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Cast down your buckets... or cast your own bucket

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While both Washington and Malcolm X were great activists and intellectuals of their time, their approaches to black empowerment could not be any more different. Both pieces of literature are autobiographical pieces, yet the way Washington and Malcolm X write reveals fundamental differences in their beliefs and ideologies. In Up from Slavery , Washington presents the role of African Americans to be passive: believing they should focus on vocational and real-life skills instead of fighting against segregation. Frequently called "accommodationism", Washington's beliefs urged African Americans to "cast down your bucket" into the existing social order. Conversely, in The Autobiography of Malcolm X , Malcolm X takes a more radical stance, fighting against inaction and social oppression.  The glaring similarity between both authors was their reliance on self education and literacy as a means to achieving freedom. Both authors had to overcome great obstacles to achieve ...
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Choosing your own path

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    As a refresher, since everyone has read the text already, "Down By the Riverside" follows Mann, a black man, as he navigates through the flooding of the Mississippi river. Mann is forced to use a stolen boat in order to take his pregnant wife to the hospital. On the way, the owner of the boat, a white man, tires to shoot Mann, but is shot and killed in self-defense. At the hospital though, the doctors have to break the unfortunate news that his wife is dead. Shortly after, Mann is drafted by soldiers to help rescue people stranded by the flood. In a twisted turn of events, he is sent to rescue the family of the stolen boat, who recognize him. Although he first tries to pretend they are not home, he also considers killing them with his axe, he decides against it as the house suddenly shifts around him. Once the boat arrives to safety, the white family quickly alerts the authorities of Mann's crime, and he is apprehended. He breaks free and attempts to run away, but is ...
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Appealing to the White Audience

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In both Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Up from Slavery , the most compelling shared element is the use of literacy as a tool to appealing to the white audience, though they do it in very different ways. For Harriet Jacobs and Booker T. Washington, learning to read and write was a way to speak against a system designed to keep them oppressed. By writing their autobiographies, both were essentially proving their worth to a white audience who would typically look down on them. However, the way they used their voices differs vastly based on their personal views and agendas. https://thewritingbarn.com/book-review-incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl/  https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/up-from-slavery-an-autobiography-1?srsltid=AfmBOooe_BouaZv0cw5oUBtLOzeFtVBQBHqd1pU5JmZbI6w8kCJgc_4r Both Jacobs and Washington were writing for a white audience, but they used vastly different strategies to appeal to them. Jacobs, writing for Northern white women during the abolitionist movement...
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