ENG 304: Melville & Ellison

Ralph Ellison’s essay Tell It Like It Is, Baby was inspired by a letter he had received ten years prior to the essay’s publication from his friend Virgil Brannam. Brannam…

In our discussion today the topic came up of what we were supposed to take from a passage where nothing really is done or accomplished in a traditional storytelling manner…

One of the most interesting and innovative aspects of Dear White People, among films that tackle issues of race, is the emphasis it places on individuality.  I think that this…

When first viewing the film Dear White People I was appalled at the end scene of the blackface party encouraging students in attendance to “unleash their inner Negro.” I couldn’t imagine that…

Though separated by over a century, Herman Melville’s poem Clarel and Justin Simien’s movie Dear White People prove to have similar underlying themes. Melville’s poem follows an American man named…

The viewing of Dear White people and the subsequent discussion with Justin Simien was incredibly enlightening. What stuck out to me the most was this idea that the director brought…

A central theme in Dear White People, is the identity crises of all four of the central characters. What I liked about the film was that filmmaker Justin Simien chose…

Being Black today is a lot complex than it was 100 years ago. No longer is being Black the quality of having dark skin. No. It surpasses that; today being…

When reading Melville’s poetry at first I was reminded of the types of poetry that we are reading in my class on the Romantics. But I then figured I was…

This poem, coming at the end of Melville’s chronological composition of the war, seems to make a statement at the brokenness of the country that followed the closing of the…