Have you ever thought about how you were going to present yourself in a certain situation, but then when face to face with that situation, you react in a completely different way than expected? We can see this sort of pattern in both the poem, ‘Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol and the short story, “Big Black Good Man” by Richard Wright. When we compare these two works of art, we are able to see how both of these authors use literary elements such as theme and metaphor to help get their point across and engage their readers on an emotional level. These two works and their literary techniques play a significant role as they tell of a time where not everyone was treated with equality. It is time to end these unethical and corrupt habits. The poem, …show more content…
The poem “Strange Fruit,” starts off with a metaphor: “Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root / Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze” (Meeropol 1.) Trees are beautiful living things that all of us on Earth depend upon, but the trees Meeropol is writing about are covered in blood and resemble death. Instead of delicious fruit such as apples or oranges hanging from the trees, the trees are being portrayed as bearing the gruesome fruit of racial terrorism: the lynched bodies of African Americans. There is also a lot of meaning behind the line, “Here is fruit for the crows to pluck / For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck / For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop” (Meeropol 1.) After a victim was lynched, his or her body would be left hanging on the rope to rot and grow moldy until the body would eventually fall apart onto the ground below. No one bothered to remove the dead bodies from the trees and give them a respectful burial service. In the Reconstruction-era South, lynching of blacks was used, especially by the first Ku Klux Klan, as a tool for reversing the social changes brought on by the Federal occupation (Lynching 1.) Author, Abel Meeropol, was inspired to write this …show more content…
The unjust ways of white people can be seen in the metaphor of this line. … Olaf sighed, . . . he would go to sleep . . . He was bending forward and loosening his shoelaces when he heard the office door crack open. He lifted his eyes, and then sucked in his breath. He did not straighten; he just stared up and around at the huge black thing that filled the doorway. His reflexes refused to function; it was not fear; it was just simple astonishment. He was staring at the biggest, strangest, and blackest man he had ever seen in all his life (Wright 316.)
When Olaf sees Jim for the first time he describes him as “a huge black thing” – a metaphor that is comparing Jim, a human being, to something that is not human at all. What kind of human being goes around calling other human beings, “things?” Olaf then goes on to describe Jim as one of the “biggest, strangest, and blackest men he had ever seen,” yet another metaphor that suggests Jim is inhumane or remarkably barbaric judging only by his skin color and outward appearance. Because of Jim’s skin color and size, Olaf is afraid and very distrustful of Jim. However, Jim ends up proving Olaf wrong in the end as he turns out to be a very pleasant man with honorable intentions. This leads to the reveal of Olaf’s true feelings towards Jim as well