Paper details:

Choose a text from the modernist or postmodernist groups (anything after and including James Weldon Johnson).

How does this text illustrate the weaknesses, flaws, gaps, or exceptions of essentialist identities?

Keep in mind that essentialism can relate to gender, race, or class. Provide clear examples from the text and explain how/why this text complicates or destroys essentialism in identity (generally or about specific characters) and why complicating or destroying essentialist assumptions about identity is important to modernism or postmodernism. Be sure to clearly define essentialism early in the essay.