Audience in African American Literature
The writer's audience in literature can be telling especially when taking in account historical context in African American literature. Writers can change their story to appeal to their desired audience and an example could be when comparing and contrasting Harriet Jacobs in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Seven Years Concealed and Booker T. Washington in Up From Slavery . Jacobs tried to appeal to people who did not know the horrors in slavery especially in the North. She did this by describing her positive memories of slavery through the eyes of a child, but then describing her true thoughts on slavery as a victim of rape. Booker T. Washington in Up From Slavery tried to appeal to Caucasian people to try to integrate African American people into society. He did this by describing relatively tame parts of slavery. Both accounts have truth, but what parts of the story left in to appeal to their desired audience could have changed the way the narratives ...