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ART AND SOCIETY 1

Art and Society

Jasmine Cannon

Professor Faught

Litr218

09/27/2022

ART AND SOCIETY 2

Art and Society

Art is not a major requirement in making social change but it is able to bring

greater changes. The presence of arts increases the community identity and social

wellbeing. The artists create works that are meant to address the social issues and the

changes the way the world perceives certain aspects. The artwork can take any form as

long as it enhances and ignites the outrage and the demands of change by providing

the society with an opportunity to reflect, collaborate and to build the community. For

this assignment, the three articles considered include “The Jungle,” “The Souls of Black

Folk,” and “Native Son.”

“The Jungle” is an article that was written to expose the conditions the

immigrants face when they are living and working. The main aim of Upton Sinclair

was to bring change for the immigrants since they were experiencing poor working

and living conditions and environments (Sinclair, 2011). The focus of change was on

the meat packaging industry where unsafe practices were reported with companies

supplying rotten canned beef to the U.S Army during war. It is the work of Upton

Sinclair that made the people to understand about the unsanitary and dangerous

practices that were happening in the meat packing industry. The changes that

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happened during this time are still in place today. Although there are changes in laws

that have been added and changed with time, the immigrants are still faced with the

problem of poor working conditions. Upton Sinclair wanted to change the situation

with the immigrants but his work changed other aspects.

The “Native Son” speaks about the stereotypical role forced on the people of

color. There are many stereotypes that have been forced on to different people where

they are considered to be angry and violent. Richard Wright speaks about a 20-year old

boy Bigger Thomas who was living in poverty and tries to explain the systemic

causation of the causes of crimes (Wright, 2016). Through the work of the author, the

aspect of discrimination for the people of color. The background in which Bigger grew

in affected the person he became when he was an adult and therefore, this work was

meant to enhance the knowledge of proper upbringing. Receiving hard treatment and

finding it difficult to get out of the situation makes a person to change and affects the

type of person one turns out to be.

W.E.B Du Bois’s on the article, “The Souls of Black Folk” uses different essays to

explain the struggles, historical narrative and the attacks that happened on the other

writers. The psychological struggles of racism affected the African Americans

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especially from their background in Africa and when they arrived in America (Shaw,

2013). The work of the author uses effective language to create awareness about the

negative effects of racism. The life of the African Americans under slavery was a major

cause of the oppression the people were facing. By examining the impact of slavery

and morality created awareness on how the history of Negro in America and how this

history is not uninteresting to the people.

In conclusion, the authors used their sense of art to accomplish through the

writing. They were able to bring into light some of the bad things that were happening

in order to prevent the occurrence of the same in the future years. They wanted to

share a version of stereotyping that was occurring in the society and be able to push

them away. Thus, art is a unique aspect because it is able to push the limits and to blur

the lines that exist between the fiction and fact. The art is able to bring changes in the

views of the society.

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References

Shaw, S. J. (2013). WEB Du Bois and the souls of black folk. UNC Press Books.

https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=BbMIWuB4224C&oi=fnd&pg=

PP2&dq=W.E.B+Du+Bois%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%9CThe+Souls+of+Black+Folk%

E2%80%9D&ots=VSNzLEWm8x&sig=gzYJEbDbXf-JMidT77V-toGNVnQ&redir_

esc=y#v=onepage&q=W.E.B%20Du%20Bois%E2%80%99s%20%E2%80%9CThe%

20Souls%20of%20Black%20Folk%E2%80%9D&f=false

Sinclair, U. (2011). from The Jungle. Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, 

5(1), 1-11. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/462926/summary

Wright, R. (2016). Native son. Random house.