Words can not describe the jeopardy of one's future, when it rests in the hands of another. Slavery's end did not provide African Americans with freedom and prosperity; instead it brought on a period of suffering and misery. An unwritten law of superiority/inferiority was established between blacks and whites, and because of this a sense of fear shrouded the black race. The wretched lives of blacks are illustrated in Richard Wright's novel Black Boy as well as in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Slave in the Dismal Swamp." In the novel Wright recounts the incidents he encountered in his life, as a young African American. Meanwhile Longfellow describes the pain and suffering of a hunted slave, who is a symbol of the entire black race. In both texts literary elements, such as symbolism, point of view, tone, and characterization, can be distinguished and examined for the analytical...