...point of view of murder; many do not take into consideration of how emotionally damaging the decision is to the mother. With women’s rights and the evolution of people’s thinking abortions are becoming more tolerable; still controversial but more tolerable than before. Some people see that ultimately it is the mothers’ decision for it is her sacrifice to have a child and not theirs. Abortion should not be as controversial as it because not every person that becomes pregnant can properly care for the child due to lack of funds. It is not cold-blooded murder; a mother does not take the decision lightly to abort her unborn child and society needs to be more understanding of how the mother feels before passing their judgment. The poem “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks expresses some of the feelings that a would-be mother endures when facing the difficulty of aborting her unborn child and analyzing my research on the emotional burden women face when having an abortion sheds light on the subject and helps me better understand what Gwendolyn Brooks is expressing in her poem. Abortion is never a decision that is made lightly. A would- be mother weighs out all her options before taking such a life changing decision. A mother realizes what her decision means; she realizes that she will never forget making the decision and never know what her baby would grow up to be. Gwendolyn Brooks writes “Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get. The...
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...poets who have set the bar pretty high for upcoming poets. Gwendolyn Brooks poems present different voices and characters in each poem she writes. Each is encountered with different problems she found important or controversial that she usually has witnessed take place in her own life. Brooks demonstrates different voices depending on which topic shes discussing in the piece and what character she feels would portray the topic the best. Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansa, but then moved to Chicago at a very young age. She grew up with very supportive parents who always pushed her to try her best, and although they were not the wealthiest family, they stayed positive and very close. When Brooks was old enough to attend high school she attended 3 different schools. Hyde Park High School, which was the leading white school in her city, then she transferred to an all black school, Wendell Phillips, and lastly, the integrated Englewood High School (“Blacks”.)...
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...Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. She was the first child of her parents, David and Keziah Brooks. When Brooks was six weeks old, her family moved to Chicago, Illinois, which Brooks considers her home town. At the age of seven, Brooks' gift in writing was discovered and her mother encouraged it by introducing her to different types of literature. Her parents were otherwise strict and Brooks was not allowed to play with the other children in her neighborhood. She spent the majority of her free time reading and writing in her room. Brooks, for this reason was incredibly shy even as an adult and lacked social skills, making few friends at school. Brooks attended several schools, including an all-white high school, (Hyde Park High School) before transferring to an all-black high school (Wendell Phillips). She eventually was transferred again to an integrated school (Englewood High School). In 1936 she graduated from Wilson Junior College. Her different schools gave her a view of the racial dynamic which she used in her writing. Her early works appeared in the Chicago Defender, a newspaper primarily for the black citizens of Chicago. In 1939 Brooks married Henry Blakely. The couple had two children, Henry Jr. and Nora. In 1945 Brooks published her first book, A Street in Bronze Ville and in 1949 she published Annie Allen, a book of loosely connected poetry about growing up African American in Chicago. She received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in...
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...2052) or rime, which is when two or more words that contain identical or similar vowel sound (Kennedy and Gioia, 2074). In the two pieces “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks and “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke the poets use a combination of rime, rhythm and meter to get the poem’s meaning across. The poem “We Real Cool” uses rhythm, the pattern of stresses and pauses in a poem, to get across the poet Gwendolyn Brooks’ theme. “We Real Cool” is about a group of boys that should be in school but decide to skip to go do something that is considered “cool”. Brooks uses an imitative tone while simultaneously, questioning of a group of the boys in a pool hall’s lives. Questions come up like “What are they doing here?” and “Shouldn’t they be in school?” but the bigger question is how do they feel about their lives. The poem implies the message that the boys in this pool hall are unhappy with their everyday lives, so they feel the need to pretend to be something else, something “cooler”. By using certain elements of sound Brooks shows the readers that she believes that these boys in the pool hall are trying to be something they are not. The poem also gives the reader a feeling of nostalgia. It brings the reader back to a time when they were younger and reminds them of the times that they tried to be something they were not. Brooks uses elements of sound like internal rime and meter to imitate how she believes that the boys would sound while talking about their activities. In lines...
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...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...
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...Gender Roles in African American Literature Authors Gwendolyn Brooks and David Henderson are known as influential African American poets. Each helped the black community with more than just their literary works. Brooks and Henderson were very active in their communities and many times their poems depicted events from their personal lives. Each talented writer uses male and female characters to portray their themes of life, racism, and community. However, Brooks focuses on the need for females to break down perimeters sounding themselves and explore their own communities, while Henderson focuses on the strong male role models that continue to rebuild the communities affected by the strain and damage of racism. Gwendolyn Brooks was a talented American poet and was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize Award (Poetry Foundation). Many of her early works focus on the theme of ordinary life but in her later work she focuses on politics and racism (Baym). Brooks...
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...“the mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks both have the same theme of pregnancy. Alongside “hills like white elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, they talk about the trials and tribulation that comes with having being pregnant. Sylvia Plath begins the poem with a riddle which gives us a clue to the structure of the poem and its theme, she says, “I’m a riddle in nine syllables” (Plath line 1). A woman carries a baby for 9 months. The writer also uses the first 9 lines for the 9 month s of pregnancy, by describing herself as nine syllables. She also uses metaphors to describe the pregnant woman in the second and third line. She says she’s “An elephant, a ponderous house” (Plath 2), here she describes how a pregnant woman might see herself. It could have other meaning; since elephants have very long gestation periods, the pregnancy may feel like an eternity to the woman. In line 3, Plath says, “A melon, strolling on two tendrils” meaning (in a funny way) the baby has totally taken over her life. The fifth line describes the unborn child. The writer says, “O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!”(Plath 6) She uses the “O” expression which is old English(mostly used n the bible) to address a god/goddess or king The melon is red internally (as common for new-born babies) ; the elephant’s body will be plundered for the only thing that it has of value; which is its ivory. The house is nothing without the fine timbers from which it is built. Line 6-8 talks about the relationship between the mother and the...
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...There are many images and word choices in “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks that convey the tone of the poet toward the theme of her subject matter-abortion. The poet uses varying points of view to convey the complexity of the issue being discussed, and the tone therefore becomes a complex thing in itself. Within the poem there is a tone of didacticism, censure, accusation, and understanding that is portrayed through the voice of the poet. The use of the pronoun “you” at the beginning of the poem universalizes the audience for whom the poem is intended, and makes it less personal. The poet is speaking directly to you, and its effect is a tone that is almost accusatory. YOU will not be able to forget. YOU will “remember the children that you got that you did not get”. The poet uses a paradox with the previous line to comment on the miracle of life, the wonder of conception. “The children that you got” was the life growing in the mother’s womb, and the mother got a child, she was carrying that miracle inside of her until she decided not to carry it through. She got a child, but she did not get it in the end. So despite the miracle, the mother has thrown it away. The poet shifts the tone to a graphic, uncomfortable feeling with a description of what an aborted fetus usually looks like, “damp small pulps with a little or with no hair”, and draws an almost didactic contrast between the dead and the potential lives of the fetuses, “the singers and workers that never handled the air...
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...always greener on the other side. This is the case in Gwendolyn Brooks’ “a song in the front yard,” which tells the story of a young girl who yearns to live a life different from her own. This is something that just about anyone can relate to, whether you’re rich or poor. This poem starts off with the narrator saying “I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life.” (Brooks). This metaphor sets the scene for the rest of the poem, which talks of her desire to “peek at the back” (Brooks). The front yard symbolizing the safe, upper-class life that she has been privileged enough to be born into, and the backyard being the more dangerous, promiscuous life that she craves. Brooks manages to accurately portray the secret desires of all adolescents to experience the lives of others, not realizing that these lives come with their own set of ups and downs. “A song in the front yard” is told from the perspective of a seemingly young girl. From the way that this girl describes the “wonderful” yet “rough and untended” backyard, the reader can infer that this is all just a dream of hers...
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...In the poem the narrator says, “I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children” (11). The narrator hears the voices of the children after the abortions because of the guilt. This external reality impacted her on a physiological level and caused her to think about the multiple abortions. Brooks used first person point of view so she could show her emotion after the abortions. Brooks used and emotional approach to get her point across. Brooks poem bring to light how economic challenges can lead a person to do something they don’t want, but they have to because that is what is best for their current situation. People can’t help but think that if the narrator wasn’t in this situation she would have kept her...
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...identify with; stories that allow us to associate ourselves with the characters, see the story through their eyes, put ourselves in their shoes, feel their pain, and celebrate their victory. Good literature fully explores the depths and aspects of humanity through empathy, morality, madness, vulnerability, and pride. The White Troops Had Their Orders, but the Negros Looked Like Men by Gwendolyn Brooks exemplifies empathy through the white troop meeting the black troops, likely slaves, for the first time. The poem starts us off by showing how the white men had been trained to look at the black men. They had been given the formula on how to treat them until their empathy sets in after seeing the black troops for the first time. “But when the Negros came they were perplexed. These Negros looked like men” (Brooks, 2495). In fact, they appreciated the similarities so much, they didn't have the time or frame of mind to worry about the differences they were trained to look down upon. “Besides, it taxed Time and the temper to remember those Congenital iniquities that cause Disfavor of the darkness” (Brooks, 2495). There were also two different boxes, or coffins, for the white and black troops if they were killed in battle. Obviously the white troops were to get the nicer coffins, but they ended...
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...Determination. The sense of will to go on and purpose when an obstacle comes in the way. The poems “Speech to the Young Speech to the Progress Toward” and “Mother to Son” both have the similar thematic topic of determination in which the authors develop using certain methods. The poem “Speech to the Young Speech to the Progress Toward” by Gwendolyn Brooks is about someone trying to explain that there are going to be some downs in life. The author uses a type of repetition to create a dramatic effect of telling the people who try to belittle you that you can do it. The poem says, “Say to them,/say to the down-keepers,/the sun-slappers,/the self-spoilers,/the harmony-hushers,” The author uses the words “down-keepers”, “sun-slappers”,...
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...after all. Similar to Gwendolyn Brooks poem, “We Real Cool”, a short couplet poem of five two-line stanzas, spoken from the narrator’s point of view, is about youngsters who think they are too cool and are very incautious about life. As reckless as these young kids were their actions led them to “Die soon” as the poem mentions (Inez 807). Both of these poems are unique due to the fact that they start off with a carefree...
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...She Is Charlie The orange sun that kisses my caramel skin….. That cooool summer breeze that leaves my thick cocoa milky Oh yes cocoa butter sent lingering under your nose as I walk pass… Can you imagine the thought of these rich chocolate lips so soft and smooth as you indulge yourself in my mango sweet kisses… so sweet yet tangy with a hint of sour green apple? Can you imagine? Sirens jingle Alarm clock screams & you come to see that it was nothing but a fantasy Can you imagine me? ... Charlie B Nikki Giovanni Nikki Giovanni is a Poet, Writer, Activist, and Professor who Crowned by critics as the “Princess of Black Poetry” during the early 70s. She started her writing career in the in the 1960s when began her studies at Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee, The civil rights and black power movements inspired her early poetry that was collected in Black Feeling, Black Talk (1967), Black Judgment (1968), and Re: Creation (1970). Giovanni's writing has been heavily inspired by both African American activists and artists. “All eyez on U” Is a poem dedicated to the late great Tupac Amaru Shakur that illustrates the generational repetition of eliminating a race that is trying to empower and educate a nation. Giovanni believed that the 'superior race' created ways to eliminate education and reassured ignorance remained in the black community to increase chaos, self-destruction, and to silence those capable of great intellect. The speaker states...
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...“Still I Rise” Maya Angelou I could tell right away from the poem’s description, imagery, and repetition that she was directing her thoughts towards someone who was trying to hurt her. “Still I Rise” and “I rise” were her saying over and over you can keep trying to put me down but I’m going to keep getting up. She portrays a strong woman with supreme attitude and stresses that the person didn’t like her how she was. She identifies that she has a strong attitude with words like “sassiness”, “haughtiness” and “sexiness”. Her self-described attitude can be compared to today’s reference of a “Diva”. I am interested in her strength in an era where the woman’s movement was just beginning. She was so far ahead of her time and willing to talk about it. I can tell in her words that she has been brought down in the past by this person. She describes being shot down by their words, being glared at and having hate directed at her. She keeps telling the other person that I will not let you bring me down and every time you do, I will get stronger and stronger. She references that she creates waves like the moon and the sun, that she is challenging and the other person doesn’t like it. She felt the other person was trying to break her down and be dominating but she was a strong woman and would not let that happen. In the end, she says she is leaving all her negatives in the past and focusing on the future. She is a wanted person and she has pride. Maya Angelou was an author...
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