Countee Cullen's Incident

Cullen's poems seem to focus a lot more on the African heritage than on being an African American. His use of rhyme instead of just rhythm makes his poems flow well with his images and views. "Heritage" is clearly a poem about how African Americans should embrace their African heritage, and to remember all that African Americans had to go through to be what they are today, and to always fight to preserve their culture. Not only do African Americans need to understand their heritage but they must also show all of America that they are there and that they are Americans too. There are also African Americans who will not accept the simple fact that all are Americans, and they will still separate white from black, as is seen from the poem "Uncle Jim". " "White folks is white," says uncle Jim", show to me that not all African Americans were ready for this new awakening and new point in history, that they were so set in their ways that there was no changing them.

Cullen is hopeful to get to a place where people of different races will be able to look at others without prejudice and discrimination. However, the poem “Incident” is of a less positive tone. She expresses her experience in a shocked manner, saying, a boy stuck his “tongue out and, called, [her] ‘Nigger’,” (Cullen 8). She was so shocked that “From May until December; .../… of all the things that happened... /… that’s all [she could remember” in Baltimore (Cullen 10-12). At the young age that she was at, it is surprising and upsetting to her to be discriminated against for no reason.

This poem focuses on the lynching of a African American male. The speaker of the poem appears to console a woman who appears to be distressed due to the events taking place. In the first four lines of stanza 1, the speaker says:

Tim O’Brien uses several rhetorical strategies in this story. A strategy that is easily found in the story is imagery. He uses a lot of sensory details to help the reader know what it feels like in a certain situation. “Except for the laughter things were quiet,” (67) and “You hear stuff

The poem does not follow a rhyme scheme or meter, which means that there is rhythm in the poem and it makes the poem more like a song. The poem has four stanza’s and has five lines within each stanza.

Racial prejudice often creates a division between the racists and their victims, and thus results in isolation and alienation of the victimized racial group. During the Harlem Renaissance, discrimination and oppression against African Americans was still prevalent, despite the 1920s being a time of expression of African culture. This juxtaposing concept is analyzed through Claude McKay’s poem “The White City”, which explores the perception of an African American speaker, presumably McKay himself, who longs to be a part of the White City, while retaining a deep, inner hatred of the city. Although McKay initially demonstrates his endearment and attachment toward the city through visual imagery, he directly juxtaposes it by expressing his hatred with tenacious, despicable diction. This juxtaposition not only serves to represent the struggle of being an African American in a white supremacist city but also displays McKay’s paradox of appreciating the “White City” while feeling detached from it.

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

In conclusion, the poem was used as a key to unlock some of the thoughts the negro had concerning Africa. The negro in this poem was a representative of all negroes during this time; their thoughts and the their feelings toward Africa. Cullen’s usage of the literary devices allow for an effective expression of the meaning of this poem. Poems are intensified language of experience, so the devices assured the connection of the reader to the poem and the experience. This applies to many issues in society today because as beautiful as our country is there are still dark clouds that cover the very essence of what the states once stood

What is the overall TONE of this poem and how do you come to that conclusion? (what is

A lack of self-awareness tended the narrator’s life to seem frustrating and compelling to the reader. This lack often led him to offer generalizations about ““colored” people” without seeing them as human beings. He would often forget his own “colored” roots when doing so. He vacillated between intelligence and naivete, weak and strong will, identification with other African-Americans and a complete disavowal of them. He had a very difficult time making a decision for his life without hesitating and wondering if it would be the right one.

Countee Cullen was born on 30 March 1902, a time period in which the African Americans were fighting for equality. Cullen experienced harsh poverty as a kid; at times his mother was so broke she couldn’t even afford to buy him a boys pare of clothes. Unfortunately his mother was forced to make Cullen, where women’s clothes that didn’t fit him. The pain and struggle was expressed with much feeling through his poems. Poems like “Incident,” captured the harsh disrespect, and neglect African Americans was experiencing during this time. At the beginning of the poem he expresses he was “Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,” (Lines 1-2), at the time of the poem he was only eight and newly moved to Baltimore. He states he attempted to say hello to another white boy his age while riding his bike, the boy called him a nigger and stuck his tong out. Cullen only lived in

    Countee Cullen uses figurative language and tone in both poems to create a theme. In his poem "Tableau" the message that the audience can perceive is that friendship shouldn't be based on stereotypes. The central part of the poem that can show how the theme attributes is when the African-American child and the white child join in unison and cross arms, "Locked arm in arm they cross the way" (Cullen 1).  At the beginning of the poem, this showed how the children don't care if they are a different race, their friendship overcomes that. Countee Cullen also uses his figurative style and tone in the poem "Incident". The author reveals the theme to be words can be powerful. In the poem, this is seen when the African-American child goes to Baltimore and sees a white child and gets called a damaging name, "And so I smiled, but he poked out / His tongue and called me, 'Nigger.' (Cullen 7,8). Just from that only word, all of his views on Baltimore changed. The use of diction and figurative language helped the theme finally come presently to the audience.

All three of the poems discussed in this essay relate to the struggles suffered by African Americans in the late 18th century to the early 19th century in many different ways. They had to live under harsh

Cullen utilizes imagery throughout the poem, to illuminate the racism African Americans endured and impact racism carries. The speaker in the poem is an eight year old in Baltimore. In the first stanza, Cullen describes the child as “heart-filled, head-filled with glee.” This image portrays the speaker as innocent and joyful. Then the speaker notices a boy staring at him, the speaker believes there’s little difference between them, that the kid “was no whit bigger.” The speaker gets a rude awakening after the boy “poked out his tongue.” A seemingly playful meaningless gesture is met with the boy calling the speaker “N****r.” Cullen contrasts these two experiences because it depicts how racism comes out of nowhere and effects those you wouldn’t expect. The last stanza, the speaker “saw the whole Baltimore. The image of seeing is not just visual, but a metaphor for the loss of innocence where the speaker now is exposed to the hate. Cullen masterfully uses imagery so that readers understand the incredible impact that words have, especially when used for hate.

Countee Cullen’s “Incident” shows the racial tension in America between whites and blacks. The speaker of the poem experiences racism for the first time. The Jim Crow Laws also played a part in the racial tension between whites and blacks, the only thing that the speaker of the poem remembers from his time in Baltimore is being called a “nigger”, and the persona of the boy that called him a “nigger” was from others who taught him to hate blacks.