4 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

AAL WK 4 ASSIGNMENT w OUTLINE, example INSTRUCTIONS FOR REVIEW!

Each response is required to be posted in the Discussion Section in Desire 2 Learn.

Each response should include a controlling statement.

Each response should include direct quotes from the primary source.

Each response should include analysis of the primary source.

Each response should be written in Standard English in complete sentences.

Each response should be free of spelling and grammar errors.

A response should include a well-written, thought-provoking answer.

EXAMPLE: You should not say, “Everyone has taken my response,” “I cannot add anymore to the discussion because the class has covered the topic adequately,” or “I agree with John.” You can agree or disagree with a response and state your reasons—why or why not?

You may only use the works from this class. In other words, you may not choose a work that is not on the syllabus.

Discussion Question (DQ)--The quality of blackness is sometimes sinister and other timesendering in Grimke's work. Analyze the attitude toward blackness as a construct in the selections printed in the Norton Anthology of African American Literature.

Discussion Question Response (DQR)—This is an example.

The brief introduction to Grimke’s life gives good insight on the various attitudes revealed in her writings. Grimke was one of the writers whose works seemed to become more prevalent during the Harlem Renaissance period. These poems reveal a previous unconsciousness to racial injustices that was eventually awakened. Grimke was bi-racial, born into a family of noted prominence, her father was son to a Grimke plantation slave and its White plantation owner. The White family members openly acknowledged and supported her father in his successful educational and career endeavors. Her White aunts, half-sisters to her father, were well-known for their involvement in abolitionism and civil rights. Grimke, unlike many blacks, led a privileged and pampered life (950). This helps to explain her inability to fully grasp the viciousness of racial discrimination early in life.

In the assigned poems, Grimke encompasses nature, particularly, flowers and trees. In A Winter Twilight, there is a sort of melancholiness that suggests Grimke has become sadly aware of the Black man’s troubles. As the word twilight suggests, there is a period between dusk and sunset, a position from being unaware to enlightenment. “One group of trees, lean, naked and cold” (951), there is a group that is neglected, uncovered, and an unprotected victim in its environment. Perhaps this is her wakening to the seriousness of the plight of Black America during that era. She has her concerns that may also include her sexuality. According to the assigned text, Grimke was plagued by her “possible repression of homosexual desires” (950). Homosexuality was insupportable during this period and severely frowned upon by both Black and White society. In the line “One piece that knows where the cornflowers were” (951) suggest a knowledge of the part of her that is aware of a male dominated world, and the possible desire to be as a male in her sexual expressions with females. Cornflowers are also known as “bachelor buttons.” A bachelor, of course, is a man that has never been married. There is a realization that because of her sexual preferences, and the intolerance for such during that period, she will never marry. The line “lonely apart, unyielding one fir” (951) Being bi-racial, and a homosexual, lonely and separated will be her lot in life.

In The Black Finger, Grimke once again refers to a tree, the Cypress. The Cypress, as compared to the Black race, is acknowledged for its longevity and ability to survive in adverse conditions. Grimke realizes the beauty, pride and strength in blackness and referenced in the phrase “I have just seen a beautiful thing…A straight cypress, Sensitive Exquisite, A black finger pointing upwards” (951). The next phrase, “Why, beautiful, still finger are you black? And why are you pointing upwards?” Grimke, has a confusing awareness, she has a comprehension of the beauty, the pride, the struggle and pain associated with blackness, yet she seems confused as to why amidst all the pain, misery and continued oppression can Blacks still point upward, still have hope and belief in an omnipotent being, or a higher power to rescue them.

The poem, Tenebris, means darkness, the medley of words in this poem, create a feeling of unrest and an uneasiness as if trouble is lurking. "There is a tree, by day, That, at night, Has a shadow, A hand huge andblack,…Against the white man’s house” (952). These words speak of inconspicuous change, a tree, an immobilized figure, powerless during the day, that becomes a threatening figure, a “huge black hand” denoting power and control at night. It bespeaks of retribution against the white man. “The black hand plucks and plucksAt the bricks. The bricks are the color of blood and very small” (952). The black hand methodically removes the origins of its pain and struggle. The Black hands tares down the kingdom of the White man that the blood of slaves was forced to labor and build while the White man enjoyed the fruits of that labor. Day and night symbolizes the two opposing sides or characters, also of time. There is  a realization that the mental conditioning of  oppression and servitude has been instilled and accepted out of fear. Like a tree, unaware of its strength and power, that tree has succumbed to the dictates of its environment to survive. At night, that same tree has finally realized it's worth and seeks payment for its injustices. Consequently, it's leaves have collectively turned into the "black huge hand" of judgment and punishment. Time and conditions has turned the fearful ones into the ones to be feared.

Overall, Grimke's attitude toward blackness seemed to surface as it did in the times of slavery - with underlying messages or codes that only the Blacks would understand. In the readings, it was possible to detect joy, pain, beauty even an eeriness, yet as to the greater message - it allows much room for the imagination.  Her poetry is really enjoyable, brilliant even, and quite possibly written ahead of its time.

Gates, Henry L., Jr., and Smith, Valerie A. "The Norton Anthology of African American

       Literature, Vol 1." W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 2014  

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ASSIGNMENT DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: TOTAL OF 4