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Academic papers on African-American Literature

Jacobs and Butler Look at Slavery
Jacobs and Butler Look at Slavery: This 11-page analytical essay examines Harriet Jacobs
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Pearl Cleage: What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (1997)
(5 pp)Ava Johnson is the main character of Pearl Cleage's 1997, first novel, What Looks Like Crazy on a Ordinary Day. Not only is the narrator of the tale, but throughout the read and afterwards, she has become our "new best friend." This...
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The Labelling of Faulkner's "Joe Christmas"
(5 pp) Faulkner likes to present a character to us as he appears to others and as he in fact appears to himself. There will be times when these two views are definitely opposing, such is the case of Joe Christmas: a mixture of black and...
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The Scarlet Letter - Chapter by Chapter
(7 pp) Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel, The Scarlet Letter remains a masterpiece of American literature, defining the Puritan tradition of the early colonies. It was a psychological time of limits, boundaries and silences, particularly...
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The Symbolic Cask: Symbolism in the Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
(6 pp) Few writers today have the ability to engender the classic horror tale in the same way that has been attributed to Edgar Allan Poe. Movies can illicit Jason in a hockey mask until it is time for him to apply for social security,...
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The Status of Women as shown in Poetry.
(5 pp) Poetry is often thought of as the language of feelings. The wonderful thing that we have finally learned about feelings is, that they are neither right or wrong -they just exist. It is usually thought, that one person does not make...
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The Deep North by Fanny Howe. 1988
(5 pp)According to critic Michael Palmer: "Fanny Howe employs a sometimes fierce,always passionate, spareness in her lifelong parsing of the exchange between matter and spirit. Her work displays as well a political urgency, that is to ...
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"Killings" by Andre DuBus. 1991.
(5 pp) One of the current social" buzz words" is community. It is spoken of with almost the reverence of a saint being pierced with a sword. Somehow in this new century, the idea of a group of people, in a given geographic area caring for...
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American Individualism x3: Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman
Today we like to pretend that we are all individuals, even while we are busily following the trends or the ideas of someone else. There are too many choices, or we don't have time, we whine. This 6 page discussion will look at three distinct...
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Remembering the Good Times: Richard Peck 1985
(5 pages) This 1985 young adult novel by Richard Peck, could serve as a springboard for all types of discussion and class activity. Thematically the problem of death, particularly that of suicide is not openly addressed. Perhaps, death is our...
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The Bluest Eye: Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison's 1970 novel has become a classic definition of the destruction of racism, as well as how one can "cope" through imagination. The power of the tale is staggering, and provides the core of this 5 page discussion.
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Comparing Wright & Motley
A 7 page essay t hat contrasts and compares Richard Wright's Native Son and Willard Motley's Knock On Any Door. The writer argues that each novel is similar to a sociological case study, in that the social forces at work in the environment play an...
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'Huckleberry Finn' - the Forms of Dialect
A 6 page paper which presents the types of dialect found in Mark Twain's 'Huckleberry Finn.' Bibliography lists 1 additional sources.
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August Wilson/Fences
A 5 page research paper that analyzes August Wilson's play Fences, which is a multigenerational look at an African American family and is, principally, the story of Troy Maxson and the psychological fences that isolate him from his friends and...
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Faulkner's World
A 5 page research paper on William Faulkner's attitudes toward women, racial issues and the South. Discussed are his ambivalence to all three and how it is manifest in his work. Cites 5 sources.
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