Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Research Paper Example Street literature is a genre involving an insightful look into the ghetto life (Morris et al. 20). The stories of â€Å"Midnight: A Gangster Love Story,† â€Å"Midnight and the Meaning of Love,† and â€Å"The Coldest Winter Ever† all fall within this gangsta realism that makes readers experience the high price of ghetto life through the characters. Street literature typically involves people from the African-American descent, and the main characters are usually mid-teens to mid-20s in age. They are usually depicted as people who go through extraordinary struggles in life, and they survive through obstacles such as violence, racism, and severe poverty. The whole story is filled with ghetto language, and this is more formally known as the African American Vernacular English (AAVE). The setting is usually in urban areas, and hip hop culture is the dominant scenario. Themes usually revolve around prostitution, premarital sex, illegal sex, crime, drugs, abortion, viol ence, and other illegal activities. The three novels mentioned above circle around such themes, and they are set within the urban hip hop milieu. However, despite such seemingly negative backdrop, these stories could serve as cautionary tales, and one does not need to go through the same experiences to learn what the characters learn in their life's journeys. The morals involved in the narratives are usually insightful in terms of understanding the, and learning from, the high price of ghetto life (Wright 42-45). â€Å"Midnight: A Gangster Love Story† is authored by Sister Souljah. It discusses the life of Midnight, a Muslim black immigrant from Sudan. In the opening lines of the book, Midnight is described as a tall guy with a dominating personality. He is pure black, and even his eyes are jet black. He is also described as lean and muscular, and females want to always be near him. Midnight is such a strong character because he never feels intimidated or insecure. Midnight i s a fierce fighter inside and out. Being a fighter is one common characteristic among the main characters in the three street literature novels (Brooks and McNair 129-132). Midnight's young life goes through a process of being sheltered and protected under his father's care, to being vulnerable and open to the dangers of a foreign neighborhood. His character is developed by his experiences, and he bravely surpasses obstacles throughout his teenage years. First, due to hardship, he becomes home schooled, and he escorts his mother daily to and from her sweat shop job. Second, to develop himself, he learns martial arts, and he also becomes a talented basketball player. Third, to get over poverty, he begins to earn his own money through a fish market job, and he helps save up to purchase a bigger house for his family in a less dangerous neighborhood. He gets over hindrances towards his family progress and personal development, that is why even language barrier does not deter him from wi nning the heart of a Japanese beauty named Akemi. His character is shown even further development as he adheres to his strict Muslim principles while courting Akemi. It can therefore be said that surviving one hardship after another makes Midnight who he is in the novel, and makes him a striking protagonist in this street literature (A Gangster). As a further backgrounder, Midnight is a boy who flees Africa at

Visual Arts and Film Studies Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Visual Arts and Film Studies - Research Paper Example Upon its discovery, Cubism had a lasting impact on the artworks which were dominant during its discovery. Cubism was more of an abstract art style, which laid the foundation for the discovery and development of other artworks such as Surrealism and Dadaism. As a result of Cubism, new art modes such as futurism and Orphism came to being. Cubism changed the way people perceive the world in numerous ways (Robinson 7-30). With Cubism, the world was not to look the same again because of the huge impact, which this movement had on the world. The revolutionary nature of this movement was so phenomenal that it changed the way artists viewed the components of art. Cubism also changed the world; through it, all aspects of a subject could be seen at the same time. As a result, this allowed the simultaneous view of the parts that comprised an art work. The development of modern art can also be attributed to the discovery of Cubism as a form of art. This innovative movement led to the establishme nt of a new plastic order, which was different from the form of art that was existent before its discovery. Cubism also enhanced revolutionary changes in visual representation as artists strived to change the look of art images (Robinson 7-30). Analytic and synthetic Cubism was also phenomenal in changing the way people viewed the world. Analytic and synthetic Cubism details phases, which took place in the field of art. Synthetic Cubism helped in the combination of many forms of art as it brought numerous art forms. Analytic Cubism encompassed the bringing together of separate elements of artwork and connected them to the whole. With the changes that it brought to the nature of paintings, Cubism was phenomenal in changing the way people viewed the world. Through Cubism, painting evolved, and it changed from the older forms, which encompassed spatial planning and structure (Cottington 3-36). Cubism changed the way people see the world as it introduced cubes and facets, which were arr anged in transparent and superimposed planes. In addition, the cubes had edges that could be regarded as clearly defined; they introduced aspects such as space, mass, as well as what the movement of Cubism implied. Cubism was also influential as it led to the introduction of such aspects in the art such as muted greens, ochers, browns, as well as grays. Cubism also changed the world as it consisted of a combination of both traditional aspects of art and modern aspects. For example, the Cubist movement included a subject matter consisting of traditional portraits, still life, and traditional landscapes. This was coupled with fragments consisting of wineglasses, faces, as well as guitars that became main subjects of the Cubist works (Chilvers 185-190). The other way in which Cubism changed the way the world is perceived is through introducing the use of bright color in artwork. Cubism also introduced the use of decorative devices such as the stippling technique, which came from pointi llism. As a result of Cubism, artists started using shadow, tone, as well as broken brush strokes in their paintings. These aspects, together with the distance established between planes that used to be denser, led to the introduction of light. Synthetic Cubism was extremely phenomenal as it provided the basis for the creation and description of visual reality, which could now be done without illusionism in painting. The synthesis of objects became a reality with the Cubism as artists were able to use real components in collage (Martin 52-76). Cubism also changed the way people see the world by introducing new forms of art, which replaced Western art. Cubists held the belief that Western art was traditional and that it had become obsolete. As such,