Blind Tom Plays On Analysis

Meritt Miller
Alison Pelegrin
English 484/584
9 Oct. 2017
Olio Response Greatest amongst the content we have covered in class, Olio has been, by far, my favorite collection of poetry and poetic forms so far. Tyehimba Jess uses his unique insight into the issues plaguing the newly freed black community in the mid 19th century and presents many of those issues to us as readers in a powerful and relatable way. One of the most powerful elements I encountered was the feeling of self-identity and the journey of discovering oneself. Many of Jess’s poems such as “Blind Tom Plays On…” and the “Blind Boone” segment, incorporate and effectively symbolize the black community at the time through the use of two blind characters, John William “Blind” Boone and “Blind” Tom Wiggins. Jess describes their struggle of exploring the world through not only the handicap of being blind, but what the lack of self-identity means on a

He was able to accurately create and portray characters in this minstrel sub-community and how their lives were changing, and being changed by, the world around them. The issues created by a lack of identity, from not having an immediate family, not knowing where you’re from, and even not knowing your real name, Jess found could all be alleviated, to some degree, by music. Through music and the gospel, African Americans who otherwise would have had difficulty in adhering to any particular social group or community could come together under the same banner of worship and mutual struggle, and begin the process of building a new identity for themselves. In fact this process is laid bare in “Blind” Boone’s poems. Jess writes how Boone is thankful for the events which led to his blinding, from how he developed the fever in the first place, to the surgeon removing his eyes, and the resulting hardship which forged him into the man he would eventually