Analysis Of We Real Cool By Gwendolyn Brooks

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Gwendolyn Brooks’, “We Real Cool”, is a poem about seven pool players that are assumed to be friends. The poem talks about how the players are doing things, while they are living; such as, skipping school and staying out late, which also signifies that the players are still in their youth. There is a bond of loyalty within the players because there is a repetition of “We”, which signifies unity of a group of people, used throughout the poem. Brooks’ attitude towards the players is very encouraging because she is trying to tell them that they only live once, so enjoy life while you can. Her attitude also tells the seven players to believe in themselves and be different from everyone else. The poem also represents the mindset and culture of African American men back when times were difficult.
In the poem the repetition of “We” is used often. “We real cool. We/Left school” (Line 3-4). This line shows how the seven players are confident in themselves and nothing can bring them down. Brooks states, “So when the seven say …show more content…

No one really cared about what was going on in their lives because society already had a set image of them. It was hard for them to be comfortable, which is why black men resulted into not going to school, staying out late, drinking alcohol, and raping women. The black men thought that they had no potential to be something more than what society made of them. They struggled for years to remove themselves from this image and it still exist till this day. Gwendolyn Brooks’ ‘We Real Cool’ is not only a poem with different sounds and literary elements. It is about the struggle of the African American community and what they had to do to make other people comfortable even if it risked their own comfort. This poem is also a reflection of society today and how things haven’t really changed amongst the years. How can society change this

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