Analysis Of Incident By Countee Cullen

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.

The story enters the mind of the narrator, an envious white supremacist with an inferiority complex, and explores his psychological profile. Straightaway, we can feel the abrasiveness of the character by his immediate use of the “N” word. We

This literary device is being used when he states, "I see a young Negro boy. He is sitting on a stoop... The stench of garbage is in the halls. The drunks... jobless... junkies are shadow figures of his everyday world". The use of imagery throughout his passage is to evoke emotions like empathy, from his audience. It allows his audience to be able to establish a connection with the images he portrays, and for the audience too also be able to understand how desperately social change is needed in the United States. Another example of imagery would be where he states," black people, brought to this land in slave ships and in chain, had drained the swamps, built the homes... to lift this nation from colonial obscurity to commanding influence...". He uses imagery to put the audience into the Black community's hoes, so that they are able to comprehend that the way Americans are treating them is not right and needs to be changed because they also made the nation great. He is further persuading his audience for social

Racism is an issue that blacks face, and have faced throughout history directly and indirectly. Ralph Ellison has done a great job in demonstrating the effects of racism on individual identity through a black narrator. Throughout the story, Ellison provides several examples of what the narrator faced in trying to make his-self visible and acceptable in the white culture. Ellison engages the reader so deeply in the occurrences through the narrator’s agony, confusion, and ambiguity. In order to understand the narrators plight, and to see things through his eyes, it is important to understand that main characters of the story which contributes to his plight as well as the era in which the story takes place.

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.

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

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

This imagery describes how happy a young African American boy is to be in the city of Baltimore. Also, the implication of rhyme from the words glee and me set off the tone as happy. However, when he encounters a white boy that sticks his tongue out and calls him a ¨Nigger¨, the tone of Incident changes to a gloomy feeling. By the last stanza, the African American boy claims, ¨Of all the things that happened there / Thatś all that I remember¨ (Cullen 11-12). The author's message really shines through when reading the last lines of the poem. When starting off with a pleasant day in Baltimore, the discriminatory comment and look given by the arrogant white boy really gave the narrator a sour taste of the city.

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.

Others argue that the book produces a “non inclusive” environment in school(Lee). The ideas that Mark Twain cultivates and develops for many form an environment that some would coin uncomfortable for “mixed classrooms”. White student have grown with the concept that it is not appropriate to use the “n-word” and colored students feel a sense of uneasiness hearing the word over and over again. Many argue that the word diminishes the progress that has been obtained in the last decades and it is just a reminder of what was. For many this reminder is not a sense of pride in their progression but one of embarrassment and belittlement once again. The discomfort targets more than just students. For many teachers the portrayal of Jim as a childlike black man who has no sense of self-respect demonstrated causes some white teachers to squirm with discomfort or embarrassment (Samuels). To some teachers the discomfort goes more than just what occurs in the novel. Being associated with the race that belittled others makes them feel uncomfortable especially is taught within a mixed classroom.

Several times the author alludes to the narrator’s naivety and ignorance of how he, as a black man, was viewed in society. The narrator first shows that he believes he makes his own decisions, when in reality he is manipulated by white men at the club, “Blindfolded, I could no longer control my motions.”(p.22). Moreover, he thinks that his perception of the world is clear and is confused at the lack of respect he is afforded, “I was unused to darkness.”(p.21). By foul actions of the men the narrator looked up to, his bright world is destroyed and all that is left is the darkness; a brutal realization of what it means to be black.

Countee Cullen uses alliteration, rhyming, irony, and connotation to expand on the seriousness of how African Americans were being preserved and how important parenting is. In the poem the Incident written in the 1925. The in the poem Incident is clearly is about a young boy who learns that word and how to use it from the adults in his life. In the end, the poem makes the reader feel upset about the discrimination. The poem Incident starts with eight year old Cullen's viewpoint.

Countee Cullen was an African poet during the 1900s a period known for its racism. He wrote two famous poems: “Tableau” and “Incident,” in which each poem depicts racial interactions between white and black children. Countee Cullen shows us how racism is wrong in the two poems, with each of the two themes: the littlest thing can hurt the most, and the importance of friendship is more important than stereotypes. These two themes were developed throughout the poems by using figurative language and tone.

Countee Cullen used form as well as imagery to help provide an insight into the aspects of the past predominately white culture. His poem “Incident” shows a small glimpse into the racist cultural of the past. There is no question; this poem tackles the issue of racism directly. Unfortunately, this poem is still as accurate to today’s society as it was when Cullen wrote it in the 20’s.