Theme Of Incident By Countee Cullen

In the 1920 's racism was second nature to most generations. Growing up around hostility and hate towards specific races began to morph the common understanding of morals in privileged people. Countee Cullen plays off of this notion in his poem, "Incident" by producing an emotional impact through his acknowledgement of racism in the lives of children. He narrates a small black boy attempting to make friends with a white child of the same age. However, because of the influences around him and the hatred he has learned to have for African Americans, the boy sticks his tongue out at the narrator and calls him a "Nigger". This interaction is only the first of racist events that will occur in the young black boys life and this is
This I believe had a large impact on his creation of, "Incident". While in the poem the narrator is unable to forget the large emotional effect of a racial slur being used to hurt him, in Cullen 's life his use of poetry was an outlet to trying to understand why he was abandoned by his mother. In this interpretation the poem 's theme is tragedy and racism however, in a work overview by Sara Constantakis, Cullen’s poem, “Incident” is analyzed, providing detailed descriptions of what happens in the poem and each individual stanza. In Constantakis’ article, she broadly connects the first stanza to having a mood common in fairy tale 's. Later stating the ‘Once upon a time’ feeling had disappeared due to the ignorance of a small impressionable boy. In doing this, Constantakis shows the bitter truth behind racism and the harsh reality that children are entirely capable of picking up the hateful words and associated feelings that accompany adults influence on their children. Specifically at this time, during the height of the