African American literature
2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Literature types
African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. The genre traces its origins to the works of such late 18th century writers as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano, reaching early high points with slave narratives and the Harlem Renaissance, and continuing today with authors such as Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Walter Mosley being ranked among the top writers in the United States. Among the themes and issues explored in African American literature are the role of African Americans within the larger American society, African-American culture, racism, slavery, and equality. African American writing has also tended to incorporate within itself oral forms such as spirituals, sermons, gospel music, blues and rap.
As African Americans' place in American society has changed over the centuries, so, too, have the foci of African American literature. Before the American Civil War, African American literature primarily focused on the issue of slavery, as indicated by the subgenre of slave narratives. At the turn of the 20th century, books by authors such as W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington debated whether to confront or appease racist attitudes in the United States. During the American Civil Rights movement, authors such as Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about issues of racial segregation and black nationalism. Today, African American literature has become accepted as an integral part of American literature, with books such as Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley, The Colour Purple by Alice Walker, and Beloved by Toni Morrison achieving both best-selling and award-winning status.
Characteristics and themes
In broad terms, African American literature can be defined as writings by people of African descent living in the United States of America. However, just as African American history and life is extremely varied, so too is African American literature. That said, African American literature has generally focused on themes of particular interest to Black people in the United States, such as the role of African Americans within the larger American society and what it means to be an American. As Princeton University professor Albert J. Raboteau has said, all African-American studies, including African American literature, "speaks to the deeper meaning of the African-American presence in this nation. This presence has always been a test case of the nation's claims to freedom, democracy, equality, the inclusiveness of all." As such, it can be said that African American Literature explores the very issues of freedom and equality which were long denied to Black people in the United States, along with further themes such as African American culture, racism, religion, slavery, a sense of home. and more.
African American literature constitutes a vital branch of the literature of the African diaspora, with African American literature both being influenced by the great African diasporic heritage and in turn influencing African diasporic writings in many countries. In addition, African American literature exists within the larger realm of post-colonial literature, even though scholars draw a distinctive line between the two by stating that "African American literature differs from most post-colonial literature in that it is written by members of a minority community who reside within a nation of vast wealth and economic power."
African American oral culture is rich in poetry, including spirituals, African American gospel music, blues and rap. This oral poetry also appears in the African American tradition of Christian sermons, which make use of deliberate repetition, cadence and alliteration. African American literature—especially written poetry, but also prose—has a strong tradition of incorporating all of these forms of oral poetry.
However, while these characteristics and themes exist on many levels of African American literature, they are not the exclusive definition of the genre and don't exist within all works within the genre. In addition, there is resistance to using Western literary theory to analyze African American literature. As Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of the most important African American literary scholars, once said, "My desire has been to allow the black tradition to speak for itself about its nature and various functions, rather than to read it, or analyze it, in terms of literary theories borrowed whole from other traditions, appropriated from without."
Early African American literature
Just as African American history predates the emergence of the United States as an independent country, so too does African American literature have similarly deep roots.
Lucy Terry is the author of the oldest piece of African American literature known which was "Bars Fight", 1746. This poem was not published until 1855 in Josiah Holland's "History of Western Massachusetts". Also, Briton Hammon's "The Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprising Deliverence of Briton Hammon, A Negro Man", 1760. Poet Phillis Wheatley (1753–84), who published her book Poems on Various Subjects in 1773, three years before American independence. Born in Senegal, Africa, Wheatley was captured and sold into slavery at the age of seven. Brought to America, she was owned by a Boston merchant. Even though she initially spoke no English, by the time she was sixteen she had mastered the language. Her poetry was praised by many of the leading figures of the American Revolution, including George Washington, who personally thanked her for a poem she wrote in his honour. Despite this, many white people found it hard to believe that a Black woman could be so intelligent as to write poetry. As a result, Wheatley had to defend herself in court by proving she actually wrote her own poetry. Some critics cite Wheatley's successful defense as the first recognition of African American literature.
Another early African American author was Jupiter Hammon (1711–1806?). Hammon, considered the first published Black writer in America, published his poem "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries" as a broadside in early 1761. In 1778 he wrote an ode to Phillis Wheatley, in which he discussed their shared humanity and common bonds. In 1786, Hammon gave his well-known Address to the Negroes of the State of New York. Hammon wrote the speech at age seventy-six after a lifetime of slavery and it contains his famous quote, "If we should ever get to Heaven, we shall find nobody to reproach us for being black, or for being slaves." Hammon's speech also promoted the idea of a gradual emancipation as a way of ending slavery. It is thought that Hammon stated this plan because he knew that slavery was so entrenched in American society that an immediate emancipation of all slaves would be difficult to achieve. Hammon apparently remained a slave until his death. His speech was later reprinted by several groups opposed to slavery.
William Wells Brown (1814–84) and Victor Séjour (1817–74) produced the earliest works of fiction by African American writers. Séjour was born free in New Orleans and moved to France at the age of 19. There he published his short story " Le Mulâtre" ("The Mulatto") in 1837; the story represents the first known fiction by an African American, but written in French and published in a French journal, it had apparently no influence on later American literature. Séjour never returned to African American themes in his subsequent works. Brown, on the other hand, was a prominent abolitionist, lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian. Born into slavery in the Southern United States, Brown escaped to the North, where he worked for abolitionist causes and was a prolific writer. Brown wrote what is considered to be the first novel by an African American, Clotel; or, The President's Daughter (1853). The novel is based on what was at that time considered to be a rumor about Thomas Jefferson fathering a daughter with his slave, Sally Hemings.
However, because the novel was published in England, the book is not considered the first African American novel published in the United States. This honour instead goes to Harriet Wilson, whose novel Our Nig (1859) details the difficult lives of Northern free Blacks.
A subgenre of African American literature which began in the middle of the 19th century is the slave narrative. At the time, the controversy over slavery led to impassioned literature on both sides of the issue, with books like Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) representing the abolitionist view of the evils of slavery, while the so-called Anti-Tom literature by white, southern writers like William Gilmore Simms represented the pro-slavery viewpoint.
To present the true reality of slavery, a number of former slaves such as Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass wrote slave narratives, which soon became a mainstay of African American literature. Some six thousand former slaves from North America and the Caribbean wrote accounts of their lives, with about 150 of these published as separate books or pamphlets.
Slave narratives can be broadly categorized into three distinct forms: tales of religious redemption, tales to inspire the abolitionist struggle, and tales of progress. The tales written to inspire the abolitionist struggle are the most famous because they tend to have a strong autobiographical motif. Many of them are now recognized as the most literary of all 19th-century writings by African Americans, with two of the best-known being Frederick Douglass's autobiography and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs (1861).
While Frederick Douglass (c. 1818–95) first came to public attention as an orator and as the author of his autobiographical slave narrative, he eventually became the most prominent African American of his time and one of the most influential lecturers and authors in American history.
Born into slavery in Maryland, Douglass eventually escaped and worked for numerous abolitionist causes. He also edited a number of newspapers. Douglass' best-known work is his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which was published in 1845. At the time some critics attacked the book, not believing that a black man could have written such an eloquent work. Despite this, the book was an immediate bestseller.
Douglas later revised and expanded his autobiography, which was republished as My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). In addition to serving in a number of political posts during his life, he also wrote numerous influential articles and essays.
After the end of slavery and the American Civil War, a number of African American authors continued to write nonfiction works about the condition of African Americans in the country.
Among the most prominent of these writers is W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963), one of the original founders of the NAACP. At the turn of the century, Du Bois published a highly influential collection of essays titled The Souls of Black Folk. The book's essays on race were groundbreaking and drew from DuBois's personal experiences to describe how African Americans lived in American society. The book contains Du Bois's famous quote: "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour-line." Du Bois believed that African Americans should, because of their common interests, work together to battle prejudice and inequity.
Another prominent author of this time period is Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), who in many ways represented opposite views from Du Bois. Washington was an educator and the founder of the Tuskegee Institute, a Black college in Alabama. Among his published works are Up From Slavery (1901), The Future of the American Negro (1899), Tuskegee and Its People (1905), and My Larger Education (1911). In contrast to Du Bois, who adopted a more confrontational attitude toward ending racial strife in America, Washington believed that Blacks should first lift themselves up and prove themselves the equal of whites before asking for an end to racism. While this viewpoint was popular among some Blacks (and many whites) at the time, Washington's political views would later fall out of fashion.
A third writer who gained attention during this period in the US, though not a US citizen, was the Jamaican Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), a newspaper publisher, journalist, and crusader for Pan Africanism through his organization the UNIA. He encouraged people of African ancestry to look favorably upon their ancestral homeland. He wrote a number of essays published as editorials in the UNIA house organ the Negro World newspaper. Some of his lecture material and other writings were compiled and published as nonfiction books by his second wife Amy Jacques Garvey as the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey Or, Africa for the Africans (1924) and More Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (1977).
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, who often wrote in the rural, black dialect of the day, was the first African American poet to gain national prominence. His first book of poetry, Oak and Ivy, was published in 1893. Much of Dunbar's work, such as When Malindy Sings (1906), which includes photographs taken by the Hampton Institute Camera Club, and Joggin' Erlong (1906) provide revealing glimpses into the lives of rural African-Americans of the day. Though Dunbar died young, he was a prolific poet, essayist, novelist (among them The Uncalled, 1898 and The Fanatics, 1901) and short story writer.
Even though Du Bois, Washington, and Garvey were the leading African American intellectuals and authors of their time, other African American writers also rose to prominence. Among these is Charles W. Chesnutt, a well-known essayist.
The Harlem Renaissance from 1920 to 1940 brought new attention to African American literature. While the Harlem Renaissance, based in the African American community in Harlem in New York City, existed as a larger flowering of social thought and culture—with numerous Black artists, musicians, and others producing classic works in fields from jazz to theatre—the renaissance is perhaps best known for the literature that came out of it.
Among the most famous writers of the renaissance is poet Langston Hughes. Hughes first received attention in the 1922 poetry collection, The Book of American Negro Poetry. This book, edited by James Weldon Johnson, featured the work of the period's most talented poets (including, among others, Claude McKay, who also published three novels, Home to Harlem, Banjo and Banana Bottom and a collection of short stories). In 1926, Hughes published a collection of poetry, The Weary Blues, and in 1930 a novel, Not Without Laughter. Perhaps, Hughes' most famous poem is "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," which he wrote as a young teen. His single, most recognized character is Jesse B. Simple, a plainspoken, pragmatic Harlemite whose comedic observations appeared in Hughes's columns for the Chicago Defender and the New York Post. Simple Speaks His Mind (1950) is, perhaps, the best-known collection of Simple stories published in book form. Until his death in 1967, Hughes published nine volumes of poetry, eight books of short stories, two novels, and a number of plays, children's books, and translations.
Another famous writer of the renaissance is novelist Zora Neale Hurston, author of the classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). Altogether, Hurston wrote 14 books which ranged from anthropology to short stories to novel-length fiction. Because of Hurston's gender and the fact that her work was not seen as socially or politically relevant, her writings fell into obscurity for decades. Hurston's work was rediscovered in the 1970s in a famous essay by Alice Walker, who found in Hurston a role model for all female African American writers.
While Hurston and Hughes are the two most influential writers to come out of the Harlem Renaissance, a number of other writers also became well known during this period. They include Jean Toomer, who wrote Cane, a famous collection of stories, poems, and sketches about rural and urban Black life, and Dorothy West, author of the novel The Living is Easy, which examined the life of an upper-class Black family. Another popular renaissance writer is Countee Cullen, who described everyday black life in his poems (such as a trip he made to Baltimore, which was ruined by a racial insult). Cullen's books include the poetry collections Colour (1925), Copper Sun (1927), and The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927). Frank Marshall Davis's poetry collections Black Man's Verse (1935) and I am the American Negro (1937), published by Black Cat Press, earned him critical acclaim. Author Wallace Thurman also made an impact with his novel The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life (1929), which focused on intraracial prejudice between lighter-skinned and darker-skinned African Americans.
The Harlem Renaissance marked a turning point for African American literature. Prior to this time, books by African Americans were primarily read by other Black people. With the renaissance, though, African American literature—as well as black fine art and performance art—began to be absorbed into mainstream American culture.
Civil Rights Movement era
A large migration of African Americans began during World War I, hitting its high point during World War II. During this Great Migration, Black people left the racism and lack of opportunities in the American South and settled in northern cities like Chicago, where they found work in factories and other sectors of the economy.
This migration produced a new sense of independence in the Black community and contributed to the vibrant Black urban culture seen during the Harlem Renaissance. The migration also empowered the growing American Civil Rights movement, which made a powerful impression on Black writers during the 1940s, '50s and '60s. Just as Black activists were pushing to end segregation and racism and create a new sense of Black nationalism, so too were Black authors attempting to address these issues with their writings.
One of the first writers to do so was James Baldwin, whose work addressed issues of race and sexuality. Baldwin, who is best known for his novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, wrote deeply personal stories and essays while examining what it was like to be both Black and homosexual at a time when neither of these identities was accepted by American culture. In all, Baldwin wrote nearly 20 books, including such classics as Another Country and The Fire Next Time.
Baldwin's idol and friend was author Richard Wright, whom Baldwin called "the greatest Black writer in the world for me". Wright is best known for his novel Native Son (1940), which tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a Black man struggling for acceptance in Chicago. Baldwin was so impressed by the novel that he titled a collection of his own essays Notes of a Native Son, in reference to Wright's novel. However, their friendship fell apart due to one of the book's essays, "Everybody's Protest Novel," which criticized Native Son for lacking credible characters and psychological complexity. Among Wright's other books are the autobiographical novel Black Boy (1945), The Outsider (1953), and White Man, Listen! (1957).
The other great novelist of this period is Ralph Ellison, best known for his novel Invisible Man (1952), which won the National Book Award in 1953. Even though Ellison did not complete another novel during his lifetime, Invisible Man was so influential that it secured his place in literary history. After Ellison's death in 1994, a second novel, Juneteenth (1999), was pieced together from the 2,000-plus pages he had written over 40 years. A fuller version of the manuscript will be published as Three Days Before the Shooting (2008). Jones, Edward " The Known World", 2003 Carter Stephen, "New England White" 2007 Wright W.D. "Crisis of the Black Intellectual",2007
The Civil Rights time period also saw the rise of female Black poets, most notably Gwendolyn Brooks, who became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize when it was awarded for her 1949 book of poetry, Annie Allen. Along with Brooks, other female poets who became well known during the 1950s and '60s are Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez.
During this time, a number of playwrights also came to national attention, notably Lorraine Hansberry, whose play A Raisin in the Sun focuses on a poor Black family living in Chicago. The play won the 1959 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. Another playwright who gained attention was Amiri Baraka, who wrote controversial off-Broadway plays. In more recent years, Baraka has become known for his poetry and music criticism.
It is also worth noting that a number of important essays and books about human rights were written by the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. One of the leading examples of these is Martin Luther King, Jr's " Letter from Birmingham Jail".
Beginning in the 1970s, African American literature reached the mainstream as books by Black writers continually achieved best-selling and award-winning status. This was also the time when the work of African American writers began to be accepted by academia as a legitimate genre of American literature.
As part of the larger Black Arts Movement, which was inspired by the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, African American literature began to be defined and analyzed. A number of scholars and writers are generally credited with helping to promote and define African American literature as a genre during this time period, including fiction writers Toni Morrison and Alice Walker and poet James Emanuel.
James Emanuel took a major step toward defining African American literature when he edited (with Theodore Gross) Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America, the first collection of black writings released by a major publisher. This anthology, and Emanuel's work as an educator at the City College of New York (where he is credited with introducing the study of African-American poetry), heavily influenced the birth of the genre. Other influential African American anthologies of this time included Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, edited by LeRoi Jones (now known as Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal in 1968 and The Negro Caravan, co-edited by Sterling Brown, Arthur P. Davis and Ulysses Lee in 1969.
Toni Morrison, meanwhile, helped promote Black literature and authors when she worked as an editor for Random House in the 1960s and '70s, where she edited books by such authors as Toni Cade Bambara and Gayl Jones. Morrison herself would later emerge as one of the most important African American writers of the 20th century. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. Among her most famous novels is Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. This story describes a slave who found freedom but killed her infant daughter to save her from a life of slavery. Another important novel is Song of Solomon, a tale about materialism and brotherhood. Morrison is the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In the 1970s novelist and poet Alice Walker wrote a famous essay that brought Zora Neale Hurston and her classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God back to the attention of the literary world. In 1982, Walker won both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for her novel The Colour Purple. An epistolary novel (a book written in the form of letters), The Colour Purple tells the story of Celie, a young woman who is sexually abused by her stepfather and then is forced to marry a man who physically abuses her. The novel was later made into a film by Steven Spielberg.
The 1970s also saw African American books topping the bestseller lists. Among the first books to do so was Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley. The book, a fictionalized account of Haley's family history—beginning with the kidnapping of Haley's ancestor Kunta Kinte in Gambia through his life as a slave in the United States—won the Pulitzer Prize and became a popular television miniseries. Haley also wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X in 1965.
Other important writers in recent years include literary fiction writers Gayl Jones, Rasheed Clark, Ishmael Reed, Jamaica Kincaid, Randall Kenan, and John Edgar Wideman. African American poets have also garnered attention. Maya Angelou read a poem at Bill Clinton's inauguration, Rita Dove won a Pulitzer Prize and served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1993 to 1995, and Cyrus Cassells's Soul Make a Path through Shouting was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. Cassells is a recipient of the William Carlos Williams Award. Lesser-known poets like Thylias Moss, and Natasha Trethewey also have been praised for their innovative work. Notable black playwrights include Ntozake Shange, who wrote For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf; Ed Bullins; Suzan-Lori Parks; and the prolific August Wilson, who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his plays. Most recently, Edward P. Jones won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Known World, his novel about a black slaveholder in the antebellum South.
Young African American novelists include Edwidge Danticat, David Anthony Durham, Tayari Jones, Mat Johnson, ZZ Packer and Colson Whitehead, just to name a few. African American literature has also crossed over to genre fiction. A pioneer in this area is Chester Himes, who in the 1950s and '60s wrote a series of pulp fiction detective novels featuring "Coffin" Ed Johnson and "Gravedigger" Jones, two New York City police detectives. Himes paved the way for the later crime novels of Walter Mosley and Hugh Holton. African Americans are also represented in the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror, with Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, Robert Fleming, Brandon Massey, Charles R. Saunders, John Ridley, John M. Faucette, Sheree Thomas and Nalo Hopkinson being just a few of the well-known authors.
Finally, African American literature has gained added attention through the work of talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who repeatedly has leveraged her fame to promote literature through the medium of her Oprah's Book Club. At times, she has brought African American writers a far broader audience than they otherwise might have received.
While African American literature is well accepted in the United States, there are numerous views on its significance, traditions, and theories. To the genre's supporters, African American literature arose out of the experience of Blacks in the United States, especially with regards to historic racism and discrimination, and is an attempt to refute the dominant culture's literature and power. In addition, supporters see the literature existing both within and outside American literature and as helping to revitalize the country's writing. To critics, African American literature is part of a Balkanization of American literature. In addition, there are some within the African American community who do not like how their own literature sometimes showcases Black people.
Refuting the dominant literary culture
Throughout American history, African Americans have been discriminated against and subject to racist attitudes. This experience inspired some Black writers, at least during the early years of African American literature, to prove they were the equals of European American authors. As Henry Louis Gates, Jr, has said, "it is fair to describe the subtext of the history of black letters as this urge to refute the claim that because blacks had no written traditions they were bearers of an inferior culture."
However, by refuting the claims of the dominant culture, African American writers weren't simply "proving their worth"—they were also attempting to subvert the literary and power traditions of the United States. Scholars expressing this view assert that writing has traditionally been seen as "something defined by the dominant culture as a white male activity." This means that, in American society, literary acceptance has traditionally been intimately tied in with the very power dynamics which perpetrated such evils as racial discrimination. By borrowing from and incorporating the non-written oral traditions and folk life of the African diaspora, African American literature thereby broke "the mystique of connection between literary authority and patriarchal power." This view of African American literature as a tool in the struggle for Black political and cultural liberation has been stated for decades, perhaps most famously by W.E.B DuBois.
Existing both inside and outside American literature
According to James Madison University English professor Joanne Gabbin, African American literature exists both inside and outside American literature. "Somehow African American literature has been relegated to a different level, outside American literature, yet it is an integral part," she says.
This view of African American literature is grounded in the experience of Black people in the United States. Even though African Americans have long claimed an American identity, during most of United States history they were not accepted as full citizens and were actively discriminated against. As a result, they were part of America while also outside it.
The same can be said for African American literature. While it exists fully within the framework of a larger American literature, it also exists as its own entity. As a result, new styles of storytelling and unique voices are created in isolation. The benefit of this is that these new styles and voices can leave their isolation and help revitalize the larger literary world (McKay, 2004). This artistic pattern has held true with many aspects of African American culture over the last century, with jazz and hip hop being just two artistic examples that developed in isolation within the Black community before reaching a larger audience and eventually revitalizing American culture.
Whether African American literature will keep to this pattern in the coming years remains to be seen. Since the genre is already popular with mainstream audiences, it is possible that its ability to develop new styles and voices—or to remain "authentic," in the words of some critics—may be a thing of the past.
Balkanization of American literature?
Despite these views, some conservative academics and intellectuals argue that African American literature only exists as part of a balkanization of literature over the last few decades or as an extension of the culture wars into the field of literature. According to these critics, literature is splitting into distinct and separate groupings because of the rise of identity politics in the United States and other parts of the world. These critics reject bringing identity politics into literature because this would mean that "only women could write about women for women, and only Blacks about Blacks for Blacks."
People opposed to this group-based approach to writing say that it limits the ability of literature to explore the overall human condition and, more importantly, judges ethnic writers merely on the basis of their race. These critics reject this judgment and say it defies the meaning of works like Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, in which Ellison's main character is invisible because people see him as nothing more than a Black man. Others criticize special treatment of any ethnic-based genre of literature. For example, Robert Hayden, the first African-American Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, once said (paraphrasing the comment by the black composer Duke Ellington about jazz and music), "There is no such thing as Black literature. There's good literature and bad. And that's all."
Proponents counter that the exploration of group and ethnic dynamics through writing actually deepens human understanding and that, previously, entire groups of people were ignored or neglected by American literature. (Jay, 1997)
The general consensus view appears to be that American literature is not breaking apart because of new genres like African American literature. Instead, American literature is simply reflecting the increasing diversity of the United States and showing more signs of diversity than ever before in its history (Andrews, 1997; McKay, 2004). This view is supported by the fact that many African American authors—and writers representing other minority groups—consistently reach the tops of the best-seller lists. If their literature only appealed to their individual ethnic groups, this would not be possible.
African American criticism
Some of the criticism of African American literature over the years has come from within the African American community; some argue that Black literature sometimes does not portray Black people in a positive light.
This clash of aesthetics and racial politics has its beginnings in comments made by W.E.B DuBois in the NAACP publication The Crisis. For example, in 1921 he wrote, "We want everything that is said about us to tell of the best and highest and noblest in us. We insist that our Art and Propaganda be one." He added to this in 1926 by saying, "All Art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists." DuBois and the editors of The Crisis consistently stated that literature was a tool in the struggle for African American political liberation.
DuBois's belief in the propaganda value of art showed most clearly when he clashed in 1928 with African American author Claude McKay over McKay's best-selling novel Home to Harlem. To DuBois, the novel's frank depictions of sexuality and the nightlife in Harlem only appealed to the "prurient demand[s]" of white readers and publishers looking for portrayals of Black "licentiousness." DuBois also said, "Home to Harlem ... for the most part nauseates me, and after the dirtier parts of its filth I feel distinctly like taking a bath." This criticism was repeated by others in the Black community when author Wallace Thurman published his novel The Blacker the Berry in 1929. This novel, which focused on intraracial prejudice between lighter-skinned and darker-skinned Blacks, infuriated many African Americans, who did not like such a public airing of their culture's "dirty laundry."
Naturally, many African American writers did not agree with the viewpoint that all Black literature should be propaganda, and instead stated that literature should present the truth about life and people. Langston Hughes articulated this view in his essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" (1926), when he said that Black artists intended to express themselves freely no matter what the Black public or white public thought.
A more recent occurrence of this Black-on-Black criticism arose in charges by some critics that Alice Walker's novel The Colour Purple unfairly attacked Black men. In addition, African American author Charles R. Johnson, in the updated 1995 introduction to his novel Oxherding Tale, criticized Walker's novel for its negative portrayal of African-American males, adding "I leave it to readers to decide which book pushes harder at the boundaries of convention, and inhabits most confidently the space where fiction and philosophy meet." Walker later refuted these charges in her book The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult.


Philosophy isn’t just a form of creative writing. It’s an attempt to use good reasoning, and writing good philosophical arguments requires an understanding of good reasoning. Most people have an intuitive grasp of what good reasoning is, but this intuitive grasp is often insufficient. Our reasoning can be improved from experience and philosophy education. Experience writing philosophical arguments can help us think more philosophically. I will discuss three steps of writing good philosophical arguments:
- Make your argument explicit.
- Consider the evidence for your argument.
- Consider relevant objections and counterarguments.
1. Make your argument explicit
There are two main types of arguments—supporting and opposing. Supporting arguments give reasons to think a belief is true, and opposing arguments (objections) give reason to think a belief is false (or that there’s a problem with a form of reasoning). Either way, we need to make it clear what the premises and conclusion of our argument are.
Imagine that Jill wants to argue that the death penalty is wrong in our current time period. She will need to know why she personally thinks the death penalty is wrong and why anyone should agree with her. The first thought that might come to mind is that human life has value. At this point her argument is the following:
- Human life has value.
- Therefore, the death penalty is wrong.
This argument might look good enough, but it’s technically invalid. The argument form is “A, therefore B” and arguments using this form of reasoning can have a true premise and false conclusion. For example, “the sky is blue, therefore there is no oxygen in the air” has the same argument form, but it’s clearly a poor argument.
Find unstated assumptions
The reason why the argument might look like a good argument is because we might have unstated assumptions. For example, we might think that human life’s value makes it wrong to kill people, and the death penalty is an example of killing people. This assumption is not something everyone will agree with. Many people think we can occasionally be morally justified to kill people, such as when it’s necessary to defend our lives. Even so, we should make sure to have all the necessary assumptions stated as premises. The argument will then look like the following:
Human life has value.
If human life has value, then the death penalty is wrong.
Therefore, the death penalty is wrong.
This argument is now valid because it uses the valid argument form known as modus ponens (the argument form “A; if A, then B; therefore B”).
There are two main kinds of objections in philosophy—objections to arguments and objections to conclusions. When objecting to arguments, we must make the premise that we object to explicit. When we object to conclusions, it is often also necessary to object to arguments as well.
Consider that someone has the following argument for the death penalty:
Evil people deserve to die.
If evil people deserve to die, then the death penalty is morally justified when used to kill evil people.
Therefore, the death penalty is morally justified when used to kill evil people.
This argument is incompatible with Jill’s belief that the death penalty is morally wrong. She can object to both the argument and the conclusion.
Objections to arguments
If we want to object to the argument, then we can either object to the reasoning used or a premise. The reasoning used by philosophy professors tends to be pretty good, but the evidence for the premises is sometimes lacking. In the case of the above argument for the death penalty, no obvious poor reasoning is being used and the argument is logically valid. However, we might wonder if the premises are sufficiently justified. (I didn’t actually present any evidence for any of the premises, but an actual philosophical argument would be likely to do so.)
We might object to the premise that “evil people deserve to die.” This premise might be impractical if no one is evil or if we have no way of knowing who is evil. Additionally, it’s not obvious that evil people deserve to die. It might be that even evil human life has value. Objections to premises tend to use the following reasoning:
- A certain premise is unjustified.
- If the premise is unjustified, then the argument can’t give us reason to accept the conclusion.
- Therefore, the argument doesn’t give us reason to accept the conclusion.
For example, Jill can object to Argument 2 using the following objection:
- The argument in question requires us to accept that “evil people deserve to die,” but that premise is unjustified (because evil people might have value like everyone else, etc.).
- If we aren’t justified to accept that “evil people deserve to die,” then the argument doesn’t give us reason to accept the conclusion—that “the death penalty is morally justified when used to kill evil people.”
- Therefore, the argument doesn’t provide sufficient justification to conclude that “the death penalty is morally justified when used to kill evil people.”
Notice that she didn’t claim that the conclusion is false. If a premise of an argument is unjustified (or false), that doesn’t prove that the conclusion is false. There could be a different argument that proves the conclusion to be true. For example, it might be that the death penalty is justified when we can’t throw a dangerous criminal in prison as a form of self-defense.
How do we object to forms of reasoning? Many people use poor forms of reasoning. In that case it can be helpful to identify either that the argument uses a formal fallacy (an invalid form of reasoning) or an informal fallacy (some other mistake in reasoning). Once the poor reasoning is identified, we can explain it and present a counterexample.
Consider an example of a formal fallacy and counterexample. – A person can argue that “if dogs exist, then they have four legs; dogs have four legs; therefore dogs exist.” The premises and conclusion are all true, but it’s still a poorly reasoned argument because the same reasoning could easily be used to prove things that are false. The argument form is “If A, then B. B. Therefore, A.” We can then give a counterexample that shows how we can use this form of reasoning, true premises, but a false conclusion—“If unicorns exist, then they have four legs; unicorns have four legs; therefore unicorns exist.” It is true by definition that unicorns would have four legs if they exist, and that “all unicorns have four legs” as a result, but it’s false that unicorns exist.
Consider an example of an informal fallacy and counterexample. – A person can argue that “The death penalty is wrong because it’s always wrong to kill people. Consider how it’s wrong to go around killing people who make us angry, annoy us, and so on.” This seems like an example of a “hasty generalization.” It seems like quite a leap to think it’s always wrong to kill people. We could then give a counterexample making use of hasty generalizations—“It is wrong to cut people because it’s always wrong to hurt people. Consider how it’s wrong to go cutting people with knives who make us angry, annoy us, and so on.” However, we know it’s false that it’s always wrong to cut people because surgeons cut people and hurt them as a result, but only do so because it’s necessary to heal people. This is a counterexample insofar as it shows how a hasty generalization is one context is an example of poor reasoning and it’s wrong in other contexts for the same reason.
How do we object to conclusions? In philosophy, objections are almost always expected to be against arguments rather than merely against conclusions because it’s not usually obvious how successful arguments are that only object to a conclusion. In that case one argument attempts to prove the conclusion to be true, but another attempts to prove it’s false. We would then need a way to decide which argument is better. Nonetheless, it is often important for strong objections to be given against both premises and conclusions because that’s often the only way we can truly prove a conclusion to be implausible.
We can object to a conclusion using a reduction to absurdity (reductio ad absurdum) and counterexamples. We can assume the conclusion is true and show that such an assumption leads to a contradiction—either from internal inconsistency or because it conflicts with our knowledge.
Consider an example of a belief that lacks internal consistency. – Someone could argue that “all opinions are equally justified.” We could object that this belief would imply that the opinion that “not all opinions are equally justified” is a viable option (because that belief is just as justified as any other), but that belief contradicts the view that “all opinions are equally justified.”
Consider an example of a belief that conflicts with our knowledge. – Someone could argue that “we don’t know anything,” but we can object that such a belief would imply that we don’t know that “1+1=2” even though we do know that. The fact that we know “1+1=2” is a counterexample to the belief that we don’t know anything.
2. Consider the evidence for your argument.
It’s not enough for a philosophical argument to state our argument explicitly because our premises could be unjustified. We need to know why anyone would agree with our premises, and consider why we think the premises are probably true. We must find a way to present our evidence to people to support our premises in order to be assured that we have a good argument, and we must make sure that the premises really do prove our conclusion to be true.
Consider Argument 1. It requires us to accept that “human life has value” and “if human life has value, then the death penalty is wrong.” There are people who will reject these premises, so they can’t just be assumed to be obviously true. We need to defend the premises and decide how plausible they are.
In this case Jill will justify her premises in the following ways:
- Human life has value. – Jill will find this belief intuitive because she seems to experience her own life to be valuable and she realizes that other people do as well. She can defend that we share her intuition that human life has value in at least two ways. One, it would seem strange to want people to commit suicide just because they are in a little pain. Two, we think it’s generally wrong to kill people, and we find people who kill others without a justification to have done something morally wrong. One explanation to why it’s generally wrong to kill people is that human life has value. She can then consider alternative explanations and try to show why they are less plausible than her suggestion. For example, some people might argue that we only think it’s wrong to kill people because we care about them, but Jill could either argue (a) caring about people is merely one understanding of what it means for human life to have value or (b) that it seems inappropriate when people don’t care about others (such as strangers), and there are many cases when people harm strangers because they don’t care about them.
- If human life has value, then the death penalty is wrong. – Jill will find this intuitive because she thinks the fact that something has value is a reason not to destroy it. We think happiness is valuable, so we usually shouldn’t try to make people miserable, and it would often be morally wrong to do so. The same seems to be true of the value of human life. The two cases seem analogous. We have a reason not to destroy happiness if it has value, and we have a similar reason not to destroy human life if it has value. It’s often morally wrong to destroy happiness if it has value, and it’s often morally wrong to destroy human life if it has value. This still doesn’t prove that the death penalty is wrong. Jill can then argue that there is no moral justification for the death penalty (at least in the society she lives in). It’s wrong to kill people unless we have a good reason to do so, and there’s no good reason to kill criminals who are safely in custody. She can consider various justifications for the death penalty and try to show them to be unsatisfying. For example, someone could argue that the death penalty makes the family of murder victims feel better, but Jill could argue that the good feelings people get from the death of others is never a good reason to kill anyone. Many murderers get a good feeling from killing others, but that doesn’t excuse their behavior.
We need to make sure that our conclusion is proven.
The plausibility of the conclusion depends on the plausibility of the premises. We could have premises and conclusions that are justified to the following degrees:
- The premises can be intuitive, but we can admit that there could be alternative beliefs that are equally plausible. In that case the conclusion wouldn’t be proven to be true. Instead, it would merely be compatible with intuitive beliefs.
- Rejecting the premises could be “counterintuitive.” In that case rejecting the conclusion would require us to accept counterintuitive beliefs.
- There’s some reason to believe the premises, but we can admit that there could be overriding reason to reject them that haven’t been discovered yet.
- The premises could be the most likely option. Perhaps they are the “best explanation” for our experiences. In that case the conclusion would be based on the most likely options, but it might be unclear if the conclusion is probably true.
- The premises could be probably true. In that case the conclusion would more likely be true.
- The premises could be a rational requirement, and everyone should agree with them. In that case the conclusion would also be a rational requirement because rejecting the conclusion would require us to reject rationally required beliefs.
I will discuss each of these possibilities:
1. Premises can be intuitive
Premises are only intuitive if we have no strong reason to reject them. Such beliefs are initially plausible. Many of our beliefs are merely assumptions that we find successful and consistent rather than something everyone has to accept. Also note that two incompatible beliefs could both be intuitive. It might be intuitive to think that killing people is usually wrong because human life has value, but it might be equally intuitive to think that killing people is usually wrong because we want to live in a society without people killing each other.
In that case premise 1 (human life has value) might not even be necessary to support Jill’s conclusion because there could be more than one reason to think that killing people is wrong (unless we have an overriding reason for doing so). Jill could change premise 1 to be “killing people is wrong unless we have an overriding reason to do it” and explain how there’s more than one plausible explanation for this premise.
One reason to argue that a belief is intuitive is to show that it seems rational to hold the belief. If an argument uses intuitive premises, then perhaps the conclusion doesn’t require us to accept anything irrational, and that makes it more plausible that the conclusion can be rationally held. However, there might be exceptions. An argument that uses intuitive premises should not lead to a conclusion that many people will find counterintuitive or far-fetched. If initially intuitive premises lead us to a counterintuitive conclusion, then the premises will be proven to be less intuitive than we thought they were. For example, the fact that many people expect heavy objects to fall faster than less heavy ones conflicts with our observations, so such an initially plausible belief should be rejected based on more reliable conflicting information. We can’t rationally accept such belief because it would require us to reject scientific observations.
2. It can be counterintuitive to reject the premises
If it’s counterintuive to reject a belief, then the belief seems to be strongly intuitive, and the other options are not equally intuitive. We can use an argument from absurdity and counterexamples to reveal that rejecting a belief is counterintuitive. The argument from absurdity requires us to assume that our belief is false, and then we can show why such an assumption leads to absurd results. For example, the belief that killing people is wrong unless we have an overriding reason to do so seems intuitive and rejecting it seems counterintuitive. (There could be overriding reasons to kill people, such as when it’s necessary to survive while fighting in self-defense.) Let’s assume that killing people isn’t wrong when people lack an overriding reason to kill. In that case people could kill others indiscriminately. It would never be wrong to kill people. However, this leads to an absurdity because we know killing is often wrong, such as when a thief kills a family to steal their money out of greed.
Whenever rejecting beliefs is counterintuitive, we have found some support to the idea that it’s rational to accept the beliefs (because rejecting them seems to lead to absurdity). Such beliefs could generally be said to be strongly intuitive. However, if such strongly intuitive beliefs lead us to a counterintuitive or far-fetched conclusion, then the argument loses credibility because we won’t be sure if the premises should be accepted after all. If it’s inevitable for some of our beliefs to be counterintuitive, then the fact that a belief is counterintuitive isn’t necessarily a good reason to reject it. For example, much we have learned in quantum mechanics is counterintuitive and we have no choice but to accept the counterintuitive results. For example, quantum mechanics reveals that light can be both a particle and a wave when we don’t observe it, but it will either be a particle or a wave while we observe it (without the possibility of being both).
3. There can be some reason to accept the premises
Many arguments are in favor of a belief without necessarily sufficiently proving the belief to be true. In fact, most philosophical arguments fail to convince everyone and many philosophical debates have lasted thousands of years. For this reason many philosophers merely argue that they provide some reason in favor of a belief rather than sufficient reason to accept a belief. For example, the fact that the death penalty kills a person seems like a good reason to think it’s wrong, even though there could be an overriding reasons to think the death penalty isn’t always wrong.
4. Premises can be more justified than the alternatives
When philosophers present arguments to explain why we have some reason to believe something, they could present their evidence in isolation from other perspectives and arguments. However, that’s not usually how philosophers argue. Instead, philosophers tend to try to support the vie that we have some reason to accept a belief as well as some reason to reject the alternatives. One of the most persuasive forms of philosophical argumentation will attempt to show why a belief is more plausible than the alternatives in an attempt to present all viable sides of a debate. This can be done by contrasting the most viable options we have and showing why one belief in particular is the best (at least when considering various objections and counterevidence).
Note that one belief that is more viable than the alternatives is not necessarily likely to be true. There could be many viable options that are all plausible. For example, at one point there were many competing versions of string theory in physics and there was no reason to find any of them to be particularly likely to be true. There could be three theories and they could all be around 33% likely of being true. In that case they are each individually more likely false than true.
Consider that Jill’s argument that the death penalty is wrong is inconclusive and only provides us some reason to agree that the death penalty is wrong. Jill could strengthen her argument by considering arguments in favor of the death penalty and try to show them to be flawed. She could then contrast her belief that the death penalty is wrong with the opposing belief that the death penalty isn’t wrong. For example, the objection to the view that the death penalty is justified to make a victim’s family feel better seems to show how it’s a poor excuse for killing a person. Jill could then argue that on the basis of various considerations, we have more reason to think the death penalty is wrong than right. At the same time she should admit that she is giving us reason to think the death penalty is wrong without providing sufficient proof. There could be relevant arguments and objections she didn’t think of.
5. Premises can be probably true
Philosophers are rarely confident to the point of thinking they proved something to be probably true or accurate, but there many beliefs we have that we agree fits this status. For example, it’s probably true that “killing people is often morally wrong.” We might even suspect that it’s a rational requirement to agree with that statement.
6. Premises can be rational requirements
The strongest justification for beliefs can show that we know they are true for certain, and some philosophers think some beliefs fit this description, such as our belief that “1+1=2.” However, even beliefs that are rationally required are not necessarily known for certain. It seems that we are rationally required to believe many facts concerning logic, mathematics, and the natural world. It seems plausible to say that we are rationally required to believe that “something can’t be true and false in the same respect at the same time” and that “at least one person has a mind.” Some of the best conclusions involving rational requirements in philosophy concerns what counts as irrational beliefs or failures in reasoning. Philosophers have cataloged several logical fallacies (poor forms of reasoning) and have discovered many beliefs to be unjustified based on poor reasoning. For example, the beliefs that “nothing is morally wrong” and “all opinions are equal” are unjustified beliefs (often based on poor reasoning).
Amateur philosophers often make the mistake of asserting that they know something is true or that something is proven despite the fact that what they are saying is based on imperfect reasoning and evidence. Controversial beliefs are rarely known to be true for certain and are rarely proven to be true. These amateurs might think everyone should agree with a conclusion and they might even think people are rationally required to agree. However, philosophical arguments aren’t just examples of creative writing. Philosophers must be honest and aware of what their arguments prove, and they must not exaggerate their conclusions.
If you aren’t sure how strong your argument is, you can merely say that you want to prove it’s intuitive and/or that you want to present some amount of reason in favor of a position. If you are objecting to an argument, you can make it clear that you are merely challenging that argument, providing reason to find a premise to be unjustified, and that the argument seems to fail to prove the conclusion as a result.
Once Jill evaluates Argument 1 and her justification for that argument, she can rephrase her argument in the following way:
It’s counterintuitive to deny that “it’s wrong to kill people without an overriding reason to do so” (because that would imply that indiscriminate killing isn’t wrong).
The belief that “if it’s wrong to kill people without an overriding reason to do so, then the death penalty is wrong in our society” is more plausible than the alternatives (because it’s unclear how we can have an overriding reason to have the death penalty in our society).
Therefore, we have some reason to agree that “the death penalty is wrong in our society.”
3. Consider relevant objections and counterarguments
One way philosophers tend to strengthen their arguments and make them less one-sided is to consider objections to their arguments, and attempt to dispel the objections by replying to them. Replies to objections are usually also arguments known as counterarguments.
Consider Argument 1B and Jill’s justifications for her argument. Jill’s second premise should already take objections into consideration because she should argue that reasons to have the death penalty aren’t good, so there’s no overriding reason to kill our criminals in our society. She should argue that revenge, making people feel good, and the idea that evil people deserve to die are all insufficient reasons to kill criminals. However, there could still be more objections worth discussing. In particular, there could be objections given to premise 2. Some people might object that the death penalty might deter people from killing one another. If they know they will die for committing such a crime, then they might choose not to commit such a crime. Jill could then reply that there is no evidence that such a punishment is needed to deter such a crime—it doesn’t seem to deter crime any better than life in prison.
Most arguments people give are missing premises, rely on unstated assumptions, lack sufficient evidence to reach their conclusions, the conclusions are arrogantly assumed to be proven, and they fail to take objections into consideration. Most objections people create against arguments are vague and fail to disprove the conclusions of the arguments they oppose because people tend not to consider the plausibility of the premises, conclusions, and form of reasoning used. Nonetheless, experience and careful thought can lead to improved reasoning. Philosophers sometimes make the same mistakes in reasoning as everyone else, but they are interested in improving their behavior and learning from their mistakes.


Rocks at low tide showing barnacles and sea anemones, Point Grenville, Washington. American Environmental Photographs Collection, Department of Special Collections, University of Chicago Library
Credit: Courtesy of the American Memory Collection.
Take your students on an underwater exploration of the sea to inspire their creativity and teach them about the ocean and the many life forms that make their homes in its mysterious depths. Students will learn about the ocean and the creatures that live there, listen to stories and poems with oceanic settings, conduct research about oceanic life forms, and write their own stories and poems about the sea.
This lesson gives students the opportunity to explore oceans and ocean life. After locating the earth's major oceans on a world map, students will "dive underwater" to discover the plants and animals that live in the sea. Students will listen to stories and poems with oceanic settings and learn about the forms of sea life featured in each. They can add their own artwork and text about ocean animals and plants to a cut-away ocean display. Finally, students will engage in various forms of creative writing about the ocean and ocean life.
What is an ocean? What do we imagine when we think about the ocean? What are the names of the major oceans of the world, and where are they located? How is the ocean represented in stories and poems? What kinds of plants and animals live in the ocean, and what can we learn about them? How can we use what we have learned to create our own poems and stories about the ocean?
Depending on the activities chosen, students will be able to do the following:
This lesson requires you to access various Web pages through EDSITEment-reviewed sites. You may share these pages with your students at individual computer stations or by assigning small groups to share a number of computers; by means of computer-projected images displayed to the whole class; or by printing out the images and distributing copies of them to students.
You will also need to have on hand at least two picture books to share with students--one for the "Sharing Ocean Experiences" activity and another for the "Introducing Ocean Literature" activity. Suggested titles are provided at relevant points in the lesson, as well as in the Resource List at the end of the lesson.
In addition, you will need access to a variety of research materials for the "Researching Ocean Life" activity. For Internet research, you should acquaint yourself ahead of time with the EDSITEment-reviewed site, Treasures@Sea, which provides links to other useful sites. For print materials, refer to the "Resource List" at the end of the lesson plan.
As you review materials, you will note that there are differing opinions about the number of oceans in the world. It is generally recognized that there are four: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. Others say there is a fifth ocean, the Southern or Antarctic, which lies south of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, linking them together. Your students should recognize that, since all of these bodies of water of the world are connected, they make up one global ocean.
Ask for volunteers to explain what an ocean is. Have students who have been to the ocean describe what they have experienced there to the class. Use the following chart with the five sensory headings: See, Hear, Touch, Taste, and Smell, which you can complete online or download and print out for classroom use. As students recall what they know about the ocean, write down their descriptive words and phrases next to the sensory headings. Ask for students' help in deciding which category is appropriate for each experience, and whether an experience belongs to more than one category. Ask students why they chose a particular category.
Next, read aloud a story with an ocean setting. The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole or A Swim Through the Sea by Kristin Joy Pratt are good options. (See Resource List at the end of the lesson plan for other suggested titles.) When the story is over, ask the students to think of new words or concepts from the book that describe the setting where the story took place or where the main character lived. Add each of these to the sensory lists.
Point out to students that some of the words on their list describe life in the ocean, where the main character(s) of the story live, and some of them describe life near the ocean, where people can live or visit. Have students identify which words belong in each category. At the top of the chart, write the word "In" in blue marker (to symbolize water) and the word "Near" in green marker (to symbolize land). Then have children take turns using the blue marker to circle words that pertain to life in the ocean and the green marker to circle words that pertain to life near the ocean.
Invite 2nd-grade students to create their own haiku-like poems about the ocean or animals living in the ocean, using words and images from the lists above. (See the EDSITEment lesson Play with Words: Rhyme & Verse for further information about haiku and other types of poetry.) You might want to do this activity in conjunction with the "Speaking of the Sea" activity described below. Kindergarten and 1st-grade teachers can do this activity as a whole class project, modeling for the children how to create a haiku. As you go through each line, encourage students to participate by adding words from the sensory list you created earlier.
The first line of the poem should include two words or phrases about the ocean or animal, the second line should include three words or phrases, and the third line should include two words or phrases. Older students may wish to follow the true haiku form by counting syllables rather than words: five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line. Younger students who are writing their own poems may use inventive spelling or dictate their poem to the teacher or a classroom aide. Have each student copy his or her poem onto a piece of sturdy paper so that it can be displayed in the classroom, and have each student recite his or her poem to the rest of the class. Teachers who do this as a whole-class activity can invite students to copy the poem onto a large poster board and have them decorate the poster. Then, they can display it on a bulletin board outside the classroom for other students to see.
Ask students how many oceans there are in the world. Draw a question mark in the center of the chalkboard and write their response around it:
Next, ask students if they know the names of any oceans. Write their answers on the chalkboard. Explain that most people agree that there are four major oceans: the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. Point out that others say there is a fifth ocean, the Southern or Antarctic, which lies south of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, linking them together. You can also emphasize that, while we think of these bodies of water as separate oceans, they are all connected and make up one global ocean.
Show the students a world map, accessible through the EDSITEment-reviewed National Geographic Society's Xpeditions Website. Select the "Atlas" icon from the main site page. A printable map of the world will appear, which you can further customize by adjusting the selection options.
Ask students to look at the map and describe how the oceans are separated from one another. While students might suggest that land divides the oceans, guide them to realize that the oceans of the world are really one big ocean with pieces of land dividing it into different parts.
Give each student a printout of the world map that you have just studied together. To reinforce the idea that the oceans are connected to each other, challenge students to color in all of the watery parts of the map without lifting their blue crayons from the page. Encourage students to use other colors to fill in the various landmasses. Ask students to create ocean travel routes, demonstrating how a boat could travel to every continent without ever crossing any land.
Additional Activity for Exploring the Ocean
You can find further interesting facts about the ocean for your students--or guide them to do simple online research themselves--by visiting the EDSITEment-reviewed Treasures@Sea Web site. At the site, select "Diving for Treasure." On the next page, click on "Search for a Treasure Chest of Ocean Facts." By clicking on the "Frequently Asked Questions" button, answers you will get answers to questions such as:
Other information is available under additional subject headings.
This activity serves as a brief introduction to the sea animals featured in children's literature. In subsequent activities, students will research these and other animals as well as listen to and read other selections from ocean-related literature and write original poems and stories with ocean themes.
Suggestion 1: Picture Books
Begin by reading aloud a picture book with an ocean setting, such as A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle, or The Twelve Days of Summer by Elizabeth Lee McDonald. (See the Resource List at the end of the lesson for other suggested titles.)
Ask students to listen for names of animals and plants they have never heard of before, and instruct them to raise their hands whenever a new animal or plant is mentioned. Then compile a list of new vocabulary words:
A House for Hermit Crab:
The Twelve Days of Summer:
If time permits, read more than one story so that students can compare the information presented in each. Record the information on a piece of chart paper for reference in subsequent activities.
Suggestion 2: Rhymes:
You can also use nursery rhymes to bring the world of the sea to your students. For online sea-related nursery rhymes, see "Little Drops of Water, Little Grains of Sand, Make the Mighty Ocean and the Pleasant Land" from Mama Lisa's Nursery Rhymes , "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" on HPD's Nursery Rhymes Page, or "The Owl and the Pussycat." These selections are linked from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Internet Public Library.
While reading these rhymes aloud or having students take turns reading them aloud, encourage them to think about ways they can creatively act out the rhymes to emphasize the feeling of the sea. For example, you or your students may choose to read the rhymes in a voice that dips low and then squeaks high, in order to make the listener think about rolling waves. Another idea is to use hand and eye motions.
This activity can be used to complement the "Researching Ocean Life" activity below. By creating an ocean display, students will learn more about what the ocean looks like and about the animals and plants that live in or near the sea. You can use the display to further acquaint students with the ocean by showing them what the ocean floor looks like as it extends from the shoreline, and as a background for presenting various items from the projects and activities in this lesson. This display can be used with older students to explain terms that apply to the ocean floor.
Creating a Cut-Away View of the Ocean Floor
Cover a large bulletin board with light blue or white craft paper. Then draw the cut-away view of the ocean floor as follows:
1. Place a brown marker about two-thirds of the way up on the left-hand side of the display.
2. Draw a horizontal line beginning at this point. Slope your line down slightly. This will serve as your shoreline and continental shelf (where the ocean floor is closest to the shoreline).
3. After drawing your shelf, sharply dip your marker down so the resulting line is practically vertical. This line will represent an ocean slope.
4. Then, as your slope line dips below the display's halfway point, flatten your line out horizontally to form a level ocean plain (the widest, flattest part of the ocean floor).
5. Continue the plain line for a foot or two across the display, then angle your marker up sharply to draw a steep, craggy mountain peak called a mid-ocean ridge.
6. Draw the mid-ocean ridge so it peaks above the plain line and below the continental shelf. Then pull your marker line down at a sharp angle to form the other steep side of the mountain.
7. At the foot of the mountain, draw a sharp, narrow valley, called an ocean trench.
8. Finish your ocean floor by moving your line up to create another slope and another continental shelf on the other side of the display.
9. Use a blue marker to draw the waterline from shore to shore. (Your mid-ocean ridge should not extend above your water line.)
10. Print the names of each of the parts of the ocean floor (shoreline, continental shelf, slope, plain, mid-ocean ridge, and trench) on a separate index card. Help students attach these labels to the display. Have students use watercolors to paint the ocean floor brown and the water blue. Students may also glue fiberfill cloud wisps in the sky above the ocean and draw tiny sailboats on the water's surface.
Tell students that they are going to become oceanographers--people who study and share information about the ocean. (Background information about oceanographers can be found through a link on the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration from the EDSITEment-reviewed website, Treasures@Sea.)
The students' first job as oceanographers is to draw pictures of animals that live in or near the ocean. Have students choose animals on which they would like to become experts. For inspiration, revisit the list of animals featured in the books you shared in previous activities. For research information, see the lists of print and Internet resources at the end of the lesson plan.
Supply students with paper and have them make preliminary tracings or sketches of their animals. When the students are satisfied, provide them with a piece of white oak tag so they can make full-color drawings of their animals. Have students cut out their drawings and add them to the ocean display. Afterward, have students write or dictate information about their drawings. Label each finished drawing with an index card bearing the animal's name as well as details related to the animal's size, color, markings, and other physical features.
Remind students that part of an oceanographer's job is to do research and to teach other people about the ocean. Oceanographers share what they have discovered on their own as well what other oceanographers have discovered.
You can find interesting facts about the ocean for your students, or guide them to do simple online research themselves, by visiting the EDSITEment-reviewed Treasures@Sea website. At the site, select "Book Activities." By clicking on the title of a particular book, students can learn about some of the sea animals featured in the story. For example, The Rainbow Fish page provides a link to information about starfish, while the Humphrey the Lost Whale page links to information about humpback whales. Web pages entitled Ocean Animals and Aquatic Safari, which can also be accessed through the Treasures@Sea Website, provide a wealth of information about various forms of ocean life. A list of other related sites can be found in the "Web Resources" section of Treasures@Sea.
To guide students' research, help them answer the following questions about their animals:
|Kindergarten||Grade 1||Grade 2|
Have students write or dictate answers to the questions above and help them organize their sentences in paragraph form. Encourage students to supply as much detail as possible. Students might pretend to be reporters interviewing their sea animal. Ask them what questions they would ask their animal if it could talk, and let them use their research to develop responses. Students can present their interviews in question and answer format and can draw pictures to illustrate their interviews. You may display the finished interviews around the edge of your ocean display, or compile them in a student magazine that can be copied and distributed to students and their families.
Set aside class time for students to share what they have learned about their ocean animal. Have them prepare a riddle about the animal as a way of introducing it to the rest of the class (e.g., "I have five arms but no fingers. What am I?"). Or have students prepare acrostic poems by printing their animal's name vertically on a piece of paper and then using each letter of that name to begin a word or sentence about the animal.
Additional Activity for Researching Ocean Life
If time permits, repeat the activity by having each student choose an ocean plant to research. Have them cut plant shapes from craft paper. Add the plants to the ocean display so that the foliage camouflages the animals. You may use this as an opportunity to discuss camouflage and other ways ocean animals protect themselves.
In this section of the lesson, students have the opportunity to create original poems -- either individually or as a class -- about ocean life. The ocean has inspired writers for centuries, and many poems have been written about the sea and the animals that live there. Read aloud a selection of published poems. (For suggestions, see the list of poetry collections and online nursery rhymes under the Resource List at the end of the lesson plan.) You may wish to choose poems about some of the animals that were researched in the previous activity, or invite students to browse through the collections in small groups and have them select the poems they would like to hear. (For a related lesson about poetry, see the EDSITEment lesson Play with Words: Rhyme & Verse.)
As students listen to each poem, discuss the techniques the poet uses to create images of ocean life. What animal is the poem about? How does the poet describe the animal and where it lives? What kinds of details does the poet include about the animal? Does the poem include action? Is it funny? Sad? Try to choose a wide array of poems so that students can see the range of stylistic possibilities. Discuss with students the similarities and differences among the poems.
Next, have 2nd-grade students work individually or in pairs to create their own poems about ocean life. Encourage them to use some of the resources listed at the end of the lesson as they research facts for their poems. Kindergarten and 1st-grade students can create the poem as a class.
After giving students the opportunity to practice reading their poem at home or in class, have each child recite his or her poem to the rest of the class (kindergarteners and 1st graders can recite the poem as a choral reading). You might wish to invite parents or other classes to the poetry presentation and use this as an opportunity for students to share the other work they have created as part of this unit.
Remind students of the stories you read in the Sharing Ocean Experiences and Introducing Ocean Literature sections of the lesson, and tell them that they are now going to write their own ocean stories. Begin by inviting students to recall all of the words they have learned about the ocean and about the animals and plants that live there. Have them use the vocabulary words generated in the previous activities as they write their short stories.
Before students begin writing, help them determine the main characters, settings, and plots for their stories. What sea animal would they like to write about? Where does this animal live, and what is it like there? What adventures or problems might this animal have? How does the animal solve the problem? Encourage students to draw upon the knowledge they gained in the Researching Ocean Life activity as they plan their stories. After students complete their first drafts, have them share their work in small groups. Have them give one another suggestions for ways to include more ocean-related vocabulary and ideas.
Younger students will need more teacher support to write stories. Kindergarteners and young 1st graders may want to dictate their stories to the teacher or teacher's aide.
When students have completed their final drafts, compile them in a class anthology to be shared with families and friends.
The following is a list of published texts that may be used in teaching this unit:
Online Nursery Rhymes
Sharing Ocean Experiences and Introducing Ocean Literature:
Cut-Away Ocean Display:-+
drawing or tracing paper
markers or crayons
4-6 class periods