A Haunting Protest Against Racism In Strange Fruit

Wright’s poem, “Between the World and Me,” socially reflects on the brutality against African-Americans by describing a gruesome lynching of an African-American man. The poem begins with the narrator “[stumbling]” into the remnants of the lynching. He sees the “design of white bones slumbering forgottenly,” this illustrates the ignorance of people about the brutal treatment that African-Americans went through, especially getting beaten to death or the fear of being lynched. The narrator continues describing the scene by slowly integrating himself into the previous victim’s shoes, as he stood “frozen within cold pity for the life that was gone,” the narrator reflects on an innocent life that was taken away because of discrimination. As the scene comes to life, the narrator feels the dry bones “melting themselves into [his] bones,” here is where he puts himself into the position of the victim allowing him to feel the pain of the previous victim. Towards the end of the poem, the narrator utilizes grotesque imagery like “they had, stripped me,” and “battering my teeth into my throat,” in order to illustrate the horrific violence and discrimination that African-Americans faced because of the color of their skin and the way they live their life. This poem is significant mainly due to Wright

Within the song “Strange Fruit” the following lines in particular stand out: “Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh/ Then the sudden smell of burning flesh,” (Holiday 7-8). In these lines Holiday revels the darkness of what is happening and with doing this sends the message that while the monstrous deeds of the south are covered up they are still there and still pungent. Alike to this song, Beneatha through her past can see the discrimination that others hold against her before it is publicly made known and stands up to those who do this by bringing them to light. An example of this can be seen through the following

Strange Fruit is extremely valuable today and especially in the 1930’s. The 1930’s was a rough time for society. No one should have to live through the deaths of innocent humans but unfortunately that happened in the past and still happens today in different forms. Strange Fruit was the first controversial song that ever spoke out about the cruelty of the lynching of African Americans. It gained attention throughout the years of Holiday performing it, which gives it tremendous value. The sadness and disturbing imagery portrayed in the song, gave it a positive effect considering it gained support towards the Civil Rights Movement. The song sends out a clear message in an unusual way. Painting a disturbing picture into the listener’s mind through words makes the person perceive the message to be to end lynching. “Strange fruit hanging from the poplar tree” (line 4). The strange fruit is a black person being hanged from the tree. That is a deep message that was made to get into everyone’s head to push for a change in the unfair society.

During the time this poem was written, racism and prejudice towards African Americans was prevalent and habituated to whites. From the first stanza alone, the tone is already set as uncharitable and

In this poem there is a lot of figurative language. One of the biggest types of figurative language used in this poem is irony. The irony in this poem is how the mother wouldn't let her child go to march because she feared her child would get hurt. Instead she sent her child to church because she believed it was a safe and sacred place but ironically the church ended up being bombed. Another piece of figurative language that is very effective in this poem is imagery. The way the poem is written helps me create images in my head for example, "She raced through the streets of Birmingham." I can imagine her running around desperately, looking for her child. The metaphors and hyperboles in this poem also help with the imagery, for example, "...night dark hair," and "…rose-petal sweet." These metaphors make me think of the girls smoothly combed black hair and her fresh and beautiful rosy smell. A hyperbole that had a huge effect on the tone was, "But that smile was the last smile to ever come upon her face." This hyperbole really helps me understand the effect of a tragic moment like this and how it can completely ruin

After the ellipses, there is a shift back to the poetic “I”. The speaker states that while starring into the sockets of the victim’s skull, he becomes “frozen” with the “pity for the life that was gone”. This transitional sentence separates the scene of the already occurred murder from the present material world. The material world revives around the speaker in the next sentence of the poem. In this massive sentence, Wright dramatically personifies the nature in order to transform the cruel historical scene into the current time. However, the significant transformation of the poetic “I” to the “thing” starts when “the ground gripped” the poet’s feet. From that line, the personified ground captures the speaker, and from the observer of already happened images of the lynching, he revives as a participant in the present scene. In this scene, when the dry bones “melting themselves” into the poet’s bones, he becomes the victim of the lynching. The last minutes of the victim’s life are graphically presented in the third stanza of the poem. The first person’s perspective is a very powerful element, which Wright uses in order to put any reader into the African Americans unlawful suffering from the terror lynching. Furthermore, it is obvious that in the Richard

Throughout the poem, the author chooses simple diction. This makes the tone straightforward and blunt, like a black America who simply expresses himself instead of sermonizing about discrimination. Thereby, readers can accept the poem’s argument more easily. Furthermore, the author writes the poem mostly in long sentences to emphasize on short yet important sentences such as “That’s America.”, “Be we are. That’s true!”

What do you think this poem is saying, in your own words? This poem is about the different kinds of people that live in America and how they are the reason America is America. It is also saying that no one is the same and that everyone sings their own song.

The poem describes the weather and its effect on cotton flower by pointing out the dying branches and vanishing cotton. The image of insufficiency, struggle and death parallel the oppression of African American race. The beginning of the poem illustrates the struggle and suffering of the cotton flower; which represent the misery of African Americans and also gives an idea that there is no hope for them. But at the end the speaker says “brown eyes that loves without a trace of fear/ Beauty so sudden for that time of year” (lines 13-14). This shows the rise of the African American race, and their fight against racism. The author used mood, tone and

One famous jazz artist, Billie Holiday’s, is known for a famous work of jazz called “Strange Fruit.” This piece of art was a haunting protest against racism. Directly from the song, Billie sings “Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees (Holiday “strange fruit”). The words in this quote, “Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,” show that lynching was done. The blood on the leaves and at the root portrays the gruesomeness of hanging.

The lyrics of the song have contains a handful of imagery describing African Americans being lynched. For example, “Blood on the leaves and blood on the root”, is a very descriptive example and puts an image in your mind of seeing a tree with African Americans hanging with blood dripping from their bodies (genius.com). This line makes it seem like the blood that is dripping from the people hanging is feeding the tree’s root, and this could symbolize growth because America was a growing country back then and still is today. Back then, African Americans were physically and mentally abused, and the point of the song was to put an end to that and it did eventually. Today, African Americans are still being discriminated for job opportunities because of stereotypes people made that make African Americans look bad. Throughout the course of time, we did make changes, which relates to the line, “Blood on the leaves and blood on the root”. Another line the depicts a very cruel image is, “Here is fruit for crows to pluck” (genius.com) This line has a very dark meaning and image because crows always symbolize evil and darkness. The fact that this line puts a picture of bodies being devoured by crows in your mind, proves that Holiday uses very strong imagery in the context of Strange Fruit. From these two lines from the song, we learned that

The depiction black struggles within Dunbar’s dialect poetry makes Dunbar’s poetry beneficial for the black race. For example, in “An Ante-bellum Sermon,” when Dunbar writes “But when Moses wif his powah Comes an' sets us chillun free, We will praise de gracious Mastah, Dat has gin us liberty; An' we'll shout ouah halleluyahs, On dat mighty reck'nin' day, When we'se reco'nised ez citiz', Huh uh! Chillun, let us pray!”, he is depicting a common feeling of African Americans. Although this poem takes place before the Civil War, and before Dunbar’s birth, both of Dunbar’s parents were ex-slaves, which gave him an understanding of slavery. With an understanding of slavery, Dunbar was able to depict the desire for slaves to be rid of the unjust system. Beyond that, the idea is still applicable to the time in which he lived. From one issue to another, people anticipate equality while in dire situations. Similarly, in “Song,” Dunbar depicts the harmful race relations from his time. Instead of the black experience being told from a sympathizer perspective, Dunbar has a better understanding of what it was like to be black in the 1890s. The competition and hate between flowers symbolizes the conflict between white and black people. Through this metaphor, especially at the end when they celebrate the death of all daisies when he writes “In de fiel’ de flags is wavin’ in a tantalizing’ way, Kin o’ ‘joicin’ case de daisies all is daid,” Dunbar depicts the hateful race relations of his time. Dunbar’s representation of black issues brings attention to them, which benefits African Americans.

In "Strange Fruit," Lewis Allan uses juxtaposition and metaphors to convey a disturbing tone. In the words of Lewis Allen lynchings are the "scent of magnolia's, sweet and fresh / then the sudden smell of burning flesh" (lines 7-8). Juxtaposing the beauty of the South, to the hatred that is experienced there makes the reader feel overwhelmed. The comparison of two drastic differences that are being lived out shows the dark side of reality. Allen also expressed that the "strange fruit (was) hanging from the poplar trees" (4).

Cullen utilizes imagery throughout the poem, to illuminate the racism African Americans endured and impact racism carries. The speaker in the poem is an eight year old in Baltimore. In the first stanza, Cullen describes the child as “heart-filled, head-filled with glee.” This image portrays the speaker as innocent and joyful. Then the speaker notices a boy staring at him, the speaker believes there’s little difference between them, that the kid “was no whit bigger.” The speaker gets a rude awakening after the boy “poked out his tongue.” A seemingly playful meaningless gesture is met with the boy calling the speaker “N****r.” Cullen contrasts these two experiences because it depicts how racism comes out of nowhere and effects those you wouldn’t expect. The last stanza, the speaker “saw the whole Baltimore. The image of seeing is not just visual, but a metaphor for the loss of innocence where the speaker now is exposed to the hate. Cullen masterfully uses imagery so that readers understand the incredible impact that words have, especially when used for hate.

Imagine racism taking over the world, with overwhelming thoughts about how you might be the next victim. Quarrels about whether the best skin is black or white, but always resulting that white is right. Hope would evaporate from an evanescent cloud and Faith became instinct as it was replaced by agony. Everywhere you turned around for help, all you saw were the bodies of those neglected and lynched. Abel Meeropol published the poem Strange Fruit in 1937, after seeing a drastic picture of lynching that traumatized him ever since then. As a result, the poem became a memory to all those who died and is momentous to our history.