Analysis Of A Litany For Survival By Audre Lorde

Brooks uses “Malcolm X” to exemplify how the people of this time period viewed Malcolm X. She, and presumably the people around her, saw him as the answer to the problems and racism they had been facing. The poems begins with the use of the word “Original.” (Brooks 1) A character like Malcolm X has not represented the Black nationalist movement before. He is a new definition of a man. Brooks describes his features but not once is his race mentioned. We understand he has “hawk-man’s eyes,” (Brooks 4) and he allows them to “[see] the maleness.” (Brooks 5) But we know that Malcolm X is black because he is a historical figure, not because that is mentioned in the poem. In the last couple of lines, Brooks states, “He opened us - / Who was a key.

The title, “A Litany for Survival,” is a reference to prayer a communal prayer that involves alternating speakers. The lead speaker, Lorde, addresses the listeners/readers and herself. In this case, the readers and people that the poem is geared towards feel powerless and insignificant. Lorde uses this tactic in order to make her message of “So it is better to speak / remembering / we were never meant to survive” (Lorde 42-44) even more powerful. She has appealed to their ethos and related to them in order to empower them by the end. The first two stanzas can be seen as a statement of the prayer itself. We see the oppressed groups emerge from silence and we watch as they are empowered. Their selves are restored when they find understanding and freedom in Lorde’s words. In the repetition of “We were never meant to survive,” (Lorde 24) Lorde suggests that because of black oppression and the way white oppressionists carry out their racism, the oppressed are left with no way to escape it. Lorde appeals to the population that has not tried to escape their fate that has been predetermined by white

They speak of the importance of motherhood and its effect of a child on a woman 's life. “Mother Love,” is a description of the in betweenness of motherhood and daughterhood. Dove toys with ideas of the meaning of the “self” and describes her journey searching for herself. Dove uses motherhood and daughterhood yo describe her difficulties with the art of letting go. the shifting of persona and overlap of narratives provides for a confusion similar to what Dove is feeling in her transition to motherhood from daughterhood. Lorde’s poem is one of the realization of the importance of motherhood. She discusses the birth of her daughter and similarly to Dove she described her transition from daughter to child. By the end of the poem Lorde writes, “You, / flowing through selves /toward You.” She is stating her desire for her daughter to find herself like she