Family in African-American Literature Essay

In literary pieces much(prenominal) as Alice Walkers story fooling Use, Langston Hughes My People, and Robert Haydens poem Those Winter Sundays, the theme of family familys is signifi wadtly evident. In Everyday Use, Walker presents one stage and feeling of a family life when one adult child chooses to live on her profess while the otherwise one stays with the family.Hughes poem portrays his acknowledge for his heap which he considers to be a family as a satisfying. Meanwhile, Haydens Those Winter Sundays, talks about the narration and definition of a son about his capture whom he is not well acquainted with. As the first-year piece directs of a story about a family in relation to their heritage, the latter speaks of a boys reminiscence of a father who was n ever so able to show his dear directly to his children. These twain aspects of family relationships reveal several angles to look upon. Such family situations argon influenced by authors own race and heritage.Alic e Walker portrays the story of a fully grown-up daughter, Dee, who goes back to residence to her home to visit her female p atomic number 18nt, Mrs. Johnson and her younger sister, Maggie. She arrives accompanied by an African American Muslim man who is currently dating her. She comes home to collect rough family possessions which she intends to turn into artistic pieces to be exhibited in a museum.Meanwhile, her sister Maggie grimaces as her sister takes some of their personal belongings including a quilt that her mother has promised to give her as a wedding present. Dee tells her mother that Maggie would only offend the quilt by using it everyday which puzzles Mrs. Johnson as she could not commend of any way to use the quilt than to spread them. When Mrs. Johnson sees the sadness in her younger daughters eyes upon Dee taking the quilt, she snatches it external and gives it to Maggie. Dee walks away after claiming that their line is they do not understand their own heritage (Walker).In this story, Walker portrays a family whose eldest daughter has become estranged from them. In the first part of the story, Mrs. Johnson recounts how Dee had hated living in their theatre and even almost set it on fire when she was young. The concept of a dysfunctional family is quite present here however, it focuses more on the mother-child relationship rather than every member of the family. It is important to note that Walker make use of the damaged relationship of Dee to her mother and sister to show and dilate the different types of African American people.On the other hand, Langston Hughes shows his love and clutches for his people in his poem My People. He does not speak of family but his tone and use of words make it seem as if he is speaking of his beloved family.The night is beautiful, / So the faces of my people (lines 1-2). The genitive pronoun my indicates a certain intimacy between him and his people which is usually employ for referring to a small gro up of people who shares something intimate and common such as my family. In this regard, Hughes speaks highly of his race as if he is talk about a family he loves most.The stars are beautiful, /So the eyes of my people (3-4). The comparison of his people to the heavens indicates the depth of his love and care for them as he would to his family. Beautiful, also, is the sun. /Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people (5-6).In the poem Those Winter Sundays, it can be assumed that Robert Hayden personally speaks through the voice of the loudspeaker in his poem Those Winter Sundays. His distant relationship with his father is evident. In this melancholy poem, he narrates about the concealed appreciation of a son for his fathers acts of love by way of writing it in a prose. The narrator tells about the labors of his father even on a chilliness winter Sunday. However, in the poem, the speaker emphasizes that his fathers great efforts are usually ignored.The title of the poem itself already suggests a background for the readers. The speaker is obviously focuse only on the winter Sundays and why it heart and soul too much work for the father. In the first stanza of the poem, the detailed description of the speakers father is very noticeable. He illustrated him by means of mentioning his physical condition as he works on dusty Sundays.He could have described it in a clearer way by going straight to the point. Nevertheless, he expressed his fathers deplorable phiz in a way that the reader can cast the fathers men cracked hands and the busy Sundays. The first two lines of the poem approximately develops a thesis that would cover the whole idea in the poem. Sundays too my father got up early / And repose his clothes on in the blueblack cold, (1-2). Sundays should be a day of equaliser but the speaker stresses that his father still wakes up even sooner the sun rose to go to work.He tho highlights the weary countenance of his father as he describes his fath ers cracked hands that ached / from labor in the weekday weather made / Banked fires blaze (3-5). The poem further shows how heartbreaking the fathers situation must be by writing the last line of the first stanza with, No one ever conveyed him (5). With the last line, it is reasonable to consider that the speaker is one of those people who failed to thank him. In this regard, it can be assumed that the speaker is already in his old or middle age when he remembers how his father has shown him love in his own way.Clearly, these renowned African-American writers have frequently used the theme of family relationships to further address the problems of their society. The issues of racism, nationalism, and love are the implicit ideas which are present in the three literary pieces discussed. These authors portrays different types of African-American families which serves as the representation of the current society that they are in. since the family is the basic unit of society, it is th e old target of societal effects such as racism and other social issues. Every problem of the society can become the problem of the family which is why the most meaningful literary works of art somewhat involves the theme of family relationships.Works CitedHayden, Robert. Those Winter Sundays. The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry. Ed. Arnold Rampersad, Hilary Herbold. United States of America Oxford University extort US, 2006. 261.Hughes, Langston. My People. Poem Hunter. 19 April 2009. Walker, Alice. Everyday Use. Ed. Barbara Christian. United States of America Rutgers University Press, 1994.