Gwendolyn Brooks We Real Cool

In “We Real Cool” written by by Gwendolyn Brooks, Brooks adds to the meaning and tone of the poem by showing a theme that doing rebellious things gets you no where in life, even if it is considered “cool”. Brooks’ poem is about a group of people who do bad things like “leaving school” and “lurking late”. In the end of the poem, they say “We die soon”. In “We Real Cool”, Brooks is communicating that even if you’re “cool”, bad behavior ends up hurting you more that helping you. In the beginning of the poem, Brooks follows up after saying “We Real Cool” with “We Left School”. This helps establish the tone of a lostness because the narrorator is revealing that the only way he/she felt they could ‘be cool’ was to leave school with his ‘group’. Continueing

Because of saying “We Lurk late. We strike straight,” and continueing this throughout the poem, it really appeals to ethos with the audience which of whom might also be lost teens trying to ‘be cool’. This appeals to ethos because the audience can relate to, understand, and realize that the actions you make really can take a toll on you… Which is shown in the emotional shift in this poem. At the very end of the poem, they say “Jazz June. We Die soon.” Although this is a very impactful shift in the poem, it is not very unexpected. It is expected because of the short, impactful sentences, slowly leading up to the big climax (or shift) which leaves readers with a big lump in their throat. Even though the ending is not very surprising, it still has the same impact it would have on any other poem to anyone else. Overall, Brooks uses her poem to convey a lost tone with the theme that doing rebellious things gets you nowhere. Also, her poem appeals to ethos to a audience much like the narrorators, lost teens, teaching them to stay in school, continue to be an individual, and stick to their