Bop by Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes’s essay written in 1949, “Bop” begins with a dialogue between two African American slaves during the Harlem Renaissance talking about Be-Bop music. When a character named Simple begins to sing Be-Bop music, the narrator heedlessly declares that the music sounds like scat. Shocked by the narrator’s nonsense, Simple explains the origins of Be-Bop music, which came from the sound of “police beating Negroes’ heads” (191). Simple further elaborates by adding that whites cannot imitate the music because they do not know what they are singing about. Evidently, Hughes tried to reveal the brutality and unjustifiable violence of the society towards African Americans during Harlem Renaissance. Likewise, Langston Hughes was a renown African American novelist and poet known for his works that arouse African American nationalism during a time when it was difficult to be an African American and depict unjust treatments towards them. Evidently, his intended audience for this essay is the African Americans who are like the narrator: the ones that are more apathetic about their own ethnicity. In addition, Hughes wants to reveal that a type of music people simply enjoy originated from the sufferings of his and the audiences’ ancestors. To deliver his point more easily, Hughes uses rhetorical devices such as onomatopoeia and imagery. The pleasant and enjoyable Be-Bop music suddenly transforms into horrifying sounds of beating and moaning as Simple explains using onomatopoeia as well as vivid imagery. Although done harshly, Hughes accomplished his purpose by making people feel contrite about what happened to the African Americans during the era of injustice and racism. As SImple calls the narrator “nonsense” for having no idea about the origins of Be-Bop, he denounces not only the African Americans of his time who are ignore of the sufferings that their ancestor had to encounter and the racism during the time this piece was written, but also the future generations who might take the freedom that they were given so arduously by the agony of their ancestors for granted and remind them that they should never forget the former hardships.

Bebop is a Race MusicGuthrie P. Ramsey
Bebop music is a race music, because it originated from the cruel history of discrimination of African Americans.
http://www.tower.com/race-music-black-cultures-from-bebop-hip-hop-guthrie-p-ramsey-paperback/wapi/100802358

The Devil Baby at Hull-House by Jane Addams

Written in first-person point of view by Jane Addams in 1916, “The Devil Baby at Hull-House” concerns the rumor that was going around in the 1900s that there was a Devil Baby at the Hull-House. Addams defines different myths about the origins of the Devil Baby. All these different tales have one similarity, that the baby was a consequence of the husband’s harsh dominance over his wife. The poor mother, not knowing what to do with the cursed baby, took him to the Hull-House. Due to the fast-spreading rumors, people of all origins came to the Hull-House seeking the fabled Devil Baby, but Addams denied that such baby exists at the Hull-House. With Addams’s rejection, incredulous visitors, especially women, couldn’t hide their disappointments. Masked by a story of the Devil Baby, Jane Addams tries to reveal the lives of powerless women under man's control in the 1900s. Unsurprisingly, Jane Addams was a leader in women’s suffrage and rights. Addams indicates although unreal, the Devil Baby was a light of hope to the housewives and they dragged their husbands to Hull-house in search of such baby to give a lesson to the selfish husbands to treat their wives better. Addams also suggests that this story might have originated from women’s hopes of their men to treat them equally and not as an inferior being. The author uses rhetorical device known as allegory to emphasize her point. Disguised by this myth about a Devil Baby, the author indicates women's weakness and how the Devil Baby is perhaps present in every household as a consequence of the father’s ignorance of his family. In contrast to the father, the mother gives unconditional love for her children no matter their defects.

The author was successful in making women seem like victims, but she made it too extreme and made her purpose controversial to men. Also, because written by a woman when most men disagreed to grant equal rights to women, Addams’s essay might not have gained much recognition among the community. If written by a male author, this essay would have gained much more credibility.

Gender Inequality

This image shows the gender inequality that Addams tried to reveal in her "The Devil Baby at Hull-House". She wanted to stress the dominance of men over women.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/557630/gender-equality-society-not-ready-to-accept-women-in-politics/

No Name Woman by Maxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Kingston’s “No Name Woman” is about Kingston’s no name aunt who killed herself and her baby by jumping into the family well the day that she gave birth. When her family found out that Kingston’s aunt was pregnant, her aunt’s husband had been gone for years, so they knew that the baby was obviously illicit. Such disgrace in China was considered egregious and her father’s family regarded her aunt as a “no one” after her death. The mother warns the author to neither question nor talk about her aunt, but tells the story to caution the narrator as Kingston begins to menstruate. As Kingston fantasize about her aunt and what her aunt had to endure, she is baffled by the difference between the restricted Chinese society and lenient American society and which to accept as a Chinese-American. With Kingston’s descriptions of her family’s severe treatments towards her aunt, Kingston tried to not only diminish her aunt’s sins but also justify her own lack of Chinese nationalism and ethnic confusion. Her antagonistic descriptions of Chinese society clarify her ambivalence towards the norms of China. So the story is intended for specifically other Chinese people who might not have understood the struggles of Chinese Americans before reading Kingston’s essay. Furthermore, the author’s no name aunt is not just an unfortunate lady rejected by both the Chinese society and her family, but a symbolism of imperfections of the repressive traditional Chinese society. Kingston’s revolutionary works that outlined the differences between Chinese and American beliefs were often regarded as an impurity of the traditional China, but Kingston continued to write about what she believed in. Thus the author might have offended those conservative Chinese with her subtle denounce of Chinese traditions. However, the author achieved her purpose to other Chinese-Americans who are as perplexed as she is and people from other countries who are unaware of the restrictive Chinese culture by making them think that the consequences of freedom are too harsh.

No Name WomanBy KellyMaryOnette
http://kellymaryonette.deviantart.com/art/No-Name-Woman-141688627
The No Name Woman is sitting by the family well that she jumped in. Even as a ghost, she does not have anywhere to go, because her family regard her as a no one.