CLAUDE BROWN AND THE BLACK AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Harlem, New York – Promised Land for the African Americans of the post-depression period - is the focus of this essay. To the sharecroppers and field hands of the Carolinas, New York – with its infinite attractions, beckoned. Men and women tired of working from “sun-up to sun down,” were easily attracted by the promise of a fair and just city; a city which had limitless opportunities for those who wanted to live and work there. The Promised Land, for these children of African slaves, was New York, and life in New York promised freedom from chain gangs and freedom from the cotton; tobacco and sugarcane fields which had to be tilled, sowed and harvested the year round. Fields where Massa Charlie reigned supreme and to do his bidding was the ultimate aim of the plantation slaves, generations of whom had worked on these or similar plantations with no surety of keeping their families together, with no thought other than the immediate needs of the body. To these tillers of the soil, New York, post emancipation, was the Promised Land and the thought that they had arrived in the Promised Land was sufficient to hide the dirt and grime, the rampant crime and lawlessness of Harlem: named by the Dutch Protestant and Huguenot immigrants for the ‘chosen one.’ This paper seeks to explore the truth of Harlem being the Promised Land for African Americans

CLAUDE BROWN AND THE BLACK AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Harlem, New York – Promised Land for the African Americans of the post-depression period - is the focus of this essay. To the sharecroppers and field hands of the Carolinas, New York – with its infinite attractions, beckoned. Men and women tired of working from “sun-up to sun down,” were easily attracted by the promise of a fair and just city; a city which had limitless opportunities for those who wanted to live and work there. The Promised Land, for these children of African slaves, was New York, and life in New York promised freedom from chain gangs and freedom from the cotton; tobacco and sugarcane fields which had to be tilled, sowed and harvested the year round. Fields where Massa Charlie reigned supreme and to do his bidding was the ultimate aim of the plantation slaves, generations of whom had worked on these or similar plantations with no surety of keeping their families together, with no thought other than the immediate needs of the body. To these tillers of the soil, New York, post emancipation, was the Promised Land and the thought that they had arrived in the Promised Land was sufficient to hide the dirt and grime, the rampant crime and lawlessness of Harlem: named by the Dutch Protestant and Huguenot immigrants for the ‘chosen one.’ This paper seeks to explore the truth of Harlem being the Promised Land for African Americans

CONFLICT BETWEEN EURO-AMERICAN AND NATIVE AMERICAN ATTITUDES TOWARDS NATURE: AN ECOCRITICAL STUDY OF TRACKS AND LOVE MEDICINE BY LOUISE ERDRICH

Euro-American and Native American approaches to Nature are conflicting: the former consists in competition with Nature whereas the latter is characterized by harmony with it. Unlike the Whites, the Natives realize their dreams of culture and society in Nature, not against it. Contrarily, the whites realize themselves in controlling Nature which is only euphemism for destroying it. Nature in the Euro-American literature finds its place only as a background, rather than the central feature as the canonical American works bear witness. Even Wordsworth, the representative white poet of Nature, only utilizes Nature for his pantheistic ideas; Nature in itself does not carry significant position in his works. In Hemingway, Nature is predominant but only as a facilitator for the realization of sublime self of the code hero. So it is in Eugene O’Neill and Emerson and Whitman. But, for Native Americans Nature is an animate being, as living as they themselves are and sometimes it becomes even more significant when it gets religious sanctity. Bear, eagle and its feathers, the sun, and even water are a source of life to be depended and worshipped and requested to in all moments of crises and celebration. This article explores the shift of attitude towards Nature which actually reflects shift in man’s position in the universe

CONFLICT BETWEEN EURO-AMERICAN AND NATIVE AMERICAN ATTITUDES TOWARDS NATURE: AN ECOCRITICAL STUDY OF TRACKS AND LOVE MEDICINE BY LOUISE ERDRICH

Euro-American and Native American approaches to Nature are conflicting: the former consists in competition with Nature whereas the latter is characterized by harmony with it. Unlike the Whites, the Natives realize their dreams of culture and society in Nature, not against it. Contrarily, the whites realize themselves in controlling Nature which is only euphemism for destroying it. Nature in the Euro-American literature finds its place only as a background, rather than the central feature as the canonical American works bear witness. Even Wordsworth, the representative white poet of Nature, only utilizes Nature for his pantheistic ideas; Nature in itself does not carry significant position in his works. In Hemingway, Nature is predominant but only as a facilitator for the realization of sublime self of the code hero. So it is in Eugene O’Neill and Emerson and Whitman. But, for Native Americans Nature is an animate being, as living as they themselves are and sometimes it becomes even more significant when it gets religious sanctity. Bear, eagle and its feathers, the sun, and even water are a source of life to be depended and worshipped and requested to in all moments of crises and celebration. This article explores the shift of attitude towards Nature which actually reflects shift in man’s position in the universe