Analysis Of Tableau And Incident By Countee Cullen

In this poem there is a lot of figurative language. One of the biggest types of figurative language used in this poem is irony. The irony in this poem is how the mother wouldn't let her child go to march because she feared her child would get hurt. Instead she sent her child to church because she believed it was a safe and sacred place but ironically the church ended up being bombed. Another piece of figurative language that is very effective in this poem is imagery. The way the poem is written helps me create images in my head for example, "She raced through the streets of Birmingham." I can imagine her running around desperately, looking for her child. The metaphors and hyperboles in this poem also help with the imagery, for example, "...night dark hair," and "…rose-petal sweet." These metaphors make me think of the girls smoothly combed black hair and her fresh and beautiful rosy smell. A hyperbole that had a huge effect on the tone was, "But that smile was the last smile to ever come upon her face." This hyperbole really helps me understand the effect of a tragic moment like this and how it can completely ruin

Secondly, the speaker of the poem can be described as underprivileged, and this is shown throughout the entire poem. For example, line 1 of the poem it states "some are teethed on a silver spoon” and line 5 it states "some are swaddled in silk and down”. This shows that the speaker is not the same as the person who is teethed on a silver spoon or cared for very carefully. This inclusion also shows that the speaker was not born into a wealthy family and so the speaker must fight for what they need pertaining to themselves and the family.

Primarily, Ellison’s appeal to the audience's emotions greatly sways how the view of the reader views it in his perspective. Originating with his father dying at an early age and his mother having to work diligently to take care of her two children, began to paint a picture of how difficult his life was. The author is able to convey his point across through the repetition of the word “you” which intentionally puts the reader into the perspective of the main character, making it seem like the course of the events were happening to them. Throughout the course of the story the reader will feel as if they are the one who is personally being discriminated against. When the boy tries to go play with the band and is singled out with “Then you heard a man’s voice exclaim, ‘I’ll be damn, it’s a little nigger!’” (Ellison, pg. 7) the author conveys an atmosphere of alienation of how the child is unable to express his talents. Additionally, the author provides first hand experiences throughout the work in order to envelop people’s emotions into the individual’s life. The author emphasizes the harsh tone used by a police officer enforcing racial discrimination at the zoo by mentioning the actual conversation, “‘Girl,’ he shouted, ‘where are your white folks!’” (Ellison, pg. 4) the explicit words allow the readers to sympathize for the main character. His story regarding his experience at the zoo was heartbreaking due to how the cops were dehumanizing the family and making them feel like criminals and trespassers. The reader is able to come to the conclusion that humans should be treated in a more respected manner.

Alliteration and metaphors are two major elements of this poem. The repetition of consonant sounds and alliteration occurs throughout the poem. All of the lines strongly use the repetition of consonants and alliteration except for lines two and seven. In addition to that, the controlling figure of speech in this poem is a metaphor. It is strongly articulated in the first line, and as the one continues to read, it is amplified and extended throughout the rest of the poem. The metaphor compares mask of Line 1 to the fabricated emotive facades that African-Americans had made use of in order to avert provoking their oppressors.

Throughout the poem Incident by Countee Cullen, the author uses the change of tone to reflect the ideas and purpose of the Harlem Renaissance. Throughout the poem, the tone changes from the young child being thrilled about arriving to a heartbreaking memory. In the poem, cullen writes “Once riding in old Baltimore? Heart-filled, head filled with glee/ I saw a Baltimorean/ Keep looking straight at me/ Now I was eight and very small,/ And he was no whit bigger,” (lines 1-6). In this part of the poem, the child had just recently arrived in Baltimore and is more than excited to be in a different place other than in the plantations. He’s very optimistic about meeting someone whom he thought would be his friend. The tone explains how during the Harlem

Reading the content in this book made me get a picture of what it was like to be a colored person in this time. My eyes were opened to the meaning of the word “nigga”. Nigga is such a derogatory term, yet now-a-days it is used by people so much. Kids in this generation use it as a term of endearment when they see their friends, or they say it when they are shocked by something. Frankly, I don’t believe they know how serious it really is. The fact that white people could look at a person and see less than a human being when they did nothing wrong distresses me. They (white people) treated them as if they were property and below them. Even though we don’t have racism to this extent

Cullen uses auditory imagery to draw his readers in to hear what he hears. The meaning of this poem is to take the reader on a journey of what the negro felt about

The use of symbolism and imagery is beautifully orchestrated in a magnificent dance of emotion that is resonated throughout the poem. The two main ideas that are keen to resurface are that of personal growth and freedom. Furthermore, at first glimpse this can be seen as a simple poem about a women’s struggle with her counterpart. However, this meaning can be interpreted more profoundly than just the causality of a bad relationship.

Unfortunately, a question that many African Americans have to ask in childhood is "Mommy, what does nigger mean?," and the answer to this question depicts the racism that still thrives in America (345). Both Gloria Naylor’s "'Mommy, What Does "Nigger" Mean?'" and Countee Cullen's "Incident" demonstrate how a word like "nigger" destroys a child’s innocence and initiates the child into a world of racism.  Though the situations provoking the racial slur differ, the word "nigger" has the same effect on the young Naylor and the child in Cullen’s poem. A racist society devours the white children’s innocence, and, consequently, the white children embody

Countee Cullen was an African American poet during the early 1900s. Countee became renowned during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, a time where black writers and artists were featured prominently. His most influential poems are “Tableau” and “Incident.” Both of the poems, by Countee Cullen, show how racism plays a large part in how people perceive each other. He demonstrates this by using figurative language, and tone that contribute to the theme of both of the poems.

A major turning point in Anne’s life was when she heard of the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who had allegedly whistled at a White woman. She was tremendously bothered by the murder and was unable to sleep or work for days. She realizes that she has been greatly unaware of the racial inequality and violence going on around her. When she was younger, she struggled to figure out the difference between the races and she gains no more insight or understanding of why there was such inequality, as she grew older. This causes her to wonder if there any true differences between Blacks and Whites, other than the fact that the Whites typically employed the Blacks. She now fears being murdered simply for being Black.

The brutal white men the even go as far as to make sure the character doesn’t put the two races on the same figurative pedestal, by fraternizing the young man by asking “you sure that about equality was a mistake?”. A second example of how white brutality is characterized and portrayed is in Claude McKay’s poem If we must die. The speaker describes the African-American people as hogs and the brutal white people of the time as vicious dogs, and in line 4, pleads for them not to begin “making their mock at [their] accursed lot” describing how horrible and miserable African-Americans of the time were. He then goes to capture the triumph and die fighting spirit in line 10, “Though far outnumbered let us show us brave.” Yet another example, representing the hardened abuse from white communities is Countee Cullen's short poem Incident. In the lines 5-8, the speaker shows that there was no mercy among white people, even to the young by saying “Now I was eight and very small/ And he was no whit bigger/ And so I smiled, but poked out/ His tongue and called me ‘Nigger’.” Aside from showing white brutality towards innocent children, the speaker also captures the long term effects of this abuse in lines 9-12 of the poem, “I saw the whole of Baltimore/ From May until December/Of all the things that happened there/That’s all that I remember.” This shows that though much can happen throughout someone’s life, the verbal and physical abuse and mocking from one group to

Although each literary piece used the same theme, the authors delivered their message of racism in different forms. In short stories “The theme is associated with an idea that lies behind the story”. (Clugston 2010) “The Welcome Table” by Alice Walker was written in short story form. Here Mrs. Walker tells a story in an omniscient third person point of view. She speaks of the main character in the story from the people seeing her approaching and then entering an all-white church. Written in eleven paragraphs, Mrs. Walker uses descriptive words to describe the old black lady and the incident from the onlookers the way they perceived her to be. Unlike the short story, the theme of a poem is rarely stated explicitly: it has to be looked for, discovered. And to identify it, you must consider the implications and representations of everything that appears in the poem”. (Clugston 2010) In the poem “What it is like to be a

The poem “Incident,” by Countee Cullen, was written in the 1920s where racism towards African Americans was extremely prevalent. Jim Crow Laws were heavily enacted in the South, and the mandate of “separate but equal,” was spread across the U.S. This segregated schools, public places, and public transportation, where African American facilities were almost always inferior. Though northern America was thought to be much more progressive, there was still an incredible inequality between blacks and whites. Alvin Ailey said that “one of the worst things about racism is what it does to young people,” and this idea is depicted through the speakers’ childhood memory where he recounts being called “N****r” by another child. The poem presents the power that words have, and how divisive they can be. Through the imagery, diction, syntax, and tone in “Incident,” Cullen powerfully depicts racism and the lasting impact that words have. Furthermore, this poem presents how racism has no boundaries and affects everyone even an innocent child.

In this final essay I well be discussing the ways in which three distinctively different literary genres address the same issue: American lynching. The three selected works that I will be discussing are one of the each genres such as a short story, exposé, and a poetry. These three works are the following “The Flowers” by Alice Walker (short story), “Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol (poem/song) “A Red Record” by Ida B. Wells (exposé). These are the three works that have been selected to discuss in this last final essay.