Pedro Rodriguez
Exam #1
The Great Migration reshape of American History Rudolph Fisher in the story Miss Cynthie and City of Refuge does a great job by exploiting the different characters of the Great Migration. For example, for immigrants that has just arrived to Harlem Fisher highlights Miss Cynthie and Gillis. For immigrants that are established in Harlem Fisher highlights two characters headed in two different directions; one is David an established artist, second is Uggam a person involved in illegal activities. All of these serve the purpose of reporters for the reader to get a deeper knowledge of the life during the Great Migration. When Miss Cynthie arrives to the city of New York she is flabbergasted at the decorum that she
We see evidence of Dave’s ambitiousness when he and Miss Cynthie are talking about churches Dave says “Nobody’s hand-me-down gift”, which Miss Cynthie responds “Oh, yes, it was a gift, David. It was a gift from on high”. (page 39) Dave is telling Miss Cynthie that everything everyone in Harlem has achieves is because they have worked hard that nothing has been handed down. Miss Cynthie of course repudiates those comments by stating that everything has been handed down from God.
In the story of City of Refuge Gillis is fascinated in seeing a black person in power. Gillis perspective is that he would never see a black police officer in power and that is why he abides; when the black officer is going to reprehend him. We see this in the last page where it states,
“Gillis found himself face to face with a uniformed black policeman. He stopped as if stunned. For a moment he simply stared. Into his mind swept his own words, like a forgotten song suddenly recalled:“Cullud policemans!”The officer stood ready, awaiting his rush.“Even — got — cullud — policemans —”Very slowly King Solomon’s arms relaxed; very slowly he stood erect; and the grin that came over his features had something exultant about it.” (Page 11)
Gillis is amazed to see a black person in power that he is no longer going to resist arrest. The story states about how he had this big grin on his face when he saw the black officer and this grin is a grin of