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The Autobiographies of BTW and Malcolm X

In this blog, I will discuss the differing tone and audience between Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery and Malcolm X’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X . Both autobiographies showcase the stories of important Black leaders and also use personal experience to make a larger argument about race in America. However, I noticed that they spoke to the reader in pretty different ways. Washington wrote with a calmer, more careful tone, and it sounded like he was arguing towards multiple groups of people at the same time, like the white majority as well as the Black community. In comparison, Malcolm X wrote in a more confrontational way, and in some moments he seemed to completely disregard the idea of comforting white readers. In my opinion, that difference shows what each author thinks is possible for Black progress in his own time. Booker T. Washington forms a pretty optimistic tone in Up from Slavery in comparison to what you might expect. Even when he discusses slavery, he doesn’t usu...
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Civil Rights By the Riverside

     Hey there! Welcome back to my blogging page about African American literature. In this blog, I want to discuss Richard Wright’s “Down By the Riverside”, a powerful story that is part of a collection of novellas called Uncle Tom’s Children. To me, what makes this novella so powerful is Wright’s unique usage of naturalism to protest against the racial segregation of the Jim Crow south. For those unfamiliar, naturalism follows the idea of humans struggling as helpless animals against the surrounding natural environment, which reduces their individual freedom. Oftentimes, humans are portrayed as succumbing to their surroundings, like in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”. Yeah, generally very pessimistic. Wright adapts this idea a little bit, using it in combination with the environment of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 to turn the flood into a metaphor for the systemic racism in the South. Though in a very harsh and “hopeless” way.      Let’s first begi...
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How Do Black Authors Perusade Others With Stories? (feat. Harriet Jacobs and Booker T. Washington)

During the United States’ long road from slavery toward civil rights, many Black authors have produced works that spread personal experience, revealing parts of the United States that tried to hide. In this blog, I would like to focus on two specific works, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs (1861), and Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington (1901). These two autobiographies highlight important topics regarding slavery and the injustice that occurred during their lives. However, one important difference comes from the purpose in writing these autobiographies and the intended audience of each. On one hand, Jacobs writes to persuade and educate Northerners by showcasing slavery’s sexual and domestic brutality. On the other hand, Washington writes in an attempt to uplift others, showing how hard work and education can lead to advancement for Black Americans. Harriet Jacobs makes her purpose very clear from the start and remains present throughout the entire auto...
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