An Analysis of the Status’ Change of African Americans

中图分类号：D771 文献标识：A 文章编号：1009-4202(2011)08-000-02

Abstract In the two novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain and Travels with Charley written by John Steinbeck, both of them mention the condition of African Americans. From the description of the two novels, it’s obvious to see that the African-American status is keeping advancing, which should be due to the efforts in three aspects: African American Civil Rights Movement, literary efforts and the American government.

Key Words Adventures of Huckleberry Fin Travels with Charley African American Civil Rights Movement literary efforts American government.

In the two novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Travels with Charley, both of them mention the condition of African Americans.

In the former one, the story happened before the American Civil War. At that time, the African Americans were slaves. Like animals, they’re freely bought and sold by their owners. Thus, their social status was the lowest in America. Like the main character, Jim is the best example to show the situation of African Americans in those days. For the freedom, Jim had to try his best to escape secretly with terror. As a result, he’s wanted (Twain, M., 2005). For these miserable matters, what could they do? Could they resist the injustice of “destiny”, like holding a demonstration? No! The law prescribed that they, slaves hadn’t any rights except obedience.

However, after about 100 years, in the latter novel, Travels with Charley, the situation of African Americans changed a lot, Steinbeck told about the black and white relations in the south compared to the relations in the north and in his hometown of Salinas, California, sharing the theory of “separate but equal”. Steinbeck also wrote about the desegregation of schools and how there’s a change in the north. To declare his own position, Steinbeck told the story of a family of blacks known to him, the Coopers. Mr. Cooper was hard-working, honest, thrifty, respectable, and the Cooper’s sons were academically and artistically gifted. In other words, they represented an antithesis of the calumnies Steinbeck had heard from the racism during his Southern travels (Steinbeck, 1962). Although racial discrimination was still serious in South America, it’s obvious to see that the situation of African Americans was becoming better and better, which was due to the efforts of themselves, American government and those believing in racial equality.

First, take some facts about African American Civil Rights Movement as examples. On December 1st, 1955, the Rosa Parks, an African American in Montgomery rejected to give up her seat to a white man on a bus. Then, she was arrested. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King, fifty thousands of African Americans rejected to take any bus for one year, which compelled the bus company to desegregate on bus, and was the beginning of African American Civil Rights Movement. Besides, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party are the representative organizations of African American Civil Rights Movement.

Second, take some literary efforts as examples. W.E.B.Du Bois is one of the African-American representatives to oppose compromise and to struggle for emancipation, like The Black Flame which epitomizes about one-century history of suffering persecution and the resistance of African Americans and teaches African Americans that tolerance isn’t the correct way to solve the problem of racial discrimination. Besides, Alice Malsenior Walker is a famous modern African-American woman writer. Early saga novels of hers, like Everyday Use and The Color Purple are based on the community life of Southern Negroes, pay special attention to the living condition of the female of African Americans and focus on their hardship and struggle. Also, Richard Wright’s Nativeson and Uncle Tom’s Children, RalPh Ellison’s Invisible Man and Alex Klaley’s Roots are good examples. All of these famous writers’ works belong to African-American Consciousness Movement which arouses the national consciousness of African American and parallels to the African American Civil Rights Movement.

Third, take some efforts done by the American government as examples. The male of African Americans got the ballot in 1871, 50 years’ earlier than American women. Then, Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed more than 100 African American officials in the federal government, which was called as “Negro Cabinet”. Besides, Roosevelt signed an executive order to set up the Committee on Fair Employment, which required war-industry manufacturing enterprises couldn’t have racial discrimination. On May 17, 1954, the American constitution laid down that segregation in council schools was illegal.

Due to these efforts, nowadays, the ideas of American social mainstream on African Americans are changing and the status of African Americans is advancing. For example, the famous actor, Morgan Freeman acted the parts of president and God. According to Lang Xianping, his movies are quite popular in America (Lang,2008). Also, another movie called I am Legend is also very popular in America. However, the point is that the story is about an outstanding African-American scientist, the only one who survived in the virus intrusion. That means he’s the only and last hope of human beings. Since these movies can be popular, American society has been able to accept an African American as God, president or the last hope of human beings. Just because of the change of the ideas on African Americans, Obama has been the American president. Thus, I believe in the near future, the scenes in I Have a Dream imagined by Martin Luther King must be realized.

References：

[1] Steinbeck, John. Travels with Charley. New York: The Curtis Co., 1962.

[2] 马克•吐温(Twain, M.). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 北京:外语教学与研究出版社.2005.

[3] 从奥巴马与希拉里之争看美国(下).郎咸平说第14期.2008.