Thursday, March 25, 2010

Langston Hughes and His Poetry

Comments about the poem Harlem

It is about the unequal treatment among the blacks and the whites. The blacks are marginalized and they are treated like second class citizens. In 1951–the year of the poem's publication–frustration characterized the mood of American blacks. The Civil War in the previous century had liberated them from slavery and federal laws had granted them the right to vote, the right to own property and so on. However, continuing prejudice against blacks, as well as laws passed since the Civil War, relegated them to second-class citizenship. Consequently, blacks had to attend poorly equipped segregated schools and settle for menial jobs as porters, ditch-diggers, servants, shoeshine boys and so on. In many states, blacks could not use the same public facilities as whites including restrooms, restaurants, theaters and parks. Access to other facilities such as buses, required them to take a back seat, literally, to whites. By the mid-Twentieth Century, their frustration with inferior status became a powder keg and the fuse was burning. Hughes well understood what the future held, as he indicates in the last line of the poem.

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution–approved in the post-Civil War era–granted black Americans basic rights as American citizens, as did the Civil Rights Act of 1875. However, court and legislative decisions later emasculated the legal protection of blacks. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1896 (Plessy v. Ferguson) that it was legal to provide "separate but equal" accommodations for passengers of Louisiana's railroads. This ruling set a precedent that led to segregated schools, restaurants, parks, libraries and so on. Meanwhile, hate groups inflicted inhuman treatment on innocent blacks including brutal beatings. Lynchings of innocent blacks were not uncommon. Many so-called "enlightened" or "liberal-minded" Americans looked the other way, including law-enforcement officers, clergymen, politicians and ordinary Americans. By the mid-20th Century, black frustration with white oppression formed itself into a potent blasting powder.
( http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides4/harlem.html )

YOUTUBE VIDEOS ON THE POEM HARLEM






"Dinner Guest: Me" by Langston Hughes is full of irony and sarcasm

"Dinner Guest: Me" by Langston Hughes is full of irony and sarcasm because of the following lines:-

Stanza 1, Line 1 & 2

I know I am

The Negro Problem

Stanza 1, Line 9, 10 & 11

Of darkness U.S.A.--

Wondering how things got this way

In current democratic night,

Stanza 1, Line 14

"I'm so ashamed of being white."

I personally think that this poem is about Langston Hughes being invited to a fancy restaurant by a white person and the two of them were discussing race. You can tell by the way he says 'Asked the usual questions' and how the white person is embarrassed to be white. A black person in a fancy restaurant was a big deal back in those days. Not only do they have to wait for service in the restaurant but their discussion is about the answer to race relations and in the end of the poem he says; the answer to the problem is to wait.

( http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dinner-guest-me/ )

The dilemma Langston Hughes conveys through the poem CROSS


This poem explores the deepest emotions and troubles of a young man born into a world of confusion. He is confused by his heritage but arrogant in his pride. He is growing up in the whirl of a white society, and cannot decide whether he is white or black. Hughes, using a black mother and white father, completely makes it easy for the reader to understand and almost foreshadow where this poem is going. It is evident that there is an inner sense of not belonging in this child. In line three through eight, it is clear that the child is sorry for all the pain he has brought on to his parents, unknowingly. He shows remorse for all the curses and bad wishes he said to his parents, now that they are dead. But this is all because of a bigger problem. Now that his parents are both dead, he has no one to turn to, to help him figure out what his is. He can’t seem to figure out whether he is going to die in riches or rags. This is the great dilemma Hughes presents to the reader and leaving the audience in query to this unanswerable question. He cannot seem to find any truth in himself whatsoever, this child is and forever will be lost in his own identity. Hughes uses this boy’s struggles symbolically, not to show the pressures of a “crossed” child but rather to show how we as a society stereotype the races. The white father dying in a fine house whereas the mother dies in a shack, depicts the common view of the white race as being a more upscale and richer society and the black culture oppressed in poverty and forever bound to the slums of the world.
( http://www.freeessays.cc/db/37/pya274.shtml )

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The universal experience gained from Iroquois:The Girl Who Was Not Satisfied With Simple Things



This is a universal experience across all country, society, race and religion because no matter how much people get of something, they want more and more. Some of them are very greedy and they are not thankful or grateful to god and the people around them. In relation to the real life, the people nowadays are very materialistic. No matter how much they earn, they are still not satisfied with what they have and they always want more and more! Another example which I can relate to is some people are not satisfied with their marriage life so they end up having extra marital affairs. Referring to the story, the girl was deceived by the handsome outlooks of the man who turns out to be one of the horned serpents. We can use this story to teach our students to be grateful and be satisfied with the simple things they have. They need to appreciate their god, parents, teachers and etc. for the things they have given to them. They also need to learn that having something is better than having nothing! For example, having an old bicycle is better than having none. Other than the above, another moral value from the story is not to trust someone based on their looks because they might have bad intentions. They look good from the outside but they are bad inside.


Feminist poems


The feminist issues raised by Erica Jong in her poems are sex-positive issues, gender difference, gender bias, patriarchy and oppression of women, male dominance in love and family relationship, gender equality for women and women's rights and interests.



I think that they are not suitable to be taught at the secondary school level because her works are sexually explicit and it might corrupt the young minds. However, her works are suitable for adult audiences. Erica Jong is an American woman and she has been married four times. Her works reflects her thoughts and her community’s culture. Some issues discussed in her poems and other literary works are taboo in the eastern culture. Therefore, they are not suitable for our eastern culture and her literary works cannot be taught at the secondary school level.

Hilary Tham is a local Malaysian writer. Therefore, her poems are more suitable for our eastern culture and they can be taught at the secondary school level because the use of language in her poems are more moderate and her
poems often deals with common female issues.





Monday, March 22, 2010

Canon for Malaysian literary works




I think that the recipients of the national literary scholar awards (anugerah sasterawan negara) are in the list of Malaysian literary canon. The recipients of the awards are listed below:-


1. 1981 : Kamaluddin Muhamad (Keris Mas)

2. 1982 : Dato' Shahnon Ahmad

3. 1983 : Datuk Dr. Usman Awang

4. 1986 : Datuk A. Samad Said

5. 1988 : Muhammad Dahlan bin Abdul Biang (Arena Wati)

6. 1991 : Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh

7. 1993 : Datuk Noordin Hasan

8. 1996 : Datuk Abdullah Hussain

9. 2001 : S. Othman Kelantan

10. 2009 : Dr. Anwar Ridhwan


The recipients who have produced Malaysian literature in English, some titles and the category of their works are listed below:-


1981 : Kamaluddin Muhamad (Keris Mas)

a.) Jungle of Hope


1983 : Datuk Dr. Usman Awang

a.) Mother’s grave (poem)

b.) Father Utih (poem)

c.) Little Girl (poem)


1986 : Datuk A. Samad Said

a.) The Dead Crow (poem)


1991 : Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh

a.) words for father (poem)

b.) on a dry bund (poem)

c.) three beserah fishermen (poem)

d.) seeds (poem)

e.) the traveller (poem)

f. ) si tenggang’s homecoming


The recipients whose literary work are being used in the school’s textbooks are as below:-


Malay literature

1982 : Dato' Shahnon Ahmad

a.) Gelungnya Terpokah (short story) for SPM level


1991 : Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh

a.) Anak Global (poem) for SPM level


English literature

1981 : Kamaluddin Muhamad (Keris Mas)

a.) Jungle of Hope (novel) for SPM level (Form 5)


1986 : Datuk A. Samad Said

a.) The Dead Crow (poem) for PMR level (Form 1)


1991 : Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh

a.) si tenggang’s homecoming (poem) for SPM level (Form 4)


YOUTUBE VIDEO



Friday, March 19, 2010

Some of the issues I have discovered in ‘The Son of the Turtle Spirit’


Some of the issues I have discovered in ‘The Son of the Turtle Spirit’ are:-

1.) In the Chinese belief, some spirits are said to commit adultery with human men / women. This normally takes place during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar where it is believed that the gates of hell are opened during this period. There are some claims which I have read in the newspaper stating that a male spirit impregnated a Chinese woman during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar. So this story reinforces my background knowledge of the spirit in accordance with the Chinese belief system.

2.) It is also known in the Chinese culture that some turtles has spirits which manifests at night and disappear at dawn before the sunrise.

3.) The Chinese community may shift their ancestral / elders remains if the necessity arises. For example, they may shift their ancestral / elders remains upon the request of the dead one through their dreams or they may shift the remains if they find a more suitable place to bury it. The costs of shifting the remains are quite expensive not only in the story but also in the real life. The Chinese community has a strong belief system that the location of the burial ground is very important because it affects the wealth and the well-being of the deceased descendants. In this story, it is stated clearly in the 8th paragraph that “the sons and grandsons of anyone buried there would certainly rise to high honours.”

4.) Regardless of race and religion, we have a common belief system of ‘fate’. The son of the turtle spirit was supposed to place the remains of the rich man’s grandfather in the dragon’s mouth. Instead, he hung the bones on the dragon's horns because he followed his mother’s instructions. Finally, the son of the turtle spirit became the Emperor, and the son of the rich man was his minister. That is why I said that our life depends on our fates. We can only plan for something and work hard for it but as we all know our fate is predetermined by god. Everything in the universe works in accordance to the Almighty’s good will.

Issues one to three are only relevant in the Chinese culture. Meanwhile the fourth issue is universal in nature regardless of race and religion.