Juxtaposition In The Fourth Of July, By Audre Lorde

“The most exciting attractions are between opposites that never meet.” -Andy Warhol. Opposites are exciting. When positive and negative spaces collide, new ways to look at art formulate. When left and right sides of the aisle combine in the chambers of Congress, revolutionary new laws are passed. When the dead meet the living, zombies rise from the grave, a subject so captivating, it has formed its own subgenre in all kinds of mediums. In writing, these opposites take a few forms. In African American author and poet, Audre Lorde’s narrative, The Fourth of July, a stunning display of juxtaposition helps the reader understand how Audre Lorde felt during her fateful trip to Washington D.C. and her argument that racism is a prevalent issue, despite

This is called juxtaposition. Juxtaposing images often conflict, yet make sense in context. For example, when Lorde exclaims: “This wasn’t right or fair! Hadn’t I written poems about Bataan and freedom and democracy for all?” (Lorde 18) she points to the two opposing ideals of American society. The whole piece deals with the idea of racism and the concept that despite their emancipation, African Americans still are not truly free in America. Here, Lorde crashes in with some of America’s core values, pointing to the American ideals touted across the world, such as that “all men are created equal” (Jefferson) or that the US has “Liberty and Justice for all” (Bellamy). By creating this dichotomy of equipoise and intolerance, Lorde displays the irony that comes from the claims of equality fettering the cries against prejudice. The antithetical ideas form the concept of a paradoxical America whose stances contradict themselves and treat people of color unfairly. Lorde also juxtaposes colors. She pits white and black against each other throughout the whole piece: when Lorde is “squinting up at the Lincoln Monument” (Lorde 8), a young “black” girl looking up to a “white” man, yet both representing freedom. Lorde says that “Even the pavement on the street was a shade lighter in color than back home.” (Lorde 12), suggesting that everything is a shade lighter, including the people, adding to the white vs black contrast. Later, Lorde talks about “my [Lorde’s] family and I walked back down Pennsylvania Avenue. We were a proper caravan, mother bright and father brown, the three of us girls step-standards in between,” (Lorde 13), which exemplifies the comparison of African Americans and Whites, showing a black family walk next to the White House where a white man makes decisions that affect people of all colors. By comparing colors that are starkly different to one