Tableau Poem By Countee Cullen Summary

Practice Literary Analysis
In 2017, students can sit side by side regardless of race or ethnicity. In the early 1900’s, this was not the case, people were discriminated against just for being black. This can be shown in two poems by Countee Cullen. The first poem, “Tableau,” is about a black kid and white kid walking arm in arm across the street, free from racism or prejudice. The second poem, “Incident,” is about how a small black kid was shown horrible racism in Baltimore. Both poems show discrimination in its own way; from different perspectives. One can either surpass racism or let it bring them down.
In “Tableau”, the theme is depicted by two kids, black and white, “locked arm in arm across the way” disregarding racial barriers. In “Incident,”

the theme is shown through a little boy wanting to go to Baltimore but gets made fun of for being black and regrets going. The two boys locked arm in arm are being stared at by people around them and are being judged but shows confidence. The little boy being teased by another boy shows how mean people can be towards others who are different than them. Both stories show people being judgemental through imagery but also show how people can either be confident about being judged or be sad.
The tone is “Tableau” is happy and bright.

The two boys will not be brought down by others and walk down the street for all to see how confident in their friendship they are; they “blaze the path of thunder.” The tone in “Incident” starts happy because the little boy is excited to go to Baltimore for the first time but after he gets there a boy “poked out his tongue and called [him] ‘nigger.’” Both stories have a happy tone but “Incident” very quickly loses its happy tone and gets sadder. It gets sad because even little kids are racist to strangers and how their parents raised them to be that way.
The overall theme in “Tableau” is that friendship is much more important than giving into stereotypes and racism. The theme in “Incident” is that even the small things can hurt someone the most. Calling someone a name may not seem impactful but it can really hurt someone, words are powerful. In “Tableau,” the two boys disregarded the judgement and prejudice by not letting it get to them, they walked confidently with their shins up and arms locked. In “Incident,” the little boy let racism bring him down and ruin his trip to Baltimore.
Americans have overcome discrimination and segregation thanks to activists like MLK and poets like Countee Cullen, they show how unnecessary and meaningless racism truly

is.