Through online broadcasts and riveting reading assignments, this class has broadened my knowledge about the Black Power Movement and the Civil Rights Era. Initially, I enrolled in this class to complete my tier 2 credits but in addition to that I was very intrigued by African American Literature. This was my first time taking an Africana studies course. I took this course in hope of learning about a subject I know very a little about. This class has successfully broadened my knowledge about the African American culture. Introduction of African American Literature has presented me with the opportunity to about the historical linguistics of their culture. This course contains many voicethreads and very few writing …show more content…
This novel stands as my favorite reading particularly because of how in depth we went on it. Through multiple voicethreads, we analyzed the plot, symbols, and characters. When I began reading The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead, I realized very quickly that this short story would be mystery filled. The story revolves around elevators which were very prevalent during this pre-civil war time period. I am curious to see the real reason elevators are so symbolic in this short story. Whitehead caught my attention right when i realized he chose an African american elevator inspector named Lila Mae as his main character. Lila doesn’t portray many characteristics of your typical main character. She is very kept to herself and difficult to read. The storyline picked up very quickly and is certainly unpredictable. One of our inclass assignments asked us to analyze a significant symbol in the story. I decided to analyze the most obvious symbol which is the elevator but with a different approach. Instead of focusing on Lila’s job I am more focused on the characteristics of the elevator itself. I initially predicted that the issues with the elevator are symbolic to events that may have happened to Lila in the past. Whitehead’s strategically begins the story with the elevator failing to operate. I consider this to be a very significant aspect of this story but I am still struggling to figure out why the story starts this