Literary Devices In The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement was a substantial turning point for the United States Of America and the treatment of African Americans, particularly for those in the southern states. The Civil Rights Movement occurred from 1955 - 1965 and during this time many historical events happened such as the notorious Jim Crow Laws and the lynching of Emmett Till. Poems such as Merry-Go-Round by Langston Hughes, Strange Fruit by Abel Meeropol, and A Bronzeville Mother Loiters In Mississippi. Meanwhile, A Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon by Gwendolyn Brooks. Through the use of literary devices, these poems convey the meaning, importance, and emotion of the Civil Rights Movement whilst providing different perspectives on the events that occurred.

Merry-Go-Round

Abel Meeropol was a Jewish American who was a former member of the American Communist Party, however Strange Fruit was made famous after Billie Holiday sung it. The poem appears to have the point of view of a person who is for the civil rights movement and is outraged by the hate crimes that are occurring particularly in the southern states. The tone of the poem is very somber with the continual use of metaphors. “Here is the fruit of the crows to pluck”, is a line that refers to the Jim Crow Laws and how with the enforcement of these laws essentially take away the fruit which is the rights of the African American people and how the crows pluck away at the fruit and will take everything away from them until there is nothing else to take. Meeropol also uses juxtaposition to enforce the harsh reality that all racial crimes, lynchings in particular, are horrendous. “Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh/Then the sudden smell of burning flesh” describes a bloody event for which something beautiful is destroyed. This line explicitly references the south due to magnolias which are found in most southern states. Meeropol gives a more broad perspective on lynching but still overwhelming the audience with the emotion expressed through the

The supposed “victim”, Carolyn Bryant, claimed to have been wolf whistled at by Emmett Till hence leading to his murder. Gwendolyn Brooks writes the ballad from the perspective of Carolyn Bryant unveiling the twisted reality of the event. Brooks writes the ballad to convey a narrative of Bryant having a daydream about the murder of Emmett Till that follows like a story, with her coming back to reality in what appears to be every second stanza. There is never a direct reference to the murder of Emmett Till however Brooks writes Bryant, her husband and Till to all be characters in the daydream for which Bryant gets saved. The daydream however, worsens as it goes on as it she becomes aware she did not understand that what happened was not a fairytale like as she wanted it to be. A darker undertone shows also that Bryant was a victim of domestic violence. “Gripped in the claim of his hands. She tried, but could not resist the idea/that a red ooze was seeping, spreading darkly, thickly, slowly,/Over her white shoulders, her own shoulders,”. These lines show how her husband took charge of her and she had also realised the significance of her husband’s crime. Brooks used literary devices to give insight and perspective into the murder of Emmett Till whilst giving another perspective and perception that Carolyn Bryant