Ethnical And Cultural Crises In The Select Novels Of Omar Tyree And Ishmael Scott Reed

Abstract

Ethnical and cultural crises are the major challenging issues that African-Americans are facing both in the past and present America. They are one of the ethno cultural minority groups in the United States. The humane term “African-Americans” has officially been used to address them. It was after the cold war that aimed at eradicating slavery. After eradication of slavery system, the economically weaker ethnic group preferred staying in America. Ethnicity categorizes them that they have shared culture. It bestows an identity to them as African-Americans. It means that they are holding mixed cultural, traditional and religious backgrounds. They are still considered inferiors due to their impoverished state in the country. On account of their multidimensional inventory; issue of cultural crisis come to light within the group. It leads to communal riots and dissension among them. African American literature evidently witnesses the illustration of these issues being chronicled in their writings.   

This paper aims at examining the negative impacts produced as a result of ethnical and cultural crises. In terms of analysing these issues the novels of leading African-American novelists have been taken for this study. They are Ishmael Scott Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo and Omar Tyree’s Leslie. The paper focuses on analysing this major issue in the views of critics and major theorists.