Throughout the novels we have read this semester, many of the characters struggled to form an identity within a continuously oppressive environment. Racism has a way of limiting one’s identity due to it’s powerful constraints. For centuries the shackles placed both literally and figuratively on african americans continuously pounded them to the ground. As the constant scapegoats in our society, african americans have had to create an identity despite being surrounded by hostility. Because of the continuous animosity forced on them by whites, African Americans not only found a way to beat this antagonism but also created an identity through the shared suffering they endeavoured. These works of literature were crafted by extremely intelligent individuals who see this mass hardship in it’s totality. These novels both represent the beautiful shift in mentality we as a nation have gone through while also demonstrating the realities of the work we have ahead of us as a nation. Through these texts the raw actuality of racism is depicted through the restraints society has placed on the growth of African American identity.
In A Raisin in the Sun readers are given a glimpse into African American family life demonstrating in depth the constraints placed on African Americans during the 1950s through the struggle each character faces in finding an identity. The characters Mama, Walter, and Beneatha grapple with the paradoxical world they are immersed in. On one hand as african americans in the 1950s they have much more autonomy than ever before. However, as african americans they still are very much limited by the invisible shackles of white supremacy.
As the wisest character in the play, Mama is the core of the family and represents the older generation. Mama’s wisdom and knowledge is all based on the past, therefore the world her children are immersed in is astounding to her.Mama demonstrates her insightful thoughts when she says to Beneatha, “There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing” (Hansberry, 145). Mama not only is addressing Beneatha but is also addressing the predominantly white crowd at the time. Mama is a product of the extremely oppressive past she struggled through. Through this pain and suffering Mama learned to value love and family above all else, forming a concrete identity through the morals she learned to hang on to.
Incredibly different from Mama, her daughter Beneatha is driven young college student who strives to become a doctor. Beneatha decides to not conform to societal ideals and to connect back to her African roots. Beneatha both strongly embraces her freedom by becoming a doctor while also cherishing the culture she whole heartedly identifies with. Beneatha’s possible love interest, George, attacks her new found love for her African heritage when saying, “Let’s face it, baby, your heritage is nothing but a bunch of raggedy-assed spirituals and some grass huts” (Hansberry 81). Beneatha is able to come to terms with her identity by rejecting George’s ideas and finding herself through her determinedness to become “something” while also embracing the rich culture she is a part of.
Lastly, Walter is considered in light terms the “man” of the house. In the beginning of the play Walter strives to find dignity and respect through an accumulation of wealth. However, after Mama buys him a house in a white neighborhood and the “Welcome Committee” wants to buy the house back from them because they do not want black people in their neighborhood, Walter comes to terms with the true meaning of being a “man.” Walter turns down their offer saying, “We have decided to move into our house because my father… he earned it for us brick by brick...we don’t want your money” (Hansberry 148). Walter comes to understand that wealth is not a means of finding dignity or identity but rather a distraction from the true meaning of freedom. Walter comes to terms with his identity through the new found dignity he demands for his family, as the “man” of the household.
In Beloved by Toni Morrison, although in an unrealistic fashion, Morrison is able to explore some of the more brutal realities of slavery and life after. It seems throughout the novel as if the characters are finding themselves through each other. Paul D begins to find his manhood as he becomes the patriarchal figure in the household. Sethe grows attached to Beloved because she feels as if Beloved has somehow taken the place of the daughter that she had to kill to protect. Denver finds her identity through the other characters because she is able to pick up the slack when Sethe becomes less functional due to Beloved’s presence.
These characters are able to find their identities through each other because they spent so much time at Sweet Home together as a family-like unit. Paul D is able to become the man that he envisioned Halle as being by coming back to be by Sethe’s side at the end. Early on in the novel Paul D doesn’t feel as if he has much self worth, and also has a predisposition to remain unattached to those who care about him. He finds his identity by learning to be the man of the family and take care of Sethe and Denver. Sethe, in some ways, loses her identity at the hands of Beloved. As Beloved grows, Sethe begins to grow frail and weak. I think that this is a metaphor for how Sethe feels about killing her child in the first place because it shows that the more guilt and resentment that builds up inside, the more she loses herself. Denver shows the most growth out of all the characters because she is able to get a job and rally the community in order to expel Beloved from their household. The characters of Beloved were trapped in an institution that strips them of their identities. This novel depicts how even in unnatural circumstances, freed slaves were able to find their identities in each other and get on with their lives.
In How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, Kiese Laymon describes the distinct struggle of growing up black in America. From the beginning, he describes that he “would be disciplined more harshly than white boys for even slightly leaning toward the wrong side” (15), emphasizing life’s difficulties for those who are born the wrong color skin into a society of institutionalized racism and culturally ingrained prejudices. As opposed to the other novels which took place in different time periods, Laymon displays through a variety of stories that blackness is not seen as valid even in our current world. When Laymon is called a racial slur by drunk fraternity brothers, he writes in a heartbreaking fashion that “I think and feel a lot but mostly I feel that I can’t do anything to make the boys feel like they’ve made us feel right there” (39). His mother reminds him time and time again that he was “born on parole” (43) and that any misstep could be deadly. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America reminds us that no matter how far we have come in race relations, we still have an incredibly difficult uphill battle toward equality in our society.
The various novels all display the distinct ways in which blackness is constrained and degraded in American culture, from the post-slavery time period of Beloved to the painful, present-day struggles of Kiese Laymon. Black Americans are forced to fight twice as hard to earn the rights that are meant to be guaranteed to all Americans. The limits of identity for Black folk cause issues that affect their everyday lives, and the institutionalized racism they experience as a result of hundreds of years of systemic oppression, creates the confines of their world.
In Plum Bun by Toni Morrison the main character Angela, a light skinned women from philadelphia, is able to live two separate lives because of her skin tone. While with her mother, she’s able to live as if she was white and witnesses how blacks are viewed in white society. As a result, when she is home and at church she begins to view African Americans as lesser than white people. Angela also begins to struggle with the disappointment of missing out on opportunities in her career path after revealing that she is colored. This leads to her to abandoning her family and essentially her colored identity in order to further her success.
After years of passing as white Angela finds herself unsatisfied with the life she chose. Although passing as white gave her an advantage over her black counterparts, she still faced challenges because she was a women. After realizing that she couldn’t relate to the white community she attempted to join, Angela starts to miss her family and her black culture that she abandoned. Although Angela has proved her worth to society when she passed as a white woman, she must choose whether to return to her black culture or further career, because of the racial restraints placed on African Americans.
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