Literary Analysis 1: Peer Review

Literary Analysis 1: Peer Review

LOs

• Think, write, and speak about literary texts critically and effectively.

please use the template given to peer review the two peoples work that i have attached about “raison in the sun”

Instructions: Reviewers, when parts I and II are completed, copy and paste the peer review into the week 3 peer-review DF as a reply to the peer you reviewed. Do not attach a document; rather, please copy and paste into the DF. Writers, use the feedback on your peer reviews to help revise your essays for your final draft submission due in week 4.

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Part I: To assess the paper’s completion of assignment basics, fill in the following check-off guide. Any “nos” equal areas the writer should attend to before submitting his or her final draft. Literary Analysis 1: Peer Review.

 Assignment Basics:

Part II: Answer each of the following prompts in complete sentences. Your answers should provide specific and helpful critique.

1. Does the paper’s thesis make a claim that is explored and supported throughout the paper? If no, what paragraphs do you see as failing to develop the paper’s central claim? If yes, how does the second body paragraph develop the thesis idea of the paper?
2. According to the outline the writer developed in week 2, each main point of this paper is to be supported by both examples and quotations from the text. Which point in the paper is best developed by examples and quotations? What makes this development effective?
3. Pick one main point in the paper and suggest an additional quotation or example from the text/s to help further the discussion of the point. What paragraph did you select and what example or quotation do you suggest the author incorporate into his or her essay? Literary Analysis 1: Peer Review.
4. Any quotations or examples included in the essay should be discussed in the essay. A writer needs to discuss the significance of examples and quotations to help link his support to his or her main ideas or to the thesis of the essay and to bring the reader into the writer’s way of interpreting the story. Draw the writer’s attention to any paragraphs that include examples or quotations that are not discussed (For example, “the quotation in paragraph four is not discussed”).

One of the most famous men in American history claimed, “Injustice anywhere is a threat
to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single
garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” (King, 1963) The
struggle of not only equal rights, but equal treatment for the Black American has been going on
since the 1700s within America alone. King puts it very simply in which he claims that we are all
connected, “whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” This may be a hard pill to
swallow for many who have not done their part; but there is only one way to fight the struggles a
person of color may face, by fighting together. There are many ways in which unity can come
about, but the first way must be education. To educate those that don’t know, Black Americans
have gone through many efforts to supply music, movies, and literature to share the struggle that
they face. There are many pieces of literature that have accurately described the struggle of the
Black American within the early 20th century. While few pieces are able to entail the depth of
the struggle, many authors do an excellent job of bringing awareness. It is extremely important to
communicate to those who plead ignorance to the hostilities a Black American must undergo.
Some of these great authors include Lorraine Hansberry, author of A Raisin in the Sun; and
author Langston Hughes who wrote grappling poetry within the 20s. It is through the articulate
writing of A Raisin in the Sun and “I, Too” by authors Hansberry and Hughes that have allowed
for the representation and comprehensive understanding of the Black American struggle that
continues today.
The struggles which are represented in these writings are endless but the first struggle
that can be seen in both writings is the struggle of ostracization African Americans must go
through. This ostracization is something that was permeated throughout American culture all the
way up to the integration movement in the 1950’s. Rather, it can be seen that it lasted even after
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and its effects are heavily seen in today’s racial tension. The poem, “I, Too” explores this in
which Hughes says “I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen, when company
comes…” (Hughes, 1925) This is ofcourse, is only one example of ostracization at that time, but
this pressure to ostracize Black individuals was seen in every aspect of culture. Separate schools,
water fountains, sections in the bus, areas of residency; no matter the aspect of culture- there was
this inherent custom to ostracize people of color causing them to forever struggle in simply doing
the idiosyncratic acts that make up living. Lansberry was another author that elaborated on this
struggle. Literary Analysis 1: Peer Review. She talks about this in Raisin in the Sun in which a black family tries to move into a
nicer, white neighborhood but is met with resistance. A white man comes to the black family
saying, “But you’ve got to admit that a man, right or wrong, has the right to want to have the
neighborhood he lives in a certain kind of way. It is a matter of the people of Clybourne Park
believing, rightly or wrongly, as I say, that for the happiness of all concerned that our Negro
families are happier when they live in their own communities” (Lansberry, 1958) This was not a
fictional aspect of this short story but a real occurrence that faced many successful Black
families. While this example was quite civilized, there are so many testimonies of Black families
being threatened and physically attacked just for trying to move towards a better future. This is
the ostracization struggle. Although it is better in today’s culture, for in 1958, 44 percent of
whites said they would move if a black family became their next door neighbor; today the figure
is 1 percent. (Brookings, 2020) While America is moving towards a better future, it is these
examples of literature that demonstrate the different struggles the Black American had to face
within this country. This is the struggle of the Black American seen through Raisin in the Sun
and the poem, “I, Too.”
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The second struggle that Black Americans undergo is the struggle to hope for a better
tomorrow while living in the present. While this may seem like a positive thing to struggle about,
it certainly is no. There was this constant reality that never allowed for the African American’s
hope to set. Every single time that there was hope for a better tomorrow, a better future, there
was this dread of what those that didn’t want this future would do. This is how things like the
KKK and Jim Crow came about. This is the danger of hoping for a better future. It seems as
though good people who wanted equal treatment were constantly pacifying themselves by saying
the word, “tomorrow.” I am sure many thoughts of the African Americans were similar to this,
“Tomorrow it will be better, tomorrow they won’t look at me like that.” Hughes knows well of
this tomorrow, for he mentions it in his poem “I, Too”. He says, “Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table.
When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen, Then” (Hughes, 1925)
This struggle may be seen as harder than the other struggles. Hughes does an excellent job at
entertaining the “tomorrow,” but how heavy was this burden exactly? Lansberry develops the
thought on this burden in the Raisin in the Sun. Explaining this struggle of hope v. reality, the
character Walter does an excellent job, “Sometimes it’s like I can see the future stretched out in
front of me—just plain as day. The future, Mama. Hanging over there at the edge of my days.
Just waiting for me—a big, looming blank space—full of nothing. Just waiting for me. But it
don’t have to be” (Hansberry, 1958) This character Walter, and Hughes are explaining the same
future, the future that shows that Black Americans deserve more while struggling with the reality
that they do not get it. It is hard to accept this truth, and it is one that still they have to swallow
every day in modern day America. This is the struggle of the Black American seen through
Raisin in the Sun and the poem, “I, Too.” Literary Analysis 1: Peer Review.
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Yet another struggle that Black Americans must face is the feeling that those that mistreat
people of color, will one day regret the things they’ve done and said, the people they’ve hurt, and
the pain they have inflicted. This struggle is one that continues and is heavy on people’s hearts.
To struggle with something is to make a violent effort to get free. This is one thing that the Black
American has been forced to struggle with since the beginning of their captivity, the concept that
in a better future, those that have inflicted harm will one day acknowledge the damage they have
done. Once again, Hughes has demonstrated this struggle and does an outstanding job at
encapsulating all that it entails. Towards the end of his poem, he says, “Besides, They’ll see how
beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America” (Hughes, 1925) Hughes utilizes the word
“ashamed” to describe the state of those that have mistreated them, that have ostracized them;
this struggle has been one to pacify the communities of color, it has been used to silence them as
well. Nonetheless, people today continue to say that there will be a better tomorrow. Hansberry
communicated this in her short story as well after the white man asked her not to move into their
community. One of the characters says, “Ain’t it something how bad these here white folks is
getting here in Chicago! Lord, getting so you think you right down in Mississippi!” (Lansberry,
1957) The South was of course known for their horrendous treatment of Black individuals,
especially post slavery. While this excerpt does not explicitly express the struggle of hoping that
white people would recognize their deceit, the character acknowledges how bad it is getting
implying that it should be better. Overall, these are just a few examples of the struggle every
person of color must face, but especially the Black community. Both Hughes and Lansberry
wrote literary pieces that shattered the ability for people to live in ignorance. They described and
attributed well characteristics of the African American struggles.
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Martin Luther King Jr. argues, “In the end, we will not remember the words of our
enemies, but the silence of our friends.” (King, 1965) It is our responsibility to say something, to
speak up for the injustices done against our friends. The literature pieces, A Raisin in the Sun and
“I, Too”, do an amazing job at informing us of the struggles the Black American must undergo
while living in this country, These struggles include ostracization, hoping for a better future
while living in the present, and believing that those that have inflicted plain will one day regret
what they have done. While Hughes and Lansberry have done their work to educate us on the
misfortunes of the Black community, we must do what we can to never go alone with the
behaviors of our ancestors but instead move towards an America where all are united under one
banner.
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References
Hansberry, L. (1958). A Raisin in the Sun. Weebly.
https://khdzamlit.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/6/11261956/a_raisin_in_the_sun_-_lorraine_
hansberry.pdf
I, Too. (n.d.). Academy of American Poets. Retrieved March 16, 2021, from
https://poets.org/poem/i-too
King, M. L. (1963, April 16). Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]. African Studies Center.
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from
BrainyQuote.com Web site:
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/martin_luther_king_jr_103571
Thernstrom, A. T. A. S. (2020, June 26). Black Progress: How far we’ve come, and how far we
have to go. Brookings.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/black-progress-how-far-weve-come-and-how-far-wehave-to-go/ . Literary Analysis 1: Peer Review.