We Real Cool a Poem by Gwendoly Brooks

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We Real Cool

“We Real Cool” is a poem that was written by poet Gwendolyn Brooks in the year of 1959. This poem states that the black young people in the United States went through to make a clear definition of themselves and tried to seek their values in the late fifties and early sixties, young kids knowing they are different from the society, so they started their abandonment from a young age, they give up school because they know they cannot be accept as other white kids, they were caught in things as rape, murder and robbery because that's the only thing the now to express their anger. They do everything that seems fun to them then die young because they have no hope left for them. These African American young ones are living in the society that was ruled as well as predominated trying to make them stay in the relatively oppressed state.

This poem presents a picture showing that a group of black young boys who were hanging out in the hall of pool and do a lot of illegal activities rather than going to study at school just like other students with the same age as them. These black young boys are always worried about their role in the society and cannot get the according secure feeling although they are still in the young ages. They are so little that many of them have no clear idea about the society and their future as the blacks. They are always in the confused and chaos states so as they feel lost to some extent. These black young boys are talking big in order to cover the internal instability. (Cummings, 2005) They would like to show to other people that they are the naughty and tough guys instead of trying to seek some help. They hold the point of view that they have been abandoned by the society and they have no...

... middle of paper ...

...th simple and few words because it can leave the enough room for people to think.

“We real cool” is an easy read but hard understand poem. It shows the concern towards the future of the blacks with a few simple words. Through portraying a picture about a group of black boys playing in the pool hall, the author presents to the readers about the deep concern.

Works Cited

Brooks, Gwendolyn. "We Real Cool." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson.New York: Norton, 2005. 999-1000.

Cummings, Allison. "Public Subjects: Race and the Critical Reception of Gwendolyn Brooks, Erica Hunt, and Harryette Mullen." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 26.2 (2005): 3- 36.

Dickson, L. L. "'Keep It in the Head': Jazz Elements in Modern Black American Poetry."Melus 10.1 (Spring 1983) 29-37.

Smith, Gary. "Brooks's We Real Cool." Explicator 43.2 (1985) 49-50.

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