Strange Fruit Tone

Strange Fruit By Abel Meeropol published in 1999s. Strange Fruit a poem written by Abel Meeropol, was written about an experience that probably none of us have experienced before. This Poem was based on our world where people like us hated the colored, and blamed them for no reason. Abel Meeropol a poet and a social activist was disturbed by a picture of two African American teenagers who were hung (lynched) on a tree. Abel stated that he was haunted for days, he stated how cruel and how fast racism had spread in America U.S. This picture motivated Abel Meeropol, he was so shocked about those people who smiled in the picture so he wrote the poem trying to make people understand that what they did in the 1930’s was wrong, and hateful. My overall

response to the poem is that it's very hurtful, disturbing to hear and read the lyrics. I think that if people in the 1930’s read the poem they would understand better and would have probably stopped. The message it conveys is how badly they hurt those who were lynched, It states how their blood stained everything, how they left their bodies to rot, and how bad racism was during that time.

In the poem “Strange Fruit”, it describes how there was “(2) Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, (3) Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze, (6) bulging eyes and the twisted mouth, (7) Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh, (8) And the sudden smell of burning flesh! (9) Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck, (10) For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, (11) For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop, (12) Here is a strange and bitter crop.”(Strange Fruit by Abel Meeropol). In other words it describes how the Americans left the hanged people, It describes how bloody, dead , and hurt they were from their horrible death.
This poem is written in Abel Meeropol point of view he is specifically stating how horrible he thought it was and how bad it looked in his point of view. The “Strange Fruit” in this poem are the hanging African Americans that were hanged and beaten senseless. I believe the Author; also known as Abel Meeropol, wrote this poem so that other people can understand the ways colored folks were treated, and hated. I believe that he wanted people to understand how he felt about the lynching. Under those circumstances the images and feelings that this poem gives me are the chills, now that we are studying more about “Strange Fruit” and how some of the people in our world treated the colored people that way, it gives me a weird feeling. When I see the lynching images I get grossed out and start having a stomach ache, so far the images I've seen have not been the worst ones but out there in the world I know the worst ones are out there somewhere.
The theme of this poem is both scary, haunting, and racist. I would describe that this poem is much more scary, Seeing those bodies hanging from a tree and people smiling because of the situation is what I call people with NO live and just want some entertainment. Not to mention that this poem is haunting because of the images of those poor people who were beaten and killed for probably no reason. In other words this poem has much more racism and shows how people didn’t like them , misjudged them, and blamed them for every crime in their city/county/country.

The tone of the poem “Strange Fruit” is in a dramatic and scary tone the way that Billie Holiday a singer sang it was so emotional and dramatic.

I think Billie was trying to sound a little dramatic because of the way Abel described the bodies of the hanged people, she was trying to make everyone feel emotional, and have the feeling of what Americans did to the colored their fault. The emotion that the speaker uses as he talks is hatred, he demonstrates by the lyrics that he hated the way Americans (white people) treated the colored he wanted people to see what Americans did when some of us weren’t here. The poem/song relates to Abel Meeropol history for the most part, prior to his adopted sons. Robert Meeropol and his older brother Michael Meeropol were Abels sons, behind their story Robert and Michael's Mother(Julius Rosenberg) and Father(Ethel Rosenberg) were executed in 1953. Julius and Ethel were sentenced to death for sharing atomic secrets to the “Soviet Union”, prior to their death of being "the first husband and wife to die in the electric chair." Later then when the kids were 6 and 9 years old Abel and his wife quickly fell in love with them and adopted them before anything happened to the. This is kind of similar to the poem because as in the article only two of the african american teenagers died and one got saved because of a kind person “which they call the angel”

.

In Strange Fruit , the author uses racism as a symbolism. For example, “(4) Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees, (5) Pastoral scene of the gallant South” this quote is an example of racism prior to the poplar trees, poplar trees look and sound more like American/rich people trees. the pastoral scene of the gallant south sounds more as a peaceful place or a place where people would get in a group and probably celebrate.
Abel Meeropol uses his own story and the lynching poem as a metaphor. For example, when the three African Americans were about to get lynched one of them, James Cameron survived because of a mysterious person (angel) who had yelled out that he was innocent, his life was spared but still lived with the thoughts of his other dead friends. Therefore Abel adopted sons whose parents got executed they lived in an orphanage were soon adopted by their loving family Abel Meeropol and his wife, they saved them and loved them when they didn't have their parents to help. These examples show the use of this metaphor because James and the children were both saved/ rescued when they needed help the most.
Abel Meeropol uses the description of the hanging body for juxtaposition. For example, “(10) For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, (11) For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop” This quote is an example of juxtaposition, what Abel is trying to clarify is that once the bodies are hanged in left there; natural would take care of the rest and do what it has to do.

In conclusion Strange Fruit by Abel Meeropol published in 1999s, was written from a horrible time in life where African Americans were hanged for their crimes.

This poem is both disturbing to the author, Abel Meeropol and to many of us. In this case I believe that most who have seen the images have been haunted for a day or two and wish that none of that (racism) had happened in America. During that time Racism hit America very badly, Americans hurt the colored people, they hanged them, and let their innocent blood stain every little leaf and root, not to mention that they left their bodies to rot and left it so the trees can let go of them and make of them a strange fruit. With this in mind we can all learn that racism was highly common in the “old” days but I believe that we should all appreciate that it is not highly common right now and if it’s still around in some cities/countries/states then they should read /listen to this poem and learn more about it so people can understand the horrifying meaning in racism. This Author, Abel Meeropol was very successful in achieving his goal from this message to point out that racism was stopped and that racism or discrimination won't be acceptable in

America.