In the “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brook, is a short poem that the author discusses the youth and the choices they are facing. In 1959 the poem was written and published in her 1960 book of The Bean Eater. Around the time where segregation took place and African American were involved. With many youths being involved questioned the society and it role. They were looked at different and gave up on a lot of important things that the future had in stored. With the poem “We Real Cool” seem to be about boys in that time growing up struggling with their identity. The pool players of seven boys named the Golden Shovel and the pool symbolized a pool hall. The number seven was associated with a lucky number for them. The small gang figured that they needed the luck to survive in the world with every risky situation they may bypass growing up. The Golden Shovel was the name of the pool …show more content…
Damaging their selves not going to school but wanting to live up to their own potential style of living. Which was not making them cool? They were an uneducated boy growing up thinking they were cool leaving school and showing up late. “We left school”, We Lurk Late”. As the poem went on about the Jazz June through the research the music was from the roots of slavery days where the slave sang sound through communication without their owner knowing what they talking about. The June was the summer time it felt like freedom every day of their life. For them, it was a chance to discover doing the season due to the crop of people who swindle in for June. The last part talks about the lifestyle that leads to death for them but no seem to care about their life for early death. The freedom characterized itself not knowing for the is right or wrong. they assumed responsibility due to actions of ending results of death. The life of the boy may be with excitement and danger with the choosing
The historical context of the book is the story took place in the late 80’s-early 90’s in the streets of Chicago. At this era of time, it had been about 20-30 years after segregation was outlawed, but the effects of years of racism and segregation could be shown in the “hoods” of cities. The author utilizes the two boys’ stories to show what the
The poem “We Real Cool” is the story of young kids, possibly teens, who are rebellious, uneducated, and arrogant. It states: “We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We strike straight. We sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz June. We die soon.” (l.1-8) The poem talks about the pool players and their lives. It seems as though the pool players are school aged because the poet says, “We left school.” (l.1-2) This line shows how they have no interest in school or learning. Since they choose to ditch school, they are most likely uneducated or immature therefore, their behavior throughout the poem, is not too surprising.
Lisa Delpit’s book, “The Skin We Speak”, talked about language and culture, and how it relates to the classroom. How we speak gives people hits as to where we are from and what culture we are a part of. Unfortunately there are also negative stereotypes that come with certain language variations. There is an “unfounded belief that the language of low income groups in rural or urban industrial areas is somehow structurally “impoverished” or “simpler” than Standard English” (Delpit 71). The United States is made of people from various cultures and speak many different variations of languages. As teachers we must be aware of some of the prejudices we may have about language and culture.
This week’s reflection is on a book titled Girls Like Us and it is authored by Rachel Lloyd. The cover also says “fighting for a world where girls not for sale”. After reading that title I had a feeling this book was going to be about girls being prostituted at a young age and after reading prologue I sadly realized I was right in my prediction.
Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, in their poems “We Real Cool” and “Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict”, are both alike in their idea of dealing with troubled youth. Brooks discusses in her poem “We Real Cool” rebellious pool-playing youth that “sing sin” (Line 5) and “thin gin.” (Line 6) The whole poem centers around disturbed youth. The narrator in Sonia Sanchez’s poem “Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict”, is also a disturbed young woman who is addicted to heroin, and seems to live a rather rebellious lifestyle. In addition, both of these poems use tone via word choice, sentence structure, and meter in order to vividly describe the scenarios in their poems, and to impact their reader. However, both poets use the literary elements mentioned above differently in their poems.
To some, schools are only responsible for the bare minimum. What that means is, schools are only required to teach our children the required subjects, and send them on their way. What happens after that last bell rings, and it’s time to go home? Imagine there were a place for our children to continue to learn, imagine having an escape from reality. Does such a thing exist?
The poem, We Real Cool, by Gwendolyn Brooks speaks through the voice of a young clique who believes it is “real cool.” Using slang and simple language to depict the teenage voice in first person, Brooks’s narrators explain that they left school to stay out together late at night, hanging around pool halls, drinking, causing trouble, and meeting girls. Their lifestyle, though, will ultimately lead them to die at a young age. But, despite an early death, the narrator expresses that they are “real cool” because of this risky routine. Through her poem, Brooks’s shows the ironic consequence of acting “cool”: it leads to death.
Each of the poems offers insight to what a boy needs to know and will expect when turning twenty one. The each shows different perspectives on the importance of this birthday and how it can change a boy into a man. The tone, dictions, and structure offers insights and help to the reader of how these poems can convey each their own compelling
One of the great things about Composition and Literature is that the readings can relate to many other topics outside of the class. The poems and the stories read in this class give a more in depth look at a specific subject and give a clearer picture of what life was like and how people lived at that time. In most classes about U.S. History, the sections taught on segregation don’t give specific examples of how people were treated or the perspectives of the people who were mistreated. However, reading Gwendolyn Brooks’ poetry in the Composition and Literature course gives students an opportunity to learn greater details about segregation through the perspectives of the people most affected by it and the
Also, in lines 5 through 6, Brooks indicates “We Thin gin” (5-6) relates that minor children are indulging in alcoholic beverages. This illustrates illegal business and events occurring as the young boys pride themselves on their behavior and bad habits. In lines 6 through 7, “We / Jazz June” (6-7) provides the reader with the idea of sexual intercourse between the young men and a female named, June. Jazz is a genre of music, but in other terms jazz is a response in slang to something that the listener does not wish to listen to. “You talking all that jazz” in other words is complete nonsense. However, outside of music the word jazz has a tarnished tone attached to it. Therefore, June is always be capitalized due to the fact that it is a month out of the year, and it can also be a name of a woman whom one can have sex with, but one cannot jazz a month. Finally lines 7 through 8, “We / Die soon.” (7-8) are intended to catch the attention of the reader because the author foreshadows the early death of the seven pool players due to the inevitable course of events that the young men are engaging
"We Real Cool" is a short, yet powerful poem by Gwendolyn Brooks that sends a life learning message to its reader. The message Brooks is trying to send is that dropping out of school and roaming the streets is in fact not "cool" but in actuality a dead end street.
these boys, did they belong in the reject circle, the outcast’s of the high school? were they the weirdo’s because they loved to learn while everyone else? focused on their looks and the next football game. Maybe, and this is the very. point that Leon Botstein states in his article “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood” for the The New York Times, which was written after the Littleton shootings.
In the end, we see that the poem Harlem is closely tied to the rash of disappointments that each member of the family faces. The central theme of the poem is tied directly to the family dynamic of the Youngers. Each member is too busy trying to bring happiness to the family in their own way that they forget to actually communicate with themselves in a positive way.
The mother, on the other hand, is very adamant that the child should not go because it is dangerous. It is obvious that the child is concerned about the events surrounding the march and wants to be part of the movement. The child expresses these feelings in a way the appears mature and cognizant of the surrounding world, expressing a desire to support the civil rights movement rather than to?go out and play.? The desire to no longer be seen as a child and have her voice heard by those being marched against and by her mother (who can also be seen as an oppressive form of authority in this poem) is expressed by the first few lines. The opinion of the child is much like that of all young people who want to fight for their freedom.
The poem also focuses on what life was like in the sixties. It tells of black freedom marches in the South how they effected one family. It told of how our peace officers reacted to marches with clubs, hoses, guns, and jail. They were fierce and wild and a black child would be no match for them. The mother refused to let her child march in the wild streets of Birmingham and sent her to the safest place that no harm would become of her daughter.