Eng 496 - Personal Connections

Melissa Sheppard

ENG 496

17 Jun 2013

Tired

When looking over this piece it strikes a great chord in my life; which causes me to take a step back and look over my life. Fenton Johnson writes in "Tired", "I am tired of work; I am of building up somebody else's civilization, Let us take a rest, M'LissyJane. (Gates, McKaypg.950), this is very telling of all the work done without success of having you own. I was in such the situation a year ago when I wanted to start my own company working with at-risk youth. When I started in this busy over tens ago; I was fortunate enough to work with the very individual that put policies in place for youth in the state of Mississippi. Working tireless hours, missing many events with my son and going through a divorce to have an opportunity to work for myself was the goal. When the opportunity never presented itself after so much sacrifice; I realized at that moment just how "tired" I was and just could not go any further. In that moment I realized that I needed to start my life over and change the direction of my life; so I resigned and started this quest to complete my degree and pursue Law school.

During the Reconstruction of the New Negro Renaissance African Americans where very strong and was past all of the violence. This piece speaks to the hard work African Americans did trying to work toward receiving notoriety for being as competent as White Americans. African Americans were able to show the Whites that they were capable of becoming educated and they had abilities that far surpassed the imagination of Whites. . "Tired" literally depicts how African Americans were just trying to get in the race and maintain within society. The cultural value of this era was to redefine the stereotypes of the past of African Americans to show who and what a black person was, and how unlike the racist stereotype the black original indeed actually could be. If various Western cultures constructed blackness as an absence, then various generations of black authors have attempted to reconstruct blackness as a presence.

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The Scarlet Woman

When reading and applying "The Scarlet Woman" to my life it is a daring rendition of who and where I have been. The struggles of my life coincide with this piece when Johnson says," Starvation danced with me." (Gates, Mc Kay pg.951) My mother had me when she was fourteen years old; none of her siblings even knew she was pregnant. In 1971 my grandmother took my mother to the hospital thinking her appendix had ruptured; but to everyone surprise it was my birthday. October 18, 1971 would be remembered as the day that my family was rocked to their core because she was an unwed woman and a shame to the family. I was raised not knowing who my father was by my grandmother who trusted in God for everything. I was a "scarlet woman" who had to figure it out on my own with no direction from my mother. Sereta Bradley; my biological mother did not care for me because I remind her of "him" and therefore we didn't coexist. Looking back over my life and seeing how I overcame the struggles and obstacles; I can say I'm stronger and wiser and so much better now that I can see the forest and not just the trees. Struggling as a woman can cause you to become a scarlet woman and do those things necessary to survive; especially when you have no one to look to in such challenge times.

New Negro Renaissance ultimately led to Education and Literacy which were very important to this movement. This time was growth and empowerment for those African Americans that had suffered so much during this era. African Americans having the ability to read and write and move readers as Whites was an amazing feat; to say the least. Armed with this knowledge, Whites in the southern states were still treating African American like slaves and committing unspeakable acts against them. In "The Scarlet Woman", "I had nothing so I had to work.....((Gates,McKay pg.951) African Americans worked hard and struggled to become a valued individual. The cultural was to redefine by any means possible.

Free and Literate

Following the Civil War, many Americans struggled