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Analysis of gwendolyn brooks the mother
African american culture and its impact on american culture
An essay on gwendolyn brooks
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Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” (written in 1959 and published in 1960) is a lyric poem that shows a glimpse into the life of seven, young African-American men who have chosen to abandon the social norm of searching for the “American Dream” and, instead, venture into the uncertainty of life roaming the streets (slang for unsavory areas where criminal activity is frequent), where the only certainty is an early death. In a time already plagued with racial hostility, adversity in the lives of young African-Americans was a guarantee, but to freely choose a life without a formal education or employment would add unnecessary hardships. “We Real Cool” utilizes a unique combination of literary vices like point of view, rhythm, and syntax to offer …show more content…
social commentary on the reckless lifestyle of some of the youth in the black community. One of the main themes of “We Real Cool” is wasted youth, which can be interpreted from wording of the title. The title is a sentence using slang and improper grammar, which could show the wasted potential of black youth, particularly young, black adolescents, who either skipped school or dropped out completely to enjoy their freedom in the streets. Instead of using “really cool,” Brooks used “real cool,” which was most likely popular slang among young African-Americans. Also, each line is short and to the point and only uses simple words with no use of imagery, despite the entire poem being a vivid portrayal of life in the streets. Since Brooks lived most of her life in Chicago, this scenario would not be far-fetched. Barnet, Burto, and Cain (545) consulted one commentary that said the poem depicts gang members playing pool at the bar, The Golden Shovel on the South Side of Chicago, and they also add that the gang is a group of seven nameless, faceless people. It’s possible that Brooks saw this scenario regularly in her community and is using her memory of these various scenes to represent this fast-paced and dangerous lifestyle. The poem is a total of eight lines, with the last one being “Die soon,” (Brooks, 545; ch. 18). Since, there’s no “we” that ends the last sentence, one can interpret that the seven stories end or will end eventually and no longer be told because they’ve all died due to their lives of crime and gang violence. Moreover, the terse sentences can also show the short lives of these young men, who lived hard and met their ends quickly because of it. Although each gang member shares their perspectives of their lifestyle, they are still without any identities of their own, much like a “John Doe” tag used on an unclaimed corpse. In the end, each teen’s life was claimed by the streets and their own reckless actions that led them to early graves. “We Real Cool” is a lyric poem, which is “a type of poem characterized by brevity, compression, and the expression of feeling,” (DiYanni, “Glossary of Poetic Terms”).
Some lyrical elements used in this poem are rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. The lines of this poem reads like a song, and the syllables enhance that effect. The first line uses four syllables, while every other line (except for the last line) uses three. The last line uses only two syllables, and there is no “we” at the end, which, visually, makes the last couplet look disjointed. However, it connects the first line, which began unusually as well. The link between the two can also be viewed as the overall message of the poem. Line 1 begins and ends with “we,” while line 8 does not use the word “we” at all. It’s possible that the wording on the two lines was intended to show how the each story began with every character, but by the end of the poem, there were not or will no longer be any characters …show more content…
left. Looking deeper into each line, one can see some of the action that led or leads to the ending of each story and how the first and last lines come full circle. Each character describes leaving school, staying out late at night, fighting, singing songs that were possibly considered sinful among their parents and grandparents, who religious (given the time period the poem was written), either drinking gin or making it, and dancing to jazz either in June or with women. While most of the actions were self-explanatory, the ones in lines 6 and 7 seem to have more hidden meanings, particularly line 6. Gin was one of the most popular drinks of choice in the 20th century until vodka eventually took its place (DeLuca, “Sin and Gin”). It was so popular that it was often homemade in bathtubs, which was a popular method during the prohibition Era. Although it was highly accessible, the taste of homemade gin was no match for the real thing. Brooks’ use of thinning gin could be a reference to making and drinking homemade gin, since they would, most likely, not be able to have access to it otherwise, without connections. In addition, Gin and Sin was a popular cocktail in the 50’s (“1950s Cocktails”); so, the words “sin,” which share the same couplet, could also be a play on words. Therefore, line 6 could be an extra glimpse into the characters’ lifestyle. The first and last line may hold the biggest key to deciphering the meaning of “We Real Cool.” It’s possible that Brooks wanted to express her views on this aspect of her community that valued having street credibility and living with no rules or social norms and how there were consequences for being cool. Young people trying to act cool and fit in with others who are not motivated to improve their lives and live up their true potential end up falling into peer pressure and partaking in gang violence but quickly meet their ends in the process. Sentence structure and syntax also play huge roles in the unique execution of the poem.
Other than the first line, “we” is always at the end of a sentence, while the action starts off each sentence. The combination would also make the last line a complete sentence. This could be a method to show that the actions of these young men are what define them and not their own individual identities, since their names or personal traits are unknown to the reader. They are simply one of countless scenarios that occur due to the harsh lifestyles they chose to lead, and after they are dead and gone, they are replaced by a group of nameless, faceless young men who are eager to take control of their futures, even if it means doing so in an undesirable fashion. Moreover, if the reader was to add “We” from line 1 to line 8 and combine both lines, they would read “We real cool. / We die soon,” which makes three syllables in each line and makes them equal with every other line. Although, it is a rather dark analysis of an already tragic poem, it can interpret the bleak outlooks of people in Brooks’ community who shared her views on wasted youth due to gang
violence. Brooks uses an unorthodox mix of word play, sentence structure, rhythm, and abruptness in “We Real Cool” to show the short lives of the young, black men of her day, who chose life in the streets over pursuing an education and making plans for a normal life (according to the social norms of that time). Despite there being seven narrators of the lyric poem, neither of them have a real voice in their own story that they share. They have no names, faces, or futures in their own narrative. Due to their own choices, they are nothing more than revolving characters in an ongoing story of wasted youth, whose voices were or will eventually be lost at the hands of reckless living and the lack of foresight, other than the pursuit of fickle aspirations.
Rhyme-The last words of line one and line three of each stanza rhyme. The last words of line two and line four of each stanza also rhyme. The rhyming words contribute to the rhythm and flow of the poem.
The most noticeable aspect of the structure of the entire poem is the lack of capital letters and periods. There is only one part in the entire forty lines, which is at the very end, and this intentional punctuation brings readers to question the speaker’s literacy. In fact, the speaker is very young, and the use of punctuation and hyphens brings to attention the speaker’s innocence, and because of that innocence, the
This week’s reflection is on a book titled Girls Like Us and it is authored by Rachel Lloyd. The cover also says “fighting for a world where girls not for sale”. After reading that title I had a feeling this book was going to be about girls being prostituted at a young age and after reading prologue I sadly realized I was right in my prediction.
In “Sonny’s Blues,” Baldwin’s metaphors relate the emotions of his characters. His writing makes the experience of living in Harlem as a black person in the 1950s real for the reader. Moreover, “Sonny’s Blues” is a story that is universally relatable on human level, as the emotions and relationships Baldwin reveals are not unique to the story’s
The poet begins by describing the scene to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and elaborates on how the sky and the ground work in harmony. This is almost a story like layout with a beginning a complication and an ending. Thus the poem has a story like feel to it. At first it may not be clear why the poem is broken up into three- five line stanzas. The poet deliberately used this line stanzas as the most appropriate way to separate scenes and emotions to create a story like format.
Brooks employs more than one rhyming device. She exercises end rhyme in the poem. Brooks’ words rhyme at the end of each sentence. Often in rhymes, the sentence ends with the rhyming word, but not here. The poem’s sentences end in the middle of the line, because Brooks chose to create a metrical pause or caesura. The repetition of “We” at the end, helps to keep the audience focus on the gang. Brooks applies internal rhyme before the end. “We / Sing in. We / Thin gin” (5-6) shows internal rhyme. The gang is proud and boasting about their lives. This conjures up visions of the boys bad choices, but it also helps you see the connection in the lines.
last, which is four lines. In the first three stanzas, the poem is told in
Rhymes are two or more words that have the same ending sound. Songwriters and poets often times use rhymes to help their piece flow better, or keep the audience or readers engaged. Billy Joel’s song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” is filled with rhymes, with a rhyme in almost every single line: “Brando, the King and I, and the Catcher In The Rye / Eisenhower, Vaccine, England’s got a new Queen / Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye” (line 6-8). Billy Joel uses the rhymes to move from one topic to the next, and the song is even in chronological order from 1950 to 1989. The rhyme schemes of the song are end rhymes as well as perfect rhymes. On the other hand, the poem is completely free verse, or without a single rhyme. This makes the poem less artistic and harder to remain engaged and interested. In addition to rhyming, allusions are another way of displaying artistic
Literacy has impacted individuals of all classes, race and gender. In The Color of Water, James McBride´s interaction with literacy causes him to look at the world more deeply by seeking the story of his mother. Wes Moore’s The Other Wes Moore shows the reader the effects of literacy when comparing the lives of two men with the same name. Additionally, Richard Wright’s Black Boy shares the insight of what literacy can have on an individual’s sense of the world, and Brent Staples’ “Black Men in Public Space” sheds light on the stereotypical platforms set by society. Lastly, Gwendolyn Brooks’s “We Real Cool” explains a life full of careless fun. Although these stories differ, the influence of literacy has enabled each man to grow as a person
Brooks conveys her message in an ironic manner, which is presented in the title of the poem. Before actually reading the 10 line poem the first thing that grabs the reader's attention is the title. After reading the title "We Real Cool" one would assume that the intent of the poem is going to be about a group of people who are fortunate and live a flamboyant lifestyle. This is not the case for the "seven players" in Brooks's poem. After reading the entire poem, the true meaning is revealed. "We Real Cool" focuses on the life of "seven players" who drop out of school. Their daily life is carefree and consists of playing pool, drinking alcohol, and using vulgar language. Brooks elucidates that this "cool" lifestyle only leads to death.
I believe that the structure of this poem allows for the speaker to tell a narrative which further allows him to convey his point. The use of enjambment emphasizes this idea as well as provides a sense of flow throughout the entirety of a poem, giving it the look and feel of reading a story. Overall, I believe this piece is very simplistic when it comes to poetic devices, due to the fact that it is written as a prose poem, this piece lacks many of the common poetic devices such as rhyme, repetition, alliteration, and metaphors. However, the tone, symbolism, allusion and imagery presented in the poem, give way to an extremely deep and complicated
This is an interesting attribute to the poem because generally, poetry and prose are consistent with a sole point of view. The author starts the poem with the word, “We” indicating first person point of view. This helps connect the author with the reader being together in a “long line,” (line 1). This puts the reader with the author, giving them the idea of what it is like to stand and wait, exhausted and “shifting from one foot to another,” (line 7). This makes the reader feel that exhaustion and feel in that moment as well. When Levine uses second person point of view to also bring the reader into the story, so that the reader can experience and feel the same things that the author does. Levine wants the reader to know that work is about waiting, and how “you” are waiting too. It is intended to give the reader a look into how work is about sacrificing a social life and interaction with loved ones to succeed at school, work, and be able to sleep at
The rhyme scheme changes a few times throughout the poem. Most frequently the reader notices rhyming couplets. These sometimes use the same number of syllables, but they are not in iambic pentameter; they are often 11 or 13 syllables long, or of differing lengths. The poem concludes with a closed couplet: two successive lines that contain a grammatically complete statement, “Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: / Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.” (497).The final word of each of these lines rhymes each one another. The statement is considered “closed” since its meaning is contained within the two lines, and it is within these two lines that the climax of the poem is
The overview of the poem is an amplified skirmish segment amide by two characters. The short poem contains two unnamed characters that will eventually become recognized as foes, thus commencing a dramatic face-to-face showdown. One character shall remain remorseful, through pure moral consciousness, while the other (character) would remain as a cigarette, slowly but surely killing someone in the Inside, without knowing. Through the first stanza, the poet says, "Had he and I but meet"(1), which is elucidating an alternate situation of meeting a different way. The first line
Throughout the whole work no punctuations are used, which makes the poem hard to read, and forces the reader to focus on the story, even the smallest details. Although the work seems unorganized, because of the varying lengths of lines, there is a little organization. This relies in the fact that each new major idea starts in a new line with a capital letter, and until the next capital letter there is no new idea.