There is something about seeing or hearing about an upset child that seems to move people. In his famous poem, “Incident,” Countee Cullen tells of an experience he had as a boy that upset him. While Cullen was visiting Baltimore, another boy called him a nigger, an experience that would completely change the next several months of Cullen’s life. It was such a significant event that 20 years later (Peters) it still bothered Cullen enough that he wrote a poem about it. This story has a way of tugging at readers’ heartstrings and is not an easily forgettable poem. Cullen’s “Incident” connects with readers because of its focus on how one word completely changed a child’s experience in a new city. In the beginning of “Incident,” Cullen seems to …show more content…
be relatively innocent and unaware of how cruel the world can be. He describes his attitude as “heart-filled, head-filled with glee” (Cullen line 2). An eight-year-old excited to visit Baltimore, Cullen, it seems, was not even remotely conscious of the racism that awaited him. The way that this passage is written draws readers into the feeling of eagerness that the author experienced. Additionally, Cullen was likely happy about meeting new people in Baltimore (7). In his eight-year old mind, he and the boy he saw there were not very different. In writing about the boy the way he does, Cullen gives readers a glimpse into the eyes of his younger self. This helps readers develop empathy for the storyteller, and it reminds readers of a child’s naivety. Cullen also shows readers just how strongly one child can influence another.
According to “Incident,” the child whom Cullen smiled at was “no whit bigger” (6) than him. This means that they were quite possibly the same age as one another. As stated earlier, Cullen probably did not notice much of a difference between the two of them. They were both children, and they were both the same size. They were strangers, but they were also peers. They did have much in common. Cullen emphasizes the different thoughts, actions, and emotions that went through his head when he looked at the other boy. Despite young Cullen’s cheerful attitude and the fact that these children were similar in many ways, the other boy managed to ruin Cullen’s entire visit to Baltimore (9-12). The other boy’s influence over Cullen was that strong. The poem’s author does an excellent job of showing this to readers. In a way, the other boy even has an influence over the minds of those reading this poem. The way “Incident” begins is very cheerful, and that can make readers cheerful. But in the eighth line, readers come across a word that completely changes the feeling and meaning of the poem. In “Incident,” Cullen uses the power of words to draw sympathy from readers in lines seven and eight when he writes, “… I smiled [at the other boy], but he poked out / His tongue, and called me, ‘Nigger.’” Suddenly this poem goes from very cheerful to very dark. Most likely, everyone has been hurt by words in the past, which makes this line hit home even harder for some
readers. When used inconsiderately, words can have an immense impact on a person’s emotional well-being. Cullen’s “Incident” demonstrates this perfectly. Although he was a mere eight-years old when he was in Baltimore, the experience Cullen had there stayed with him for the rest of his life. Somebody his own age mocked him for something that was not controllable, and this hurt Cullen deeply. If he had been older, he may have been able to brush off the insult more easily. On the other hand, being insulted by someone younger than him may have just made him distraught for humanity. Regardless, Cullen used the situation for good in turning it into poetry so others would understand what he had endured.
Michael Cunningham’s “White Angel” is not merely a story about two boys growing up in a small town in Ohio in the 1960s. This is a story about the shattered innocence of America through historical events in their era, such as, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Vietnam War. The narrator of this story is nine year old boy, Bobby or “Frisco,” who symbolizes the somber reality of the history of this decade. This character takes risks although they are thoughtfully calculated. He views the world with great admiration through his older, sixteen year old brother Carlton; yet is still analytical over the choices Carlton makes before his untimely death. In this story, Carlton represents the wild and free innocence
Richelle Goodrich once said, “To encourage me is to believe in me, which gives me the power to defeat dragons.” In a world submerged in diversity, racism and prejudice it is hard for minorities to get ahead. The novel “The Other Wes Moore” is a depiction of the differences that encouragement and support can make in the life of a child. This novel is about two men, with the same name, from the same neighborhood, that endured very similar adversities in their lives, but their paths were vastly different. In the following paragraphs, their lives will be compared, and analyzed from a sociological perspective.
...he theme of the poem is that no matter how young or old you are you are still a subject to racism think what happens in your childhood affects who you are in the future. Countee Cullen experienced racism at age eight from a white kid who was not much older than him. This most definitely shaped how he viewed whites in general.
Narrative is a form of writing used by writers to convey their experiences to an audience. James Baldwin is a renowned author for bringing his experience to literature. He grew up Harlem in the 1940’s and 1950’s, a crucial point in history for America due to the escalading conflict between people of different races marked by the race riots of Harlem and Detroit. This environment that Baldwin grew up in inspires and influences him to write the narrative “Notes of a Native Son,” which is based on his experience with racism and the Jim-Crow Laws. The narrative is about his father and his influence on Baldwin’s life, which he analyzes and compares to his own experiences. When Baldwin comes into contact with the harshness of America, he realizes the problems and conflicts he runs into are the same his father faced, and that they will have the same affect on him as they did his father.
The poem also focuses on what life was like in the sixties. It tells of black freedom marches in the South how they effected one family. It told of how our peace officers reacted to marches with clubs, hoses, guns, and jail. They were fierce and wild and a black child would be no match for them. The mother refused to let her child march in the wild streets of Birmingham and sent her to the safest place that no harm would become of her daughter.
I was instantly struck by how traumatic and utterly heart-wrenching this poem is. I was thinking, "I wish I could write a response paper on this". Then I saw this poem on my syllabus, and promised to do it justice. "Incident" is about a moment when a young boy 's perception of himself in relation to white Americans is completely fractured. Everyone experiences a day when they put aside childish things and grow up. I think of this poem as the point the speaker realizes he 's not considered to be on equal footing with the white child. The speaker grew up when he realized he was considered a "Nigger". He wasn 't just a boy, he was "other", and this is a moment he will never forget. What I find ironic about the title is that you think of an incident as some small thing. However, the speaker being called "Nigger" shaped not only the rest of his trip, but the rest of his
Through the decades, there have been different types of social issues that affect many people. “The personal is political” was a popular feminist cry originating from civil rights movements of the 1960s, called attention to daily lives in order to see greater social issues on our society. This quote can relate back to many social issues that still occur till this day that many people are opposed of. One of the major social issues that still exist today, for example, is discrimination against colored people. In Javon Johnson’s poem, “Cuz He’s Black,” he discusses how discrimination affects many people, especially little kids because they are growing up fearing people who are supposed to protect us. Johnson effectively uses similes, dialogue
The narrator, Twyla, begins by recalling the time she spent with her friend, Roberta, at the St. Bonaventure orphanage. From the beginning of the story, the only fact that is confirmed by the author is that Twyla and Roberta are of a different race, saying, “they looked like salt and pepper” (Morrison, 2254). They were eight-years old. In the beginning of the story, Twyla says, “My mother danced all night and Roberta’s was sick.” This line sets the tone of the story from the start. This quote begins to separate the two girls i...
?In “The Artificial Nigger,” Flannery O’Connor commingles characteristic Christian imagery with themes evocative of her Southern setting. In this essay, a close reading of the first paragraph of this story elucidates the subtle ways in which O’Connor sets up these basic themes of redemption and forgiveness. An additional paragraph will examine the ramifications of this reading on the intertwined racial aspects of the story, which are connected by a common theme of master/servant imagery, which is integral to the first paragraph.
...r," Cullen describes the relationship a boy had with his parents and how they degraded him, not realizing their own faults. In another poem, "Saturday's Child," the tone is sad but serious as well. It's about a child who is born into poverty and how he contrasts his life with a person who has grown up with nice things. The poem "Loss of Love," has a serious tone because it conveys the feelings that you get when you've lost a loved one. It goes into elaboration of how different his life is without his true love. The solemn and serious tones in Cullen's literature help the reader feel the emotion of the situation being presented.
In the 1920 's racism was second nature to most generations. Growing up around hostility and hate towards specific races began to morph the common understanding of morals in privileged people. Countee Cullen plays off of this notion in his poem, "Incident" by producing an emotional impact through his acknowledgement of racism in the lives of children. He narrates a small black boy attempting to make friends with a white child of the same age. However, because of the influences around him and the hatred he has learned to have for African Americans, the boy sticks his tongue out at the narrator and calls him a "Nigger". This interaction is only the first of racist events that will occur in the young black boys life and this is
The language is also used to emphasize the feelings and emotions of Callum and Sephy. The use of descriptive writing is employed by Blackman to give the reader insight into the effects and emotions of racism. “I was talking like my mouth was full of stones – and sharp jagged ones at that.” The book is full of descriptive writing and figurative language with use of similes and metaphors to explore the feelings of Callum and Sephy. The way in which Blackman uses these language techniques influences the reader to especially pity the white race and the way they are treated in the book. Blackman has created her own world to resemble our own op...
In a typical family, there are parents that expected to hear things when their teenager is rebelling against them: slamming the door, shouting at each other, and protests on what they could do or what they should not do. Their little baby is growing up, testing their wings of adulthood; they are not the small child that wanted their mommy to read a book to them or to kiss their hurts away and most probably, they are thinking that anything that their parents told them are certainly could not be right. The poem talks about a conflict between the author and her son when he was in his adolescence. In the first stanza, a misunderstanding about a math problem turns into a family argument that shows the classic rift between the generation of the parent and the teenager. Despite the misunderstandings between the parent and child, there is a loving bond between them. The imagery, contrasting tones, connotative diction, and symbolism in the poem reflect these two sides of the relationship.
The story of the five-year-old boy is reminiscent of Emmett Till, the teenager lynched in 1955, his body was sunk in the river. Both of their bodies were found “ravaged” (209) and left in the water for days. Tommy Odds shared a story with Lynne of the nine-year-old black girl raped by a white man, “they pulled her out of the river, dead, with a stick shoved up her” (179). There is a habitual pattern of mourning, the tears building up, waiting for the next black person to die unjustly. The women at Saxon college act similarly, by retelling the stories of Wile Chile, Louvinie and Fast Mary they are “ritualizing their suffering, the Saxon women recognize that their own lives are part of a continuum. Their circle includes those women that have suffered before them.” (43 Downey) Although, the black community is always looking for something to stop this cycle, they protest violently and non-violently, attempting to vote, sharing stories or praying. Meridian, when the activist Medgar Evers was assassinated, planted a wild sweet shrub bush in the gardens at Saxon College and when she carried the body of the five-year-old boy “it was as if she carried a large bouquet of long-stemmed roses” (209). As if she was taking flowers to a grave of a
In this story the author uses descriptive language to show how the parents frantically trust their child alone. Jackson characterizes Charles as being mean by hitting the teacher, not listening, and “Charles bounced a seesaw on to the head of a little girl and made her bleed.” This shows that “Charles” doesn’t care what he is doing is wrong. This causes the other kids to hang out with him more, and laugh when