and this is the thing that happens.
The poet, through her work, wants to warn the youth that drinking and merry-making will fetch them no positive results and finally will end up in their destruction. It is not a fantasy it is the reality. There is not even a tinge of the lie in it. This poem is a perfect projection of the truth.
In my opinion, the poem is a profound tribute to the youth of today, from an author who has learned a lot from her life. Any serious reader of literature who reads this poem will immediately recognize the message that the writer wants to convey to her audience. Moreover, the aforesaid poem gives several positive vibes to the readers, making them think and understand the pitfalls they will have to face in life and how to overcome those. It has the strength to change people’s life and alter the way they look at things. However, the poem is too subtle for an average reader to comprehend, and only if the audience reads it carefully and thinks about it deeply the meaning will become clear.
The dexterity of the author becomes conspicuous in the manner in which she mentions the shovel at the beginning of the poem, which effectively works as a device of foreshadowing when she mentions death, which is the payback for wayward living, in the end. Though the poem is short, it has a lot of inner meaning in it, which is a little difficult to understand in the first read. The poem can help turn a new leaf in the books of lives of the people who choose to live a carefree life, without paying heed to values and morals and those who fail to recognize the importance of education and discipline in life. It can open their eyes and their minds too.
Overall, it can be said that by writing the poem, the author wants to communicate a message to society, especially to the youngsters, to desist from wrong things and focus on the right things in life. Thus, it may be rightly stated that the poem is written with a noble purpose and the author wants to share her pains so that the next generation will learn a lesson and assign importance to necessary things in life.
Language plays a huge and critical role in different sociocultural contexts. In the African-American community, language brings out their cultural identities and social realities. African Americans use language to express their cultural practices and life experiences. Mainly, their language use encompasses their African culture and slavery experiences. Indeed, people from other cultures often misunderstand the blacks’ use of language. This paper is a discussion of a research proposal, literature review, and use of language from a stereotypical perspective. Thus, language reveals cultural identity and social realities in the African-American sociocultural context.
Research Proposal
I chose the topic to be the role of language in the African-American sociocultural context. I chose this topic because the community has a different and controversial use of language. Many people from other races find their language explicitly offensive and direct. However, the language is okay and appropriate among the community members. This research aims to find out the exact role language plays in the African-American sociocultural context. In this research, I intend to solve the question of which role is played by the use of language in African American sociocultural context. For my career goals, I need to know whether language use plays a role that could cause educational barriers or conflicts, especially in communication. I would like to know whether the community’s language use is inappropriate or whether people refuse to understand their sociocultural context.
The research methodology will be qualitative, which entails reviewing various types of literature for data collection. One of the things I already know is that language used in this sociocultural context represents cultural practices and social experiences. It is also clear that the African-American sociocultural context uses language to express slavery struggles. I intend to use various information sources such as books, journal articles, photos, charts, and Internet documents.
The anticipated results will be the details about language’s specific role in African American sociocultural context. The results ought to have solved the research question adequately. Indeed, it should have answered all the questions that might arise from the literature review. Finally, I will write the paper so that I can use it as a foundation for my future research. I will ensure the research’s reliability by consulting the most accurate ad credible sources for information.
Approach
Language plays the role of representing the origins of African Americans by differentiating their pronunciation, lexicon, grammar, and semantics. According to Zięcina, their vernacular English has deep roots in the African accent and pronunciation. The African-American community use language to differentiate themselves from the native Americans. This source is reliable because it was published in the recent year, 2019. It also confirms some commonly known information about the community, making it accurate.
African Americans are known to use obscene or uncensored speech. Their moderation of this language varies according to their socioeconomic status, level of education, age, and gender (Spears 251). While people of high status may use uncensored language moderately, those of low status use it excessively. Furthermore, younger males tend to curse more than females of all ages. Although this source is relevant to the topic, it does not directly give the role played by the language in the community. Instead, it gives language structure and uses while ignoring the role it plays. The source is, however, reliable because it provides some factors that influence the role played by language use.
African Americas use abusive language to express their cultural-related injustices and experiences. According to Bailey and Erik, black people are likelier to use obscene language to express sadness and censored language to show happiness (98). Black people’s anger stems from slavery injustices and other related experiences that remind them of slavery days. Therefore, to effectively communicate their emotions, the community members often use explicit language (Bailey and Erik 109). However, they use censored language when they are happy, especially illustrating community pride. In other words, the blacks use language to express their emotions regarding daily happenings. This source is relevant to the topic because it sheds more light on the role played by language amongst blacks. The authors do not only look at the negative side but also the positive one.
Examination of Dialogs
While men are direct and precise, women are more expressive and repetitive. Females are more likely to repeat a single word more than once to stress its importance or meaning. For example, in the children’s storybook Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown writes the word ‘and’ 15 times and Goodnight 21 times (Brown 1). Although this form of communication is suitable for children, the female writer expresses how females repeat words to stress their meanings. Furthermore, through the repetition of words, the female writers show how women are expressive. In The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle illustrates how direct a male’s figure of speech can get. For example, at the beginning of the story, he tells how an egg lay on a leaf; the next thing he says is how the egg became a caterpillar (Carle 1). Men are direct about what they intend to say and may not repeat words.
Blue colors and trucks are associated with male characters in most stories. For example, Little Blue Truck’s Christmas by Alice Schertle is about a blue male truck (Schertle). Blue and other darker colors are associated with males, while lighter colors are relative to females. Male children are predicted to play with trucks, while females play with toys. The colors and items illustrate strength in men and softness in women. Women are illustrated to love bright and soft colors in different stories. For example, in Swatch: The Girl Who Loved Color by Julia Denos, the girl in the story is shown to love lighter and softer colors (Denos). These colors illustrate the softness or weakness associated with women.
Different dialogs above reveal different forms of language used by males and females. One thing in common between the literature and the dialogs is that women are soft-spoken. Women are shown to be more careful with their words and more expressive. Another similarity shown is the role of language in expressing cultural norms. The dialogue shows that women prefer toys to trucks because they are weak and need tender love. Differences exist in various forms of men’s and women’s expressions as they play varied roles in communication.
Conclusion
Language plays the role of expressing cultural identity and social realities. Multiple kinds of literature show that African Americans heavily use explicit language to express their emotions. Different dialogs have also shown how language features and speech patterns reveal cultural and social assumptions regarding both genders. Females and males take critical roles in language use to relate to sociocultural contexts. Therefore, language helps individuals to indicate who they are and what they go through.
Works Cited
Bailey, Guy, and Erik Thomas. “Some Aspects of African-American Vernacular English Phonology.” African-American English, edited by Salikoko Mufwene, John Rickford, Guy Bailey and John Baugh, Routledge, 2021, pp. 93-118.
Brown, Margaret W. Goodnight Moon Big Book. HarperCollins, 1947.
Carle, Eric. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. World Publishing Company, 1969.
Denos, Julia. Swatch: The Girl Who Loved Color. Balzer + Bray, 2016.
Schertle, Alice. Little Blue Truck’s Christmas. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.
Spears, Arthur K. “African-American Language Use: Ideology and So-Called Obscenity.” African-American English, edited by Salikoko Mufwene, John Rickford, Guy Bailey and John Baugh, Routledge, 2021, pp. 249-276.
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) belongs to one of the dialects in the English language. This linguistic variety is also called Vernacular Black English, Black Vernacular English, or African American English. The dialect is also known Ebonics outside the professional linguistics community.
AAVE is mostly spread in the United States and in the Caribbean region and premises on grammar, vocabulary, and structure peculiarities originating from West African and Vernacular English. The language dialect gains momentum in discussing social, historical, and political controversies.
The current debates relate specifically to the number of people speaking this language because there are no strict rules defining the fact that an individual makes use of the variety.
Some of the linguists are inclined to think that AAVE speakers should employ specific grammar structures whereas others believe that applying a combination of lexical, stylistic, and grammar peculiarities features the African American language-speaking group.
To define the origins and current characteristics of the African Vernacular language, analysis of historical perspective is required. The historic controversy particularly refers to the fact that AAVE developed beyond the interaction between West African groups and Vernacular English groups (Sidnell n. p.).
Within this perspective, West African speakers borrowed the English language structures while working on plantation in the southern regions, including South Caroline and Georgia. They learnt from small number of Native Americans, predominantly the indentured laborers.
There is also an assumption that these historical events led to the emergence of a rudimentary pidgin that later influenced the development of the Creole language (Sidnell n. p.). The second side of debate focuses on the scenario that suggests the development of contact language, an early version of African Vernacular English through the second language acquisition.
Under these circumstances, West Africans who migrated to plantations supposed to have a restricted access to genuine grammatical structures and models because the percentage of native speakers they communicated with was extremely law.
According to this hypothesis, the second language community might borrow English vocabulary garnered from rare encounters and adjust them to the grammatical pattern that existed in the dialects of West Africa. At this point, the theory of universal grammar would have had a potent impact in the above-described processes.
The above-presented assumption is not accepted by a number of scholars who insist that demographic conditions in the Caribbean and US regions differed much. As a result, these conditions required for development of Creole were never met.
The evidence illustrates that a number of similar features belong to those of AAVE. They can also be found in varies of UK and US English. Both hypotheses are partially reasonable and, therefore, it can be suggested that African Vernacular English developed through restructuring borrowed and native elements; at the same time, the language possesses distinctive features from older dialects of English.
A number of research studies have been dedicated to the analysis of phonology and pronunciation that influence the perception and understanding among speakers of both Africana and English ancestry.
In this respect, Treiman has presented the scientific analysis of devoicing that is heavily used by AAVE speakers to define whether it affects adults’ spelling, including African American and White speakers at college (338).
The scholar has chosen the words rigid and ballot that pronounced by the identified groups using their dialect variety (Treiman 338). It has been discovered that African Americans devoice the final /d/ at the end of the word rigid and they are more likely to confuse between /d/ and /t/ in comparison with White speakers.
However, both groups mispronounce the sounds when spoken by African American teacher participating in the research rather than by native speaking teachers. As a result, the diverse phonological characteristics of AAVE and native speakers can create a number of challenges in terms of spelling the worlds.
The emphasis placed on phonology and syntax provides a wider picture on the issue. According to Treiman, “the degree of ambiguity in the spelling of a segmenrt may differ from one variety of English to another, resulting in dialect differences in spelling” (341). Such an assumption has social implications.
In particular, African Americans are reported to have lower level of literacy skills due to the extensive use of AAVE. Although the influence of dialect is implicit, specific features of AAVE can have a direct impact on spelling and reading (Treiman 342). Therefore, the social perspective of using the variety should not be underestimated.
Deeper examination of African American language traditions is closely associated with such social aspects as creating identities, stereotypes and prejudices, and power relations.
At this point, Ball and Lardner focus on “developing an appreciation for the power of language as …established positions of power and prestige through uses of “the word” in the African American rhetoric tradition” (11).
Therefore, the African American variety of English language refers not only to grammar and vocabulary attributes that make the differences, but also to social and cultural dimension they form in society.
Apart from social and historical controversies, African American variety of the English language influence educational sphere as well. The necessity to start exploring AAVE can help most teachers understand deviations that AAVE speakers resort while learning the Standard English language.
In fact, differences in speaking and pronouncing words are often disregarded in society until it comes to the classroom setting. Therefore, the significance of recognizing unique grammatical structures and forms that are used in communication is enormous.
For instance, the verb be is frequently employed in African American vernacular speech to refer to a constantly repeating action. Such phrases as “He be early” or “He be late” denotes that a person used to coming early or late. Such peculiarity harbors many negative perceptions and responses on the part of the users of standard English who shape prejudiced assumption about these individuals.
In particular, Compton-Lilly explains “many native speakers of standards English assume that nonstandard speakers are ignorant, laze, and less capable intellectually” (46). The commonly accepted prejudice is that AAVE speakers could speak appropriately once they make efforts.
In fact, failure to learn the differences is mostly linked to collective and personal identities, the idea of membership, as well as adherence to African culture. Therefore, the educators should take language differences as a source of negative perceptions into deeper consideration to define new strategies for alleviating the challenge.
In particular, Compton-Lilly enumerates a number of specific pronunciations and sounds that could be unfamiliar to non-native speakers, including sounds [ð] and [θ], as well as such word ending as –er that is mistakenly pronounced as ah (48). Despite the evidence discrepancies in background knowledge, there is no ground to assert that African American variety is a serious obstacle to a learning process.
Demanding the AAVE speakers to use Standard English points to the educators’ preference that encourages the principles accepted in dominating culture. Standard English, however, is not communicatively superior to Ebonics, but this culturally predetermined phenomenon closely relates to the way power relations are shaped in our society.
Due to the fact that the dominating society expect minority groups to be able to speak standard English and that general public has failed to develop appropriation for dialect forms of the language, our task it to help student to gain knowledge and resources to have an equal access to power institutions.
The above-presented position requires the researchers to rethink their stereotypes concerning the origins of African American community to define new educational strategies that could improve their spelling and reading skills.
Moreover, they should withdraw the longstanding Eurocentric view on education. According to Madhloum, “the sense of community is an explanation for the evolution of AAVE. Many Americans did not belong to the community of the white people…and where driven into ghettos” (n. p.).
Therefore, although considering cultural and social aspects is important, its influence on the learning process should not be prioritized.
In conclusion, an extensive overview of historical, social, and educational constrains that AAVE speakers face relates to stereotypes and prejudiced outlook on their origins and history.
In particular, history of slavery in the United States, ghetto culture, and existence of marginal cultures are among the main reasons why educators are reluctant to understand the challenges that African Americans confront while learning standard English.
In order to improve educational opportunities for students, the teachers should change their strategies and delve into the study of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
References
Ball, Arnetha and Ted Lardner. African American Literacies Unleashed: Vernacular English and the Composition Classroom. US: SIU Press. 2005, Print.
Compton-Lilly, Catherine. “Nuances of Error: Considerations Relevant to African American Vernacular English and Learning to Read.” Literacy, Teaching and Learning 10.1 (2005): 43-58. ProQuest. Web.
Madhloum, Haider. African American Vernacular English – Origins and Features. US: GRIN Verlag, 2011. Print.
Treiman, Rebecca. “Spelling and Dialect: Comparisons between Speakers of African American vernacular English and White Speakers”. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 11.2 (2004): 338-342.