Analysis Of Alvin Ailey's Cry

BLACK ICE: A VOICE FOR THE BLACK ABSTRACT: A lecturer in creative writing, Lorene Cary wrote Black Ice in 1991 to commemorate her adolescent years spent in Saint Paul’s school in New Hampshire. In this cheerful autobiography we hear the chirpy voice of a Black woman whose frolicsome nature and flair for life is the literary equivalent of playful sunshine on black ice. Her spirited reminiscence show how today Black American woman have sloughed off the sapping memories of the bygone years and can revel unpretentiously in the choices they make and the effort they put in to make life meaningful.

His dance helped them to communicate what they had been through and in doing so helped others understand them better. Another one of his dances, Cry, proved to many that dance can communicate a message. Cry is one of Alvin Ailey’s most well regarded pieces that he choreographed for his mother to tell the story of African American women (Grimm). The dance starts with

(229) Proving of one of the many things a white man can have where a black man can’t. The women dancing as well represents social inferiority of a white man. Them placing her there was a way to ridicule them, “she continued dancing, smiling faintly at big shots who watched her with fascination, and faintly smiling at our fear. ”(229). He and other young black men are degraded and forced to watch her dance, for it was humorous to see them squirm in humiliation.

She is strong, curious, independent and self-confident. Many trials throughout the book test her strength and independence but she overcomes. She recognizes as she gets older and gains more experience that there is a double standard for men and women. “The slave system defined black people as chattel. Since women no less than men were viewed as profitable labor units, they might as well have been genderless as far as slave holders were concerned” (Davis 5)

In the 1930’s women were not allowed to do most of the same things men were able to do. Blacks were not able to do as much as women were able to. In Maryland, 1924 a Jim Crow Law was passed saying “Any white woman who shall suffer or permit herself to be got with a child by a negro or mulatto...shall be sentenced to the penitentiary for not less than eighteen months.”. This Jim Crow Law states that if a white woman conceives a child with a black or “mixed” person, the woman shall spend eighteen months in jail. In Georgia, 1926 another Jim Crow Law was passed stating “No colored barber shall serve as a barber to white women or girls.”.

So long ago was the life of Phillis Wheatley, one of the most influential African American writers of her time, but her admired works of literature remain immortal. In merely eight lines of iambic pentameter, Wheatley’s notorious poem, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” delivers a more optimistic opinion and addresses how her faith has freed her during somber times of slavery. Using personification and allusions, Phillis Wheatley relates Christianity with her personal experiences of slavery in her renowned poem, “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” Wheatley uses a great amount of personification to explain her personal interaction with Christianity.

But most black women did as much work as black men, and “endured the brutal punishment meted out by slaveholders and their overseers,” they were also required to fulfill their jobs as mothers. As slaves, they struggled against the double discrimination having to take the maltreat given to all African-Americans as well as the one given to women in

The public speaker starts off by bringing pathos into the speech by asserting “I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! Ain’t I a woman?” (“Ain’t I a woman”). That statement established an emotional bond between herself and the mothers in the audience, however, the spokesperson not only appeals to the African Americans in the audience, but also to the White mothers in the audience, too. The merging of the two races created a greater appeal to the audience, as a whole, because they all have shared one common goal, the desire of wanting women to be given equal

Ninety- eight percent of the black women cooked, cleaned, washed clothes, and nannied in white households. For washerwoman/laundresses these were not ideal work

The readers of this piece can sense the anger expressed her about the views of the black community and that first line shows that this piece will continue to be as hard hitting as the beginning lines. Another powerful line in the same piece would be a line that talks about being a black woman is not a misfortune on her behalf and is calling out the people who view the black community as

As black women always conform under patriarchal principles, women are generally silenced and deprived of rights because men are entitled to control everything. Women are silenced in a way that they lose their confidence and hesitate to speak up due to the norms present in the society they live in. Hence, even if women have the confidence to try to speak, men wouldn’t bother to listen since men ought to believe that they are superior to women. In addition to that, women often live in a life cycle of repetitions due to patriarchal principles since women are established to fulfill the roles the society had given them. It is evidenced by Celie as she struggles to survive and to define oneself apart from the controlling, manipulative, and abusive men in her life.

Blaire Beavers Midterm Question #2 During the second wave of feminism in the US , black women had several goals in mind that differed from what the white women at the time were pushing for. While white women wanted equal opportunities in the workplace and to break the “housewife” role, black women were fighting the Civil Rights Movement alongside the feminist movement. Equal access to resources was a primary goal of black feminists in the 1960s and 70s.

Her tragedy reflects not only the sexism in the African American families in early 20th century, but also the uselessness

Black women are treated less than because of their ascribed traits, their gender and race, and are often dehumanized and belittled throughout the movie. They are treated like slaves and are seen as easily disposable. There are several moments throughout the film that show the racial, gender, and class inequalities. These moments also show exploitation and opportunity hoarding. The Help also explains historical context of the inequality that occurred during that time period.

The movie clearly exposes the many ways that the human dignity of African- American maids was ignored. They had suffered daily embarrassment but were able to claim their own way dignity. The film described about empowerment of individuals as well as about social justice for a group. It is a moving story depicting dehumanization in a racist culture but also the ability to move beyond the unjust structures of society and to declare the value of every human being.