Psychology in Black Literature - Essay Example

Psychology in Black Literature The second phrase The community was a product of the plantation. According to Bennett’s “Behind the Cotton Curtain” the fact that the blacks were brought together in the cotton plantations as slaves, developed a sense of community. What Bennett means would equivalent to what one would refer to as a group of people living together and share a common heritage. Bennett suggests that such heritage is nurtured by the community and would define their eventual culture.

Bennett suggests that this sharing of the culture by the community was borne out of the tribulations that the black community was facing. The shared similar pain, a situation that produced a community of blacks that arose from a group of slaves, sharing an heritage. Though the plantation had its own culture, Bennett notes that, the culture was not to determine the interaction and the daily life of the blacks. “… but it was not defined nor contained by the plantation”. According to Bennett, the plantation had denied the slave the good parts of the plantation’s culture.

The slave was delineated from the plantation and was being treated as an outsider, whose labor was the most important thing. This had made it difficult for the slaves to appreciate the culture of the plantation, which otherwise would have formed part of the slave’s culture and eventually a community of whites and blacks. “… on the contrary, it was defined by difference, by the fact that it contradicted and called into question the values and institution of the plantation” By this Bennett reveals what actually formed the culture, a culture which would be part of the definition of the black community.

This culture was a culture that was oppressed and always felt resistance from the plantation owners. The culture that wanted to pullout from the plantation to freedom, this is the community that the plantation created among the slaves, the community of the oppressed minority whose body has been used and whose spirit desire freedom. The second Phrase In the first phrase, Bennett has tried to reveal that the best way to define the strength of the human spirit would be to explore the history of the slaves.

A spirit that would stand adversity is the spirit of adversity. She says that such spirit is what would determine strength of human. Bennett’s argument in this phrase is geared towards revealing to the reader what would entail a strong spirit. In this phrase, Bennett’s argument is more of metaphorical than literal. Though the choice of words that has been used resonates with the history of the blacks, and explaining the manner in which the black community suffered, while they were holding on and enduring, the argument invoked here have deeper meaning.

What Bennett means to say is creating a picture of the struggle that the blacks made in order to obtain their freedom. The arguments that have been raised by Bennett in both circumstances are valid in the current situation. The first argument portray how community may be created based on the shared tribulation and no matter where people live, they resonate more with the culture, attitude and experiences they get. The second argument expresses what would be referred to as resilience.Work CitedBennett, Lerone.

Behind the cotton curtain. 2nd ed. New York: New World Library, 2003. Print.