The Bean Eaters Poem Analysis

On June 17, 1917, Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas to Keziah and David. After Brooks’ birth, the family moved to Chicago where Brooks spent her childhood and remained until death. She was an avid writer from the young age of seven and at thirteen, Gwendolyn had her first published poem in the American Child magazine. After graduating from Woodrow Wilson Junior College in 1936, Brooks joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Youth Council. She then married Henry Blakely II in 1939 and gave birth to her son a year later, and then also gave birth to her daughter.
Brooks came to know struggles of African Americans in her community and decided to teach creative writing to one of Chicago’s well-known youth gangs. She received the

Midwestern Writers’ Conference poetry award twice. In 1945, Brooks published her first poetry volume “A Street in Bronzeville” after winning the Midwestern Writers’ Conference poetry award.“A Street in Bronzeville” has a personal connection to her life as do many of her other poems, including “The Mother” and “The Bean Eaters”.

Gwendolyn Brooks also was the first African

American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Her poetry written during the 1940s made it possible to experience an extreme connection to the social and racial atmosphere present in Chicago. Brooks’ poems, “The Bean Eaters” and "The Mother" prove that she knew hardship and portrayed these hardships through the lives of her characters. On account of her life experiences, Gwendolyn Brooks' poems, "The Mother" and "The Bean Eaters" both include narration from characters of inner city Chicago, insight of controversial issues, and a glimpse everyday African American life in urban Bronzeville, Chicago.
Growing up in the depleted city of Bronzeville, Chicago caused Brooks to gain a high influence from the inner city life of her fellow citizens of Chicago. She designed the characters in her poems, "The Mother" and "The Bean Eaters" around the atmosphere she came to know well. Gwendolyn introduces the narrator for "The Mother," with a Bronzeville woman giving a dramatic monologue pertaining to her multiple abortions. Although the narrator's name stays confidential , the use of "I" in numerous lines throughout the poem leads the to the conclusion of having a first person narrator. The second stanza, "I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children." (11) begins with the use of "I" making the statement personal, and allowing the Bronzeville woman to blatantly take ownership of her story. B.J. Bolden, a critic from Blooms Literature, expresses "One of Brooks' most memorable character vignettes is a poignant portrayal of a mother who understands the responsibilities of her life and meets them head on, even in the face of her own grief. " The excerpt shows Gwendolyn's use of the woman narrating her own story with a voice of confidence. Brooks allows the character to unveil her own traumatic story in order to obtain an empathetic feeling for the mother from her audience.
In contrast, Gwendolyn Brooks' poem, "The Bean Eaters" takes a different approach of narration.

The story of the "old yellow pair," who eats beans relays the third person point of view, revealing the entirety of feelings and actions of the characters. However, the narrator never participates in the events brought to life. Lines 1 and 5, "They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair," (1) and "Two who are Mostly Good" (5) demonstrate Brooks' depict the characters through the eyes of an outside reader. Harold Bloom gives insight that "'The Bean Eaters' reveals Brooks's outlook on an elderly couple" explaining that Gwendolyn, herself as a possible suspect for the outside narrator. Although Harold can infer that Brooks narrates her own poem, no clear evidence of the name of whom the true reporter . The use of third person point of view can only reveal that an unidentified narrator looks at the bean eaters from the outside in to unfold their

story.
While using narration from Chicago citizens, Gwendolyn Brooks is able to discuss topics that are often racy and even taboo. "The Mother" and "The Bean Eaters," display Brooks' talent to go beyond the limits of poetic boundaries. "The Mother" breaks the seal off the private, often shameful act of abortion by making it public through the voice of a young African American woman. In the first line of the poem, Gwendolyn bluntly writes, "Abortions will not let you forget" (1), in order to introduce the controversial story the narrator begins to expose. Gwendolyn follows with the line, "You remember the children you got that you did not get" (2), referring to the remembrance of the children that were conceived and later aborted. Critic Kate Flavey states, "There is no delicacy of expression, no euphemistic tact, no way of broaching the subject of abortion without conjuring a politicized psycho-spiritual hornets nest." Flavey suggests the decision to debut such extreme subjects will ignite confrontational responses. Furthermore, Harold Bloom in Blooms Literature, addresses the idea that Brooks, "not only examines the controversial issue of abortion, but she does not simply take a side." Harold implies that Gwendolyn continues to display the unpopular matter of abortion by portraying the side of the anguished mother while never depicting her as expressing regret.
In comparison, Gwendolyn Brooks' poem, "The Bean Eaters" develops into the platform for her discussion reflecting on widespread poverty. Critic Judy Dozier expresses, "the suggestion that these people have no opportunity for economic improvement." For instance, "Dinner is a casual affair"(2) exemplifies Judy's inference that dinner remains nothing more than the reoccurrence of a meal of beans defined by the lack of economic opportunity available. In addition, a previous critic B.J. Bolden writes, "the undertone of poverty in this community of 'bean eaters,'takes the ambience of class issues." Line 11, "as they lean over the beans in their rented back room" supports Bolden's claim by advertising that the "old yellow pair" cannot afford to buy a permanent home and instead rents a back room. The line "Two who have lived their day"(6) indicates that the couple will never suffice to anything more than their current economic position, spending their days with no hope for a better future. Both of Gwendolyn Brooks' poems touch on the harsh realities of the difficulties of African American existence in the mid-west during the 1940s.
While Gwendolyn Brooks demonstrates her capability to discuss topics that are often not discussed, she illustrates glimpses of everyday life of an African American in the 19th century. The life African Americans faced can be described as unfortunate, laborious, and simply challenging. Both of Gwendolyn Brooks's poems, "The Bean Eaters" and "The Mother," display an life in 1940s Bronzeville accurately, but subjectively. In Brooks' "The Bean Eaters," stanza two, "Two who are Mostly Good. (5) Two who have lived their day,(6) But keep on putting on their clothes (7) And putting things away.(8)" summarizes the quality of life the African American couple endures over many years in the poem. The stanza demonstrates that the "old yellow pair" has suffered a long life, but they do not deserve the difficulties they face with daily. In support, Blooms Literature critic B.J Bolden says, "Brooks' depiction exude a note of melancholy over the fate of the ghetto dwellers," to reference the lamentable aspect of the outcome of the ghetto dwellers, or "old yellow pair". A note of melancholy immerses throughout the stanza in order to epitomize the lack of contingency for the couple to experience anything new, or overcome their current way of life that they have come to accustom to.
Gwendolyn Brooks' poem, "The Mother" takes a similar approach, but from the side of life kept silent. Critic, Toks Pearse from, Blooms Literature, claims, "a monologue and a lament of one woman whom ultimately transcends the worries of one person and becomes the agony of a community, even humanity ."Pearse verbalizes the idea that the story of the mother, in truth becomes the reality of the entire underprivileged Bronzeville community. For example, "Though why should I whine,(23) Whine with a crime was other than mine?(24), gives reference to the crime not only belonging to her, but to the entire community as well. The crime perceives as a group effort as a result of the upperclass withholding economic improvement for the underclass. Without assistance mothers remain unable to receive the financial support needed for bearing a child, therefore using abortion as a lone outlet. The trials such as abortion often became hidden behind the curtain of the upperclass in order to suppress the corrupt social and economic system in the 1940s.
The narration and themes presented in Brooks poems have withstood the tests of time and are still true today, despite being written fifty to sixty years prior. Although Brooks passed away on December 3, 2000 from cancer she remains regarded as one of the more influential characters in Literature. Brooks knew and understand the emotions of outcasts and empathized with them through her poems.The people she gave a voice to felt that poverty was a disease they could not beat much like Gwendolyn with cancer. The African American people depicted in "The Mother" and "The Bean Eaters" live their day to day lives in the midst of the rough and tumble of Chicago without assistance from the upperclass or anyone.