Nikki Giovanni's Poetry

     Nikki Giovanni was very explicit in her poetry. Her poem Nikki-Rosa was very open about her feelings towards the way that whites grow up and the way that blacks grow up. It actually surprised me that she was so straight forward. Most people hold their true feelings back while she told it how she felt. The stereotype about most young blacks is that they grow up poor. She wanted to make it known that she liked her childhood and that she was happy most of the time that she was growing up.
     I really liked Nikki Giovanni's poem I'm Not Lonely. I felt like I could really relate to that. Sometimes even though you are alone that does not mean that you are not happy or feel alone, sometimes people want to be alone. They ask for me time. They just want to be free from the cruel hard world or maybe get away from their lives because things are bad.
     Again one of Nikki Giovanni's poems Poems for Black Boys was very straight forward about race. She obviously has some issues regarding people's views on blacks versus whites. I like people that speak how they feel and do not hold it inside. I am very much like that. Although I say things respectfully, I still like to voice my opinion.

Tillie Olsen's Readings

     Tillie Olsen was a very noble woman. She was known for speaking out for the poor, the despised people of America, and the oppressed. A lot of her writings were about the lives of the coal miners, immigrants, farm laborers, sewer workers, and the rest of the hard working poor in America. She was born to Russian parents. She couldn't get much formal education so she educated herself at the library. She won a lot of recognition for exposing the lives of the poor. One of her finest works was a story about coal miner's family and the struggle to endure down a long road, was noted as one of the best works of the proletarian movement in American literature.
     In her story I Stand Here Ironing was a very heart felt story about a young woman whom was raising her kids on her own. She talks about her experiences as a mother and how her first child she did things exactly like the book. This is funny because I too did that. I would not dare feed my child earlier than the book said even if the child would cry. She speaks of the almost same thing. She would feel so bad a tremble when her baby would cry and even though her breast would ache she would wait for the clock to turn the exact time before feeding her precious baby. After your first child you learn quickly that things do not have to be exact. Actually with time and experience in life you learn that nothings goes exactly as planned and you have to live and learn.
    

Flannery O'Connor's Readings

     While being recognized for her simple was of writing she its noted for her southern style as well as her wit. She was born and died at a young age in her hometown of Savannah, GA. She wrote fiction mostly unexplained evil and haunted ways. She was best known for her short stories. They always portrayed acceptance of human condition.
     In Flannery's Good Country People it was definitely as people described her work to be. It was a short story about a very disturbed woman named Mrs. Freeman. She would go into states that she looked as if she was expressionless. Mrs. Hopewell knew that she when would go into these states that she would be better off not talking to her at all. She might as well talk her head off for no reason because it was like her body was there but the rest of her was not. Even though Mrs. Freeman has these issues Mrs. Hopewell was never ashamed to take her nowhere in public. She felt that the Freemans were not trash that they were good country folks.

James Baldwin Poetry

     James Baldwin has been referred to as the most important black American writer of the twentieth century. His father was a minister of a church. He was born with eight brothers and sisters. He was born in Harlem. His father was very strict on him. At times he found himself competing with his father. He was involved with the civil rights struggle. Homosexuality was a frequent topic to his work.
     Baldwin's poem Sonny's Blues was like I was reading a story. Sonny got picked up from the police for selling and using heroin. The narrator could not believe it and continued to express his grief and his feelings of being so surprised. Sonny was his brother and he could not find it in himself to believe that it was true. He had never turned violent or evil as people say about people that use drugs. He couldnt imagine his brother going down hill so badly.

Sylvia Plath's poetry

     Sylvia Plath's work was much described as extreme romanticism. Her work has been referred to as "the longest suicide note ever written." Much of her work reflected the way that her parents were and their attitudes towards things. She was only seventeen years old when she first published her first poem and short story. She was often consumed with thoughts of horror and death. She soon became unable to cope and was checked into a hospital where she has intense psychiatric therapy.
     You can definitely feel her pain within and read the thoughts of death in her poems. In her poem Lady Lazarus portrays a woman who sees her own enemy as her looks. She feels like she keeps dyings so she thinks that she has nine lives like a cat. She has very low self esteem.
     Her poem Daddy was very sad. She states that she was like a shoe in his life Im assuming like he was always stepping on her. She says that she was always poor and white. She was very afraid of his if she was daring to even breathe or sneeze. She always felt that she could never talk to him which is very sad of a father and and daughter.

Randall Jarrell's Poetry

     Randall Jarrell was a very intelligent man. He was a fond admirer of literature and was a professor most of his life. He once stated, "If he were a rich man, I would pay money for the privilege to be able to teach." People thought of him as possibly the most heartbreaking English poet of his entire generation. He was a very prominent man. He received a MA from Vanderbilt University, he served in the Air Force. which some of his poetry came from his experiences while in the Air Force, and he wrote six volumes of poetry including novels and critical essays.
     His poem Losses was very heartfelt. You can definitely tell that this was a writing that came from his experiences from when he served in the Air Force. It defines the term heartbreaking poet that many describe him as. He is so detailed in his wording its almost like you were there with him.
     His poem A Girl In a Library seems like he really was sitting in a library one day admiring a girl. He describes her yet again very detailed almost as if you can see her. I can also feel emotion from him in this one as well.
    

A Raisin In The Sun y Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry was the writer of A Raisin In The Sun. She was a very smart black author. She was the first black writer and the youngest to win The Best Play of the Year award in New York City. Hansberry came from a rich family that were strong advocates of African Americans in society. Her parents seems to be a pretty big influence on her considering a lot of her writings were about what her parents felt so strongly about. Her play A Raisin In The Sun was very popular. While reading it I felt the passion and pain for the family. It is so sad that people used to not be treated equally because of their skin color. All the Younger family wanted was to be equal in America. To live like the white people did in a nice home and be able to give their kids the things that the white kids had. As the story started it described a poor black family that lived in a very small apartment where they had to share the bathroom with their neighbor. I couldn’t imagine trying to share a bathroom with a neighbor, I do good to share it with my family that lives in my home. Then the mother talks about getting a settlement from her husband who died. This was supposedly going to save the family since all of their problems were mostly money. They all seemed to have different plans with what they wanted to do with the money. When the money finally arrives Lena decides that the best things to do is to buy a house in a nice neighborhood. What the family finds out later is that it is in an all white neighbor hood. A man living in the community comes to them and asked them not to move in to save controversy for everyone. The main objective I got from the story was about races being equal and how and how bad things were then.