Women's struggle during the harlem renaissance to modern times depicted through literature - Essay Example

This identity emerged as a result of mass immigration from the Southern states to the cities of the north such as New York, Chicago and Washington D.C. “The Great Migration” (Rau, 7) was due to the fact that even after the emancipation of the African-American slaves in 1863, the blacks suffered from segregation. The prevailing of social inequality in the Southern states and the growth of industries in the north were vital in the shifting of the ex-slaves to the New York City. It became the city of dreams, a place to uplift their positions.

However for the women whether black or white “were expected to stay home and care for their families” (McKissack, 5). The situation of black women were worsened as they found it harder to get admission into colleges and had to resort to chores like “doing laundry, waiting tables, or being a nanny” (McKissack, 6). In this context, the Harlem Renaissance gave women the platform to express themselves. It is said that the “writers of the Harlem Renaissance occupy a crucial place in the history of the Afro-American Literature for the high artistic qualities” (Bloom, 223) as we find in Jean Toomer’s Cane and Nella Narsen’s Quicksand.

In Cane, Toomer has shown the plight of Becky, a white woman who is treated as an outcaste for having two children by a black man but Karintha, a black woman is depicted as a woman admired by all. This novel claims to establish the supremacy of the black women over white. Quicksand is an autobiographical novel. Larsen is a child to a white mother and a black father. Therefore, in this novel she is able to depict the contradictions of living as a black woman in a society dominated by white ideology.

It is a discourse on the prejudice of the white sentiment and their allegation to black women who possess inherent lasciviousness. The protagonist, Helga Crane represses her sexual desire as she fears that it may confirm to the stereotype notion about blacks as savage and