Name: ___________________________ Period: _____ Unit Packet #______
The Modern Time Period (1913-1939)
The Harlem Renaissance
Notes: The Moderns …………………………………………………………………………………….……..…….
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Summary of Notes ……………………………………………………………………………………………….…….
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Harlem: Before you Read…………………………………………………………………………………...………
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Harlem: Interpretation and Clarification Questions ..…………………………………………
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Harlem: Reading Skills—Identifying Historical Themes..……………………………………
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Harlem Hate Propaganda ……………………………………....…………………………………………….……
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Negro Speaks of Rivers: Annotation Activity ………………………………………………..…….
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Negro Speaks of Rivers: Literary Response and Analysis………………………….……….
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Theme for English B ……………………………..…………………………………………………………………….
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TOTAL POINTS ______/100
Reading Standard 3.3: Analyze the ways in which irony, tone, mood, the author’s style, and the sound of language achieves specific rhetorical
or aesthetic purposes or both.
Vocabulary Standard 1.3: Discern the meanings of analogies encountered, analyzing specific comparisons as well as relationships and
inferences.
Reading Comprehension 2.5: Analyze an author’s implicit and explicit philosophical assumptions and beliefs about a subject.
Reading Comprehension 2.6: Critique the power, validity, and truthfulness of arguments set forth in public documents.
Writing Strategies 1.1: Demonstrate an understanding of the elements of discourse (e.g. purpose, speaker audience, form).
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Notes on the Time Period: The Moderns (1913-1939)
DIRECTIONS: it is important to know the thought, ideals, and values of a time period in order
to fully understand the meaning of its important literature. Read the history section of Chapter
5 in the HOLT textbook (pages 558-569) and take summarized notes on the following sections:
The American Dream:
Pursuit of a Promise
A Crack in the World:
Breakdown of Beliefs
and Traditions
Karl Marx and
Sigmund Freud
The Jazz Age
Modern Voices in
Poetry
The Harlem
Renaissance
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Essential Skill: Summary of PPT Notes
DIRECTIONS: It is important to understand the history and essential characteristics of a time
period so you can understand the context of the texts we read. Take a few minutes to reflect
on the notes you took on the time period and create a one-paragraph summary that includes the
important concepts and events that may have influenced the literature of the time. Then,
briefly answer the reflection questions at the bottom of the page.
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Reflection Question 1: What do you think is the single most important piece of information to
know about this time period? Why?
Reflection Question 2: Turn to a partner and ask them their answer to Reflection Question 1.
Record their answer.
Reflection Question 3: Why are we learning about this time period in an English class?
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BEFORE YOU READ
Harlem by Langston Hughes
THEME
LITERARY FOCUS: MOOD
The general feeling created in a piece of writing is called its mood. This
mood, or atmosphere, is created by all the elements of the text: diction,
or word choice; sounds; images; and figures of speech. Often, the mood
of a text can be summed up in one word—gloomy, joyful, fearful,
ominous, mysterious.
Setting the Mood
Sometimes just the setting of a text is enough to establish a mood. The
chart below lists three settings. In the right column, fill in the mood you
would expect from each setting.
Setting
The insight about
human life revealed in
a work of literature.
Writers rarely state
themes directly.
Readers must infer
the theme by thinking
carefully about all the
details in the text:
diction, mood, sounds,
images, figures of
speech.
Mood
A Dark Castle
A Sunny Beach
High Mountain Peaks
READING SKILLS: IDENTIFYING HISTORICAL THEMES
Certain themes occur again and again during certain historical periods. During the American
revolutionary period, for example, writers often explored themes of freedom or identity. These
themes reflected the optimistic, rational views of the time. “Harlem,” on the other hand, was
written during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when millions of Americans faced severe
economic problems. The number of people without jobs rose from four million to twelve million
between 1930 and 1932. Many people who still had jobs worked fewer hours for less pay. It was
a time when even a one-cent price increase meant that many people couldn’t afford bread.
Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City inhabited primarily by African Americans, was hit hard
by the Depression. As you read the following poem, notice how it relates to the concerns of that
historical period.
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Interpretation and Clarification
Questions
HARLEM
By Langston Hughes
Here on the edge of hell
Stands Harlem—
Remembering the old lies,
The old kicks in the back,
The old “Be patient”
They told us before.
1. Number all of the lines in the poem.
2. Underline details that help create the
mood in lines 1–6. Describe this mood in
your own words.
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Sure, we remember.
Now when the man at the corner store
Says sugar’s gone up another two cents,
And bread one,
And there’s a new tax on cigarettes—
We remember the job we never had,
Never could get,
And can’t have now
3. In lines 7–15, underline details that
show the economic effects of the
Depression. Circle details that show the
effects of discrimination.
Because we’re colored.
So we stand here
On the edge of hell
In Harlem
And look out on the world
And wonder
What we’re gonna do
In the face of what
We remember.
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4. Circle the metaphor in line 17 that
repeats the metaphor in line 1. What
does this figure of speech tell you about
life in Harlem during this historical
period?
5. How would you state the theme of this
poem?
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HARLEM
Reading Skills: Identifying Historical Themes
DIRECTIONS: The poem “Harlem” reflects the themes and issues of the historical period we
call the Great Depression. The chart below lists details from the poem. In the right-hand
column, fill in the historical themes or issues these details illustrate. Make sure to answer the
EVALUATIVE question at the bottom of the page!
Details from “Harlem”
Historical Theme or Issue
“Remembering the old lies, / The
old kicks in the back, / The old ‘Be
patient’ / They told us before.”
(lines 3–6)
“. . . the man at the corner store /
Says sugar’s gone up another two
cents, / And bread one,” (lines 8–10)
“We remember the job we never
had, / Never could get, / And can’t
have now / Because we’re colored.”
(lines 12–15)
Evaluate: Based from the themes (or insight on life) you have identified, what do you think the
overall MOOD is of the poem and why?
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Harlem Hate Propaganda
Hughes certainly suffered right wing propaganda against him, as this flyer by Huey Long buddy
Gerald L.K. Smith and publisher of The Flag and the Cross illustrates:
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Types of Propaganda
Propaganda: the use of a variety of communication techniques that create an emotional appeal to accept
a particular belief or opinion, to adopt a certain behavior or to perform a particular action.
Types
Definition
Example
NAME CALLING
GLITTERING
GENERALITIES
TRANSFER/
ASSOCIATION
TESTIMONIAL
PLAIN FOLKS
BANDWAGON
FEAR
BAD LOGIC/
UNWARRANTED
ASSUMPTIONS
ANALYSIS: What type of Propaganda is used in the “Hate Christ” poster? Give specific reasons and
examples for your claims:
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Annotate:
WITH the
grain
Annotate:
AGAINST
the grain
THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS
By Langston Hughes
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow
of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown
deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went
down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn
all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown
deep like the rivers.
Start Here!
1. What specific rivers
does the speaker name?
3. What special
connections may African
Americans have with
each of these rivers?
(Notice the verbs that
follow the word “I” at
the beginning of each
line in the third
stanza.)
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2. This speaker speaks for a multitude.
Who or what does the poet imagine is the
“I” in this poem?
Literary Response and
Analysis Questions
4. In the last line, what
comparison does the
speaker make?
“THE NEGRO
SPEAKS OF
RIVERS”
5. What repetition do you see in the poem?
What line acts as a refrain?
6. What is the emotional effect of the repetition?
Last one! Make it count!
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Theme for English B
Langston Hughes
The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you-Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:
It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me--we two--you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me--who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records--Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white-yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me-although you're older--and white-and somewhat more free.
This is my page for English B.
What’s your Theme
for English B?
*Staple your poem to
the back of this
packet