Unit 10  American literature

ss: yes! 
t: everyone knows that the text you’ve just read is a poem, yes?
ss: yes! that’s very clear.
t: can you guess who wrote the poem? i mean, was it written by a white poet or a black one?
sf: i think it was written by a black poet.
t: but why do you think so?
sg: because it’s talking about lowest working people all the way and gives them and their work high glory and shows the respect to their ancestors.
sh: i think so. although “the black” isn’t mentioned a single time in the poem, still i can feel it was written by a black poet through the sensibilities and the languages. it describes the hard work of their ancestors as well as their poor living conditions. who once lived a miserable life like pigs? slaves! who once were forced to be slaves? black people!
si: yes. and who made the black people, born free ones, slaves? the early white settlers in america! so i can judge it must be american literature, and couldn’t be written by any poet from another country. also i can read out the black people’s aspiration for freedom and equality.
t: good! wonderful deducing! and what deep thought can we get from the poem?
sj: i think the poem is about accusing of slavery and the unfairness of the society. it shows us a spirit of freedom and tells us that people are born to be equal and nobody is nobler or lower.
t: very good answers, and you all have deep thinking about the purpose of the writer.
sk: just now si said it must be american literature, i agree with it. from the history and the substance of the poem we can know this. america used to be a colony of england. slavery existed in america for a long time. slaves were treated cruelly as draught animals. as america had not a period of feudal, americans didn’t believe in kings and queens. after the independent war and the civil war, america marched on to freedom. at that time, slavery had been abolished but the thinking of slavery and racial discrimination still rooted in the minds of americans. the writer wanted to break the wall between people, call for equality and black people’s self-respect and confidence. so he wrote this poem.
t: great! you’ve analyzed the history origin and made the answer reasonable. and then, who can tell us something about the writer, whose name was marked below the poem?
sl: i know something about him. dudley randall was born in washington, d.c. in 1914. he worked during the depression in the foundry of the ford motor company in dearborn, michigan, and then as a carrier and clerk for the u.s. post office in detroit. he served in the u.s. army signal corps, and graduated from wayne state university and the university of michigan.