Oscar Micheauxs Films: Literature Review

Oscar Micheauxs Films: Literature Review Green, J. R. (2000).   1. In Straight Lick : The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux (pp. 1-30). Bloomington, US: Indiana University Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.libproxy.nau.edu Film director and author Oscar Micheauxs works are compared and contrasted to contemporary filmmaker D.W. Griffiths film, Birth of a Nation.   Micheauxs film, Within Our Gates, like Griffiths film, idealizes a happy bourgeois couple, but the social intricacies and background stories of these couples are very different.   Griffiths character Elsie Stoneman is a privileged and frail white northern woman who later embraces racism and falls in love with a Klu Klux Klan member who rescued her. Micheauxs Sylvia is a mixed African American woman who does not come from a privileged family and is very independent.   She falls in love with Dr. Vivian, not because he rescued her, and raises money for an underprivileged black school.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Micheauxs novel, The Forged Note: A Romance of the Darker Races, illustrates Michaeuxs philosophical moderation compared to Griffiths steadfast Manichean way of thinking. The author notes that Griffiths resolution to conflicts usually involved forc e; Micheauxs resolutions were accomplished by education. Micheauxs portrayal of restitution is two lovers finally joining together as soul mates.   Griffiths restitutions are revenge and repayment.   Both Micheaux and Griffith attempted to portray the ideal bourgeois American society, but with fundamental differences between the two portrayals. Griffith wanted this idyllic icon to remain with the white supremacists and to maintain racial purity.   Micheaux wanted others to be able to access the middle-class life.   The author relates that Micheauxs views were from the bottom looking up as underprivileged people trying to become middle class, while Griffiths views were from the top down, relying on upper class to construct the middle class.   Green, J. R. (2000).   8. In Straight Lick : The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux (pp. 123-136). Bloomington, US: Indiana University Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.libproxy.nau.edu The author discusses in detail the stereotyping and caricature of African Americans as dealt with by Oscar Micheaux in his films and particularly the characters in his productions.   Micheauxs main focus in life was to uplift others, but stereotyping and caricatures were often roadblocks for him.   The author considers the film The Exile by Micheaux and relates the struggles of the films characters Jean, Jango, and Edith to the bigger social issues of African American stereotypes among whites.   The argument between Edith and Jango about education is compared to the contemporaneous opinion that African Americans during the period of Prohibition were often overeducated for the jobs they were performing.   The author highlights Micheauxs concerns of the degradation of the dignity of African Americans by taking part in jobs of illegitimate business during Prohibition.   The film The Darktown Revue, the only concert film by Micheaux, provides both positive images and negative r acial stereotypes which the author describes as logical arguments by Micheaux to illustrate the issue of African American twoness.   Alain Lockes timeline of African American music closely matches Micheauxs own musical experiences and can be used to identify Micheauxs films from both a musical and political perspective.   The author explains the word darktown as a black community, but also demonstrates a deeper meaning, that of a sanctuary for African American minstrel entertainers escaping the ethnic caricatures of their stage performances.  Ã‚   These minstrel entertainers suffered a blurred line between fear of failure or criticism and fear of harm or even death. Green, J. R. (2000).   9. In Straight Lick : The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux (pp. 137-156). Bloomington, US: Indiana University Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.libproxy.nau.edu Oscar Micheauxs film The Darktown Revue is discussed from the standpoint of how Micheaux handled the many negative caricatures of African Americans and comparisons are drawn to the Fisk Jubilee Singers.   The author relates how the Fisk Jubilee Singers from the black Fisk University in Nashville toured the eastern US during the 1870s and were a success both financially and politically.   This group of black performers is revealed as the group which paved the way for future black musical theater and also worked to uplift the caricature of Black Americans as viewed from the predominantly white public.   Comparisons are drawn to G. D. Pikes story of the Fisk Singers and Micheauxs film The Darktown Revue as both used bourgeois caricatures to effect change in their audiences.   The author notes how the racial climate in Micheauxs years was even more violent than the time of the Fisk Singers nearly sixty years earlier.   Caricature in Micheauxs time was viewed as a roadblock for African American growth.   The author explains the two acts of the Darktown Revue and the caricatures presented.   Micheauxs use of structure in the film is paradigmatically explained as alternating between positive and negative figures, portrayed by the chorus representing middle class African Americans and the performances featuring varied racial caricatures, respectively.   The cutting gaze of Micheaux is explained as his spotlight on negative images.   Contrasts to the Fisk Singers and Micheaux are noted as the Fisk Singers primarily used only positive images.   The author defends Micheauxs perspective on caricatures and compliments his spirit. Jamestown, Massachusetts Bay And Plymouth | Colonies Jamestown, Massachusetts Bay And Plymouth | Colonies The colonies of Jamestown, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay each were different by nature, goals, successes, and failures. There were numerous similarities as well as differences. However, each colony was looking for something better that was missing in their main land. Members of each colony had a vision of what they expected the New World to look like. When they arrived, they were given a sense of reality. Each colony had challenges that it would have to overcome to thrive as a new establishment in the New World. The three colonies succeeded at different levels in the New World. Primary Source Assignment 1 The English migrated to the New World around the early1600s. I will be discussing the colonies of Jamestown, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay. I feel as though the laws and ideas of the colonists from this century have formed American into what it is today. The first establishment of the New World was Jamestown in 1607. This colony was founded by King James I. King James sent merchants and adventurers that were looking to profit from land and wealth to the New World just as the Spaniards did in Mexico and Peru. The London Company issued a Virginia charter to form plantations in Virginia. This was lead by Sir Thomas Smith, one of the wealthiest merchants aboard the ships to the New World. There were approximately 104 settlers that arrived on a peninsula along the James River. These settlers wanted to make a profit to take back to England. This peninsula was known as Jamestown. The colonists in this low lying swamp area was stricken with disease, contaminated drinking water, and was attacked by Spaniards or Native Americans. This was a serious threat to the early settlers of Jamestown. Those that came to the New World were mainly men. The majority of the population was men. They outnumbered the women six to one. Jamestown needed male labors to attend to the large plantation used for farming. There was no sense of community due to the lack of women settlers. Jamestowns government focused more on the survival of the colony rather than religion. Jamestown would not have survived had it not been for the strong leadership capabilities of Captain John Smith. He brought order out of anarchy (Brands, 2009, p. 35). Captain John Smith traded with the Indians for food. Smith was later saved from execution by an Indian named Pocahontas. Smith forced people to work if they wanted to eat. By enforcing this, many of the colonists disliked Smith; however he was able to keep this colony alive during such a harsh time. During 1609 and 1611, Smith was in England (Brands, 2009, p. 36). This left the Jamestown settlers without a strong leader. During this time, the settlers lacked food, possibly due to the lack of leadership. Some colonists became cannibals in order to attempt to survive. This was known as Starving Time (Brands, 2009, p. 36). The few remaining colonists turned to local Powhatan Indians to help them learn the process of planting and harvesting corn and tobacco. John Rolfe, and English colonists to this region, began to cultivate and experiment with the growing of tobacco. He established a milder form of this crop and exported it to Europe. By doing so, Virginia began to flourish with profits. Tobacco was easy to grow due to the mild climate and fertile soil. Slave trade began to evolve around the tobacco plantations. Land owners would hire out indentured servants from their home land to work these crops to increase production. Slave trade became a leading industry. Jamestown mainly focused on one product for profit. After starving time, laws were written for the colony to provide a sense of order to their situation. The laws, also known as Laws of Virginia, contained duties and obligations of the settlers. If the duties and obligations were not followed there were penalties. Officers were required to ensure that all attended service twice daily and to punish those who irreverently used Gods name or challenged authority. There was only one church, God, and law. Many believed that these laws were necessary in order to survive. These laws were not attractive to potential settlers to Jamestown. The Virginia Company agreed to for the House of Burgess that would make the colony more attractive to the wealthy. The House of Burgess was the first formed in 1619 (Brands, 2009, p. 39). This form of government made decisions for this region. It was overseen by a council in England that could overrule any decisions made from the House of Burgess. The House allowed wealthy planters a say in the government. Th e existence of the House of Burgess was officially recognized by King Charles in 1639 (Brands, 2009, p. 39). Massachusetts Bay colony was lead by a strong, religious, Puritan leader named John Winthrop. He established order prior to arriving in America. His actions and ideas gave the Puritan colony its character. He agreed to come to American with the Massachusetts Bay Company. Winthrop was chosen as governor. He presented a sermon on the ship named Arbella. John Winthrop pushed for a community that revolved around God. Full citizenship was only available to church members. The colonists developed a church government known as Congregationalism. The people of this colony were the church and they agreed to uphold Gods law. Just because you lived in a particular community did not mean that you had to attend their church. Massachusetts Bay Colony largely consisted of Puritan Separatists that wanted religious freedom from the Church of England. They were hoping to be able to practice how they wanted. They wanted to purify the Anglican Church. The vast population of Massachusetts Bay was devoted English families. They focused more on a strong sense of community that revolved around God and family. This strong bond ensured their survival as a colony. The government did not partake in a democracy or a theocracy. The elected officials ruled in favor of the people and their responsibilities were to God. Groups of men and women joined together to observe shared goals. The community formed a meetinghouse for this to take place. Even though many villages did not agree on several issues, they relied on the civil courts settle their indifferences. The civil court later formed Lawes and Libteries (Brands, 2009, p. 46). This was a clear explanation of the colonists duties and obligations to their region. The Massachusetts Bay colony chose not to put all their eggs into one basket as the Jamestown settlers did. This colony had many products to sell and trade. Their climate was colder and the soil was rocky which is unsuitable for farming. This Boston colony relied more on small scale agriculture, fishing, shipbuilding, and trading. However, just as Jamestown, this colony traded with, learned from, and ended up at war with the local Indians. They, too, pushed the Indians off of the land when the colony began to expand. Due to the fact that the communities were so family oriented, farms were only large enough for feed their families. The men of the household worked these farms. Since the farms were rather small there was no need for slaves. Massachusetts Bay survived due to more favorable conditions than Jamestown. They had better climate, clean water, and plumbing that helped prevent the spread of disease in their communities. Many of the colonists led long easy going lives due to the stress free God and family oriented structure of their communities. Pilgrims set sail for the New World just as the colonists of Massachusetts Bay did; to find religious freedom. The Separatists moved to Holland and soon feared that their children were going to become Dutch. The Pilgrims were also Puritans like Boston. They selected their own leaders of the church. The Pilgrims requested land from the Virginia Company. A patent was given for them to settle north of the Virginia Colony. A storm caused the Mayflower to veer off course. It landed the settlers in Plymouth. The patent they had for Virginia did not have validity in this area of New England. With no patent, the colonists knew that they would not have authorization to form a civil form of government. To prevent the community from anarchy, 41 men signed a patent, known as the Mayflower Compact (Brands, 2009, p. 42). This document gave the government guidelines on how to conduct themselves the way God had wanted them to. William Bradford assisted in drafting the Mayflower Compact. He later became the second governor of this region. Even though the first several months claimed nearly half of the colonists due to disease and hunger, Bradford encouraged the men and women that it was possible to survive in the New World. Bradford was the person to help quite the differences between the Indians and the colony. Like Jamestown, Plymouth was settled in the lands of the Indians. Squanto was joined with Massasoit in greeting and interacting with the Pilgrims. Bradford was the go between. These Native Americans taught the Pilgrims about hunting, fishing, and agriculture. Massasoit realized that the Indians and colonists shared many interests. Squanto was the interpreter between the Pilgrims and Indians. The Pilgrims owed their survival skills to Squanto, who taught them how to grow many crops and survive the wilderness. The Pilgrims did set up a trading post to trade corn in return for furs from the Indians. The settlers engaged in fishing and lumbering to sale to England for profit. However, the Pilgrims never mastered the skill to fish and the financial return for exported lumber was small. In the beginning, the colony was finically sound. However, due to the limited economic return, Plymouth later became part of the larger Massachusetts Bay colony. In conclusion, population, political, economic, religion and social systems played a large role in Jamestown, Massachusetts Bay, and Plymouth. Though the origins of each colony were English, they all developed different views. Massachusetts and Plymouth were more religious and concerned with the commonwealth of the people because of their strong God and family oriented communities. These colonies migrated as families of six to ten that made for a strong family bond. They had a diverse product due to cold weather and poor quality of soil. They participated in small agriculture, fishing, trading, and shipbuilding. Many of the Massachusetts and Plymouth settlers live long happy lives because they were focused and healthy. Jamestown on the other hand had a harsh non religious form of government due to want to survive. Jamestown settlers were mainly male with a sense of personal gain. As a result of very few women, this colony lacked a sense of community. This colony had a mild climate an d fertile soil which produced mainly tobacco which was a major export product. They lived harder laboring lives in an unhealthy environment. The challenges that all the colonies faced and managed as well as their belief in God, helped them overcome their differences and eventually form a nation.