Brother to Brother Essay

In the film Brother to Brother, there were a lot of struggling going on. People were fustrated about not being able to publish their work and sell them, based on their sexuality, gender, and race. In this film, Zora Neale Hurston, an African American writer and a gay African American writer, Wallace Thurman was trying to get both of their works publish, but the publisher refuse to do so because the language that they're using is too Black.

The publsiher wants Thurman to change some some of his mistakes in his work before he publishes it. The publsiher said, "the public wants a Harlem that is dark, dangerous, and violent." People wants to hear more about the problems, such as crimes that is happening in this unvalued minor place. Thurman argued that it was not true, he can't get over his pride to write about something that is not the true at all, so he refused to change anything in his work.

On the other hand, the publisher wants Hurston to make some minor changes in her work. The publsiher said to Hurston that she should change from vernacular to white English. Then she explains that it's written for people and they will understand it fine. She never meant to write this book for the whites, she was writing this book for her people. She wants to tell her people that it's wrong to prejudice people based on their race, sexuality, or anything else that has to do with their own lifestyle. The publsiher explained to Hurston that Nigger Heaven was the best selling book written by a white person. There are a lot of popular books about Harlem Renaissance, but even if it's a best selling book, but the whites wasn't satisfied at all. What they want is that they want to hear about Harlem Renaissance from a person who knows this place really well and especially from a Black person because they believe that it's a more accurate information than other information written by whites. At the end she still refused to do so because she don't want to lie to herself just to please the readers.

I think that they chose the right option because it's not all just about fame and wealth. Everyone has pride and dignity, which they both inherit. The truth is much more important than some fame and money. They both don't want to lie because they don't want to let their people down. They both wrote about what's really happening in Harlem Renaissance, but they never thought that they need to change their work for the satisfaction of people. Because of the pride inside them, they both chose to not do it, rather than telling lies.