Ethics

I have a large system of ethics in my life. I am of course, not the brightest individual and thus do things that are stupid... a lot, but in general I try to adhere to a system of ethics that is completely inspired. I did not make up the ethics that I live by, I did not pick to which I would adhere. I try to keep my life consistent with the morals and system of ethics presented in the Bible. I am not someone that goes home and sacrifices animals or anything like that, but more someone that adheres to the New Testament teachings. The main system of ethics that governs my life comes across through the teachings of Jesus Christ. It contains of many things, from doing only things are not out of scorn or jealousy, to keeping prayer as a constant in my life. This system of ethics has come into my life through my parents indirectly as I was raised in the church. i was brought up this way and even before choosing to live my life according to this system of ethics i was taught to. I think that this is the best way to find a system of ethics because it allowed for general rules for life to be instilled in me from a young age while also allowing me to be the one who decided those rules. Generally when kids choose not to follow their parents system of ethics it winds them up in a bad way but in this case it was completely my decision to either follow the ethics presented to me or to find a new system to govern my life. I think that this overall has improved th quality of my life, which is all that i think anyone can ask from their ethics and moral codes.

McKay and Hughes

Both Claude McKay and Langston Hughes were African American writers during the Harlem renaissance. They both wrote of cultural changes and of how things were for the black man at the time. The two writers however had a lot of differences between them as well. The first is their very basic style of writing. McKay was more of a formal writer who was a pioneer in writing the story of the African American in a “civilized” from that could be accepted by all poets at the time. He did this by writing formally is the style of a sonnet in a good number of his poems while still maintaining his originality and form in places such as the excerpt we read from the book. Langston Hughes was different in from what I have read that he is a more of a thematic writer. In poems such as “negro speaks of rivers” he used vivid imagery to get his point across that I think McKay tries to but just cannot match. He also uses this imagery in the poem “Mulatto”. He does this along with shocking imagery to get his point across with vivid lines such as what’s a body but a toy? Or juicy bodies. Both of these lines, while creepy and disturbing do an extremely good job of catching attention and directing it to where Hughes wants it to go. One thing that both of the writers have in common is that they talk about their roots in Africa in their poems. This is interesting to me because even though neither of these men were born in Africa the tie that they feel still compels them to write about it. Overall I think that Hughes did a great job and deserves to be the most recognized poet of the time with his imagery and imagination while it is undeniable that McKay was a great poet as well just going along a different and more formal style.