The American Communist Party The Communist Party, in the United States, was formed on September 1, 1919, in Chicago, Illinois. Having been inspired by the Russian Revolution (1917), unionists, intellectuals, and artists were attracted to the communist philosophy of helping oppressed people. During the 1930s, with most Americans feeling the effects of the Great Depression,…
Tag: The United States of America
Bright and Morning Star by Richard Wright: Analysis
Wright’s short story “Bright and Morning Star” is filled with rain. From the first line, in which the protagonist Sue is said to be standing “six inches from the moist windowpane” as she wonders, “would it ever stop raining,” Wright uses rain as a metaphor of gloom and sorrow. Sue is worried about her son…
Bright and Morning Star by Richard Wright: Literary Devices
Colloquialism The dialog in Wright’s “Bright and Morning Star” is written in a colloquial form, emphasizing the pronunciation of words uttered both by a stereotypical Southern person as well as by a stereotypical African American living in the South. Wright uses this form not only to portray the tone of the South but also because…
Bright and Morning Star by Richard Wright: Themes
Racial Violence Wright’s story “Bright and Morning Star” begins with Sue standing at the window of her house, looking for her son, worried that he might have been caught by local officials and beaten. Sue’s son is not doing anything illegal; he is merely trying to organize a group of oppressed people (mostly black people)….
Bright and Morning Star by Richard Wright: Characters
Booker Booker is a white man who recently joined the Communist Party. He is such a new member that he does not know the name of the other people who belong to the party nor where they are planning their next meeting. Booker comes to Sue’s house after she has been beaten by the sheriff….
Bright and Morning Star by Richard Wright: Summary
Part I The first part of “Bright and Morning Star” begins with the protagonist, Sue, standing at the window, looking into the rain, wondering when her son Johnny-Boy will come home. He is late, and Sue is worried. She fears for her son because he is involved in organizing his community in order to gain…
America & I by Anzia Yezierska – Analysis
In a Literary Digest issue from 1923, Yezierska shared her view of America as “a new world in the making, that anyone who has something real in him can find a way to contribute himself in this new world.” At the same time, she noted, “But I saw I had to wait for my chance…
America & I by Anzia Yezierska – Setting
Immigrants in the 1900s Between 1891 and 1910, around twelve million immigrants arrived in the United States. Unlike the wave of immigrants the United States had seen in the mid-1800s, the majority of these so-called new immigrants came from countries in southern or eastern Europe. Most of the Jewish families fled their homelands to escape…
America & I by Anzia Yezierska – Literary Devices
Autobiographical Essay “America and I” is one of three autobiographical pieces that Yezierska included in Children of Loneliness. All of these pieces explore the immigrant’s preconceived notions about America, the inevitable disappointment, and finally the reconciliation of illusions and reality, which leads to the creation of a pragmatic, more helpful way of looking at life…
America & I by Anzia Yezierska – Themes
Poverty Yezierska describes the impoverished circumstances in which the immigrants in New York find themselves. People such as Yezierska came to America to escape such poverty; in Russia, they had to work all the time simply to survive. America, the land of opportunity, is supposed to be much different, but Yezierska finds this is not…