LIT2020 Brickler Final

- Charles W. Chesnutt- 1889- Town of Troy; Branston County, NC- Tom - Sheriff- Exposition- A man is murdered in Troy, a black man is in the area during this occurrence.

He get's accused of the crime by racist towns people. He is sent to jail and it watched over by a Sheriff. The suspect get's ahold of the Sheriff's gun and to stop him from doing anything crazy the Sheriff promises him a fair trial as he should get. The black man knows the trial will not be fair because he is black and he reveals that he is actually the Sheriff's son that he sold off a long time ago. Tom, the black man, is shot by the Sheriff's daughter so that he doesn't shoot the Sheriff. The wound is not fatal because it is bandaged to stop bleeding.

But when he is left in the cell alone he removes the bandage and allows himself to bleed to death.

- W.E.B. DuBois- 1920- New York; Harlem- Jim, Julia- Julia's Family, Society- Hard vs Soft Fiction; Interracial Intimacy - Opens in an unnamed bank and our narrator Jim (who is black) going down in he basement to get files -- something no one else wanted to do. During his time in the basement a comet goes over the city and it emits deadly gasses that cause everyone in the town to die.

He comes up from the basement and realizes he is the "only man left on earth." Finally he comes across a white woman that was not effected by the gas either because she was in her photo developing room. Together they look for any remaining lives. When they cannot find any they realize that they are only people left. They form a bond and the colors of their skin become irrelevant.

Then Julia's father comes and they snap out of their fantasy. Jim is offered money for taking care of Julia and suddenly life is all to real again.

- Anthony Grooms- 2006- "The Bottoms"; Morehouse College- Linc- Parthenia, Redeye- Pan-Africanism; Colourisms - Parthenia meets College Boy, Linc. Linc and Redeye, Parthenia's dead husband's friend, get in a fight. Linc ends up dead.

Linc constantly said "we all the same people"

- Jean Toomer - 1923- Louisa, Tom Burwell- Bob Stone- New Negro Movement; Harlem Renaissance- Tom is black, and Bob is white, they are both in love with Louisa who is light skinned black. Tom ends up slashing Bob with a knife. He stumbles back to white part of town and tells people what happened. A mob comes and kills Tom by lynching him (burning alive).

- Zora Neale Hurston- 1926- Florida- Delia Jones- Sykes- Vernacular Expression- Delia Jones is a black woman that works to support her cheating husband and his mistress. Even though Delia is the bread winner, Sykes constantly reminds her of the power he has over her by exposing her to snakes -- her biggest fear -- numerous times.

-Richard Wright-1938-Mann and Lulu-Heartfield-Pan-africanism -This story is about a black family in the rural South during a flood. The patriarch of the family is Mann. His wife Lulu is deathly sick in childbirth. Mann reluctantly takes the boat, hoping to get Lulu to the Red Cross hospital then return the boat to Heartfield. On his way to the hospital Heartfield encounters Mann and his family in the boat, accuses Mann of theft and shoots at him.

Mann shoots back, killing Heartfield. By the time Mann gets Lulu to the hospital she is dead. Soldiers recruit Mann and other black men to help evacuate white families stranded by the flood. Mann is sent to rescue the Heartfields. Alone in the house with the family, Mann has an opportunity to kill them but rescues them instead.

-James Baldwin-1957- Harlem - Narrator (Sonny's older brother)-Sonny- The Blues, Afrocentric- narrator of the story discovers from a newspaper that his younger brother, Sonny, has been arrested for selling and using heroin. His students, he realizes, could someday end up like Sonny, given the obstacles and hardships they face growing up in Harlem.When Sonny gets out of jail, the narrator is there for him.the narrator went back into the army and didn't think about his brother again until their mother died. After the funeral, the two brothers sat and talked about Sonny's future.

Sonny told his brother about his dream of becoming a jazz pianist, which the narrator dismissed. They get into a huge fight and Sonny says he is dead to him. Sonny and the band get on stage and play, and as they play, the narrator watches Sonny struggle with the music. He watches all his brother's struggles come pouring out as he plays, and only then does he finally realize who Sonny is and what he's made of.

-Ralph Ellison-1947- Narrator- 9 schoolmates- The story consists of a frame in which the mature narrator remembers the advice that his dying grandfather gave to his son (the narrator's father) and his remembrance of a cruel betrayal that confirms the grandfather's advice. The white leaders ask the narrator to deliver a high school graduation speech on the virtues of humility to a gathering of leading white citizens, a "triumph" for the black community.

Ends in a free-for-all boxing match.

-Percival Everett-1996--South Carolina -Daniel - Barb and Travis-Intertextuality- a young black man buys a pickup truck with a confederate flag on the back and, by driving it around, gradually undermines a symbol of racial injustice more successfully than conventional protests.

- Walter Mosley- 1997- West LA- Dolly, Socrates, Bruno the dog- The lawyer Brenda March, Benhiem Lunge- Blackness; Identity- Socrates Fartlow is a ex felon that is being charged with harassment toward Benhiem Lunge. Socrates tried to save a dog, named Bruno, after Benhiem hit him.

Socrates was accused to harassing Benhiem for hitting the dog just because he was black. Dolly, a white girl that witnessed the accident puts up bail for Socrates. She said she knew he was innocent and that he was just trying to save the dog. She allows him to stay in her home.

Socrates makes the promise after his trial goes through that if Bruno is still alive he will take the dog as his own. Socrates gets 50 hours of community service and promises to speak to young black kids about his life in the hopes that he would teach them not to follow in his foot steps. Dolly was a big factor in him not going to jail.

- Toni Bambara- 1972- FAO Shwartz- Miss Moore, Sugar- Sylvia- Money; Self Characterization; Black Nationalism- Story about a teacher Miss Moore that takes her school kids, Sylvia (narrator), Sugar, Big Butt, Fat Butt, FlyBoy, Junebug and Mercedes on a field trip to FAO Shwartz, a very ostentatious toy store.

Sylvia is frustrated because she cannot afford any of these toys. They look at a microscope, paperweight and sailboat. Sugar thinks that it is unfair that there are rich people and poor people. Sylvia gets mad at her for speaking up about this. Sylvia doesn't want to be defined by standards and expectations.

the story ends with her saying "aint nobody gonna beat me at nothin"

- Alice Walker- 1973- Mississippi; moving to Chicago- Roselily- Her husband; Marriage- Womanism; Black Feminism- Roselily is from Mississippi and is getting married to escape poverty. The man she is marrying is Muslim and she barely knows him. She is going through with this in the hopes of being able to provide her three kids with a better life. They drive from Mississippi to Chicago.

- Alice Walker- 1973- Mamma- Dee- Heritage; Oppression- Mamma has two daughters, Maggie and Dee.

Dee goes off to college in Augusten and comes back with a new identity. She wants the quilts that Mamma has bc she says she values the heritage the symbolize. Mamma wants Maggie to have the quilts tho. Dee (Wandango) leaves saying that Mamma and Maggie don't understand their own heritage.

- Toni Morrison- 1983- - Twyla- Roberta- Signs and Signifiers; Home; Memory and Re-memory- Twyla and Roberta are two girls that have mother's but have still been put in an orphanage. They become close but when they leave the orphanage they lose contact.

Their paths cross a couple of times over the course of their lives. In one instance, Roberta comes in to the restaurant that Twyla is working at all dressed up to go to a Jimi Hendrix concert. Twyla is jealous of Roberta. They meet again 5 years later. Twyla has two kids of her own Roberta had two step kids.

Roberta offers for the two to get lunch and that her limo can pick Twyla up. Things with them are well until their local school starts integrating. Due to their different races they are on opposing sides. Roberta attacks Twyla and the two go without talking for a while.

On New Years drunken Roberta apologizes to Twyla and the story ends with them comforting each other.

- gloria naylor 1992

- Octavia Butler- 1984- Foreign planet- Gan- T'Gatoi- Hard vs Soft Science fiction; Male Pregnancy Story- Bloodchild is a story about a society that includes Tlics and Terrans. Tlics put their eggs inside the male Terrans (humans). Gan has T'Gatoi's baby so that his sister doesn't have to.

- Samuel Delany- 1967- - - - Afrofuturism- Includes a group of people called Spacers which are astronauts that are neutered early in life to avoid effects from the radiation in space. While they have no sexual desires, there is a group called the "Frelks" that desire them very much.

The Spacers take advantage of this by making money from them by letting the Frelks do what they want with them.

- Chinua Achebe- 1959- Nigera-