Nick Torkildsen
Essay #3
Professor Warner
Woman in a Red Hat
The poem by Gwendolyn Brooks “A woman in a Red Hat” tells the story of a black maid through the eyes of a middle class white person; Gwendolyn Brooks the author of this poem is black herself which lies great irony inside of the story. The poem was written in the 1960’s which was a time of great racism in America, it was the heat of the civil rights movement, and the way blacks in America were portrayed is often of lesser value. Having the author of this story being black is a key propent to understanding what this poem is trying to get across. The author wants you to see the way that a black person would see a middle class white American and this is what Brooks did in this poem. The poem starts with “They had never had one in the house before”. This word to this line is the word one. The way the brooks uses the word one is saying the blacks are not even seen as people in this time era. They are often throughout this poem addressed as one of them or it. This is one of the many specific prejudices that are portrayed by Brooks in this poem. Another prejudice that is portrayed by Brooks in this poem is the way that she describes the woman in vivid detail. It is important to take in the irony of this poem when reading the descriptions. Brooks is the one who wrote this poem so when she goes into the vivid detail about how the new maid is dressed or her actions she is talking about herself. Brooks says “There it stood in the door, under a red hat that was rash, but refreshing, in a tasteless way”. I found this line of the poem also very interesting because I think it portrays how blacks were seen during this time period of the 1960’s. Brooks says under a red hat that was rash, but refreshing. The middle class white lady sees a hat that was refreshing at first. When she sees the person who is wearing this