Poetry Videos

LITERARY MOVEMENTS

Puritanism and Rationalism

English III

Seminar Friday

Emilio Leanza

October 23^rd, 2008

“Relating A Raisin in the Sun to Good Times, the Jeffersons, and Sanford and Son”

·         “The Jeffersons”   

·         An older African-American married couple, George and Louise Jefferson, “move up” from Queens to a luxurious apartment in the East Side much in the same way that the Younger family moves from the Chicago projects to Clyburn Park.

·         Promise of better quality of life

·         George Jefferson owns and operates a small laundry business

·         The theme song sums up the premise of the show

§  Jefferson’s Theme

·         Deals with racial stereotypes and emergence of African-American middle class

·         “Good Times”

·        

·         Depicts the everyday struggles of a semi-impoverished African-American family that struggles just to make ends meet.

·         However poor the Evans may be, they are rich in family values just like the Youngers

·         Also set in Chicago

·         Mamma Younger is most similar to Florida

·         James Evans, the head of the Evan’s household, is comparable to Walter Lee.

·         Their son, James- Travis

·         I could not, however, find a comparision between the two masterpieces for J.J.

·         Immense pride and dignity like the Youngers

·         For instance, in this scene the family is threatened with eviction and James declines getting any hand-outs from the government.  

·         “Sanford and Son”

·         Illustrates the idea that society, the man, keeps black brothers held down in poverty through the trials and tribulations of an old African-American man, Fred Sanford, and his son, Lamont Sanford as they strive to keep their salvage business intact after the loss of their beloved Elizabeth Sanford.

·         Sanford and Son theme