Monday, April 7, 2008
SWA #10
I have chosen to write about the poem, Martin Luther King Jr., by Gwendolyn Brooks. Martin Luther King Jr.'s name is sononimous with freedom and standing up for what u believe in. He was one of the most influential people of his time and he remains to be to this day as his legacy continues to live on. His I Have A Dream speech is still one of the most powerful and well-known speeches in our country's history. Martin Luther King has enabled myself and other African Americans a number of opportunites that would otherwise not be possible if not for him. He inspires me to always strive for the best and to never settle. This leads into the theme that is prevalent throughout the poem, a great leaders words can inspire people for generations. This is evidenced by the fact that this poem is written years after his death. I need to find more information about the Civil Rights movement to better understand what was going during the time that this poem was written. My thesis will be that despite his tragic death, Martin Luther King Jr.'s words and message live on and continue to inspire people.
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3 comments:
Ryan, this is a good choice of poem and your thesis is clearly formulated. However, it has to be formulated slightly differently to show that the paper is an analysis of a literary text, not a historical figure. So, you should insert something like “ This poem shows that..” into your thesis.
What type of persona of Dr. King does it create? You might want to only focus on the details from your historical research that serve as evidence that the persona created by Brooks after King’s death matches the persona created by the documentary accounts. Since you are arguing that this poem gains from having been written after his death, you can find accounts of how his legacy has been carrying on for decades and look at our contemporary accounts too.
a lot of people chose MLK, but I think you are looking past the race issue. He is probably the most well known speaker of the past century, and his name is synonymous with freedom and standing up for what you believe in.
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