UNIT 1

Ever-changing Adolescent Identities in Literature

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

-George Bernard Shaw

Explain what you think this quote means. How does this relate to your life? What examples in your life support this statement?

Unit Theme

• Ever-changing Adolescent Identities in Literature

• Essential Question: How does literature portray the ever-changing adolescent identities?

• Extended Text: Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Myers

Pre-reading

Definitions Autobiography: a person’s account of

his or her own life

Memoir: a sub-category of autobiography, may only depict a small portion of a life (a year, a summer, an episode, or a series of events)

Pre-reading

Essential Question: How does the historical context of a text impact my reading/understanding of the content?

Historical Background

Background Information Overview

• Before the African American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's, racial discrimination was deeply imbedded in American society.

• The reality of life for the great majority of African Americans meant that they lived with gross inequities in housing, employment, education, medical services, and public accommodations.

• The memoir takes place during the 1940s.

Pre-Civil Rights Era

• After the Civil War, Congress passed 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution ending slavery in 1865.

• However, this amendment only outlawed slavery. It didn’t provide citizenship or equal rights for African Americans.

• In 1868 the 14th Amendment was passed and granted African Americans citizenship.

Segregation “Separate but Equal”

• Even though African Americans were granted citizenship, they were not granted equal rights.

• As a result after 1868, segregation became society’s norm and then became constitutional law in 1896.

• By law, blacks and white were to have separate public facilities one for “white” and one for “colored”. For example, schools and government

facilities were separate. African Americans had separate water

fountains and restrooms. African Americans were not allowed to

share a taxi with whites or enter a building through the same entrance.

Blacks were also excluded from restaurants and public libraries.

Segregation was a way of life…

• Blacks had little access to "good" jobs, finding work mainly in positions of service to white employers.

• The result of being denied both employment and educational opportunities was that the great majority of African American families lived in poverty.

Change came slowly…

• In the late 1940's following World War II (when America had fought for freedom and democracy abroad and therefore felt compelled to make good on these promises at home), the federal government began to pass laws against racial discrimination.

• The United States military was integrated for the first time, and new laws and court rulings prohibited segregation in schools, government buildings, and public transportation.

Bitter Opposition

• However, many of these laws met with bitter opposition especially in the South or were simply ignored.

• When members of the African American community tried to break through old barriers, they were often threatened or beaten and, in some cases, killed. Likewise, black homes and churches were sometimes burned or bombed.

“The Great Migration”

• Due to the lack of jobs and extreme violence and opposition in the southern states, hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved to the northern industrial cities starting before World War I and through 1940.

• However, they were confronted with similar problems such as racism, poverty, and police abuse in the north.

• But these problems were in a new setting, where the men and women could vote and possibilities for political action were more opportune than in the South.

• This brings us to the setting of the memoir….

Introduction to the Setting

Harlem, New York

Harlem

• Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan.

• Since the 1920s it has been a major African American cultural, residential, and business center ever since the Great Migration brought blacks to this area beginning in 1904.

• During the 1920s, this neighborhood was the focus of the Harlem Renaissance.

Culture

Harlem Renaissance

• The Harlem Renaissance was an outpouring of literary, artistic, and intellectual work that helped foster a new black cultural identity in the 1920s and 1930s.

• It has been described it as a "spiritual coming of age in which the black community was able to seize upon its first chances for group expression and self determination."

• With racism still rampant and economic opportunities scarce, creative expression was one of the few avenues available to African Americans.

• More than just a literary or artistic movement, it redefined how American and the world viewed African Americans.

Influential People

Jazz

• A musical style that originated in the early 1910s from black southern communities.

• Fats Waller, born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist from Harlem

• Fats Waller “Honeysuckle Rose”

May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943

Jazz

• Billie Holiday, born Eleanora Harris, was an American jazz singer and songwriter.

• She had an important influence on jazz and pop singing.

• Billie Holiday “The Very Thought of You”

April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959

Sports

• Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson became the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

• As the first black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball.

January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972

Literature

• Langston Hughes was a writer during the Harlem Renaissance. His works express the pride in the African-American identity and its diverse culture.

• Excerpt from the poem "My People":

The night is beautiful,So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,So the eyes of my people

Beautiful, also, is the sun.Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967

Major World Events

Major World Events

• World War II 1939-1945

• Attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941

• Vietnam War 1955-1975

All of these people, places, and events have an influence over the memoir.

Bad Boy: A Memoir

Introduction to the Book

Walter Dean Meyers

Conclusion

• How does the historical context of a text impact my reading/understanding of the content?

Predictions: Think about the Unit Theme, Quote assignment, and historical background and make some predictions about what you think the memoir will be about.