The Beauty and Pain of “The Southern Road”

In Helene Johnson’s poem “A Southern Road”, Johnson describes both the beauty and pain of the South. What starts off as a beautiful piece describing the nature of the environment the reader is in soon takes a turn into something that becomes much more morbid.  This shift is evident especially in terms of the use…

Taste through Time

The notion of “taste” has been a constant thread throughout reading The Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown and Cordelia the Crude by William Thurman. Although they are in very different phases of life, Henry figuring out the logistics of how he will escape his life as a slave and Cordelia navigating her…

Cordelia’s Game of Life

In Cordelia the Crude, author Wallace Thurman creates a “me vs. you” environment both for the readers and the narrator. Cordelia’s entire life is described as a long battle that she is neither winning nor losing. It is difficult for the reader to pinpoint where Cordelia stands in her life, which presents a mind game…