What Does Tableau Mean

Cullen uses auditory imagery to draw his readers in to hear what he hears. The meaning of this poem is to take the reader on a journey of what the negro felt about

    Countee Cullen uses figurative language and tone in both poems to create a theme. In his poem "Tableau" the message that the audience can perceive is that friendship shouldn't be based on stereotypes. The central part of the poem that can show how the theme attributes is when the African-American child and the white child join in unison and cross arms, "Locked arm in arm they cross the way" (Cullen 1).  At the beginning of the poem, this showed how the children don't care if they are a different race, their friendship overcomes that. Countee Cullen also uses his figurative style and tone in the poem "Incident". The author reveals the theme to be words can be powerful. In the poem, this is seen when the African-American child goes to Baltimore and sees a white child and gets called a damaging name, "And so I smiled, but he poked out / His tongue and called me, 'Nigger.' (Cullen 7,8). Just from that only word, all of his views on Baltimore changed. The use of diction and figurative language helped the theme finally come presently to the audience.

The poems “Tableau” and “Incident” by Countee Cullen are about racism, but both have a different take on it. The African American author wrote in 1900’s , when racism was common and more acceptable. Cullen’s work became more popular during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920’s. Both poems are developed with different writing mechanics to convey a clear message to the reader or audience. Cullen uses figurative language and tone to develop the theme in each text.

The Harlem Renaissance allowed for the expression of many African American artists such as Countee Cullen to illustrate the indifference of blacks and whites through poetry. Cullen wrote Tableau as well as Incident, which share a tone of power. The racial interaction between a black and white boy in the two poems both contradict and have similarities. Developing their separate themes comes with the comparison of the two races and how they treat one another. Countee Cullen uses figurative language and tone to formulate the themes of the two works of literacy.

“I have a rendezvous with life” (Cullen). He does not literally have a meeting with life, but that he will one day truly live and be happy. This is a quote of Countee Cullen, an African American poet that became famous during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920’s. He has written many famous poems that have influenced African Americans throughout time. This was a hard time for blacks to be themselves, so when he said he has a meeting with life he really is trying to say that one day, he will finally be himself. Among his famous poems, there are two poems that are very powerful, called ¨Tableau¨ and ¨Incident¨. The poem ¨Tableau¨ is about two kids, one black and one white, walking down the street arm and arm with people staring and talking about them as they pass. This poem shows that friendship is more powerful than stereotypes, while ¨Incident¨ shows that words are powerful. That poem by Countee Cullen tells the story of a boy walking around Baltimore and a man calling him the n-word. That's all the boy remembers in that trip to Baltimore, even though he was there from May to December. Both themes can be seen throughout their poems through figurative language and the tone of the writing.

Unlike Naylor, Cullen never identifies the sex of the black child in his poem. Perhaps Cullen renders the child in his poem genderless to give the child a more universal standing; perhaps he leaves the child genderless in order to focus on the more important fact that the child, whether male or female, sees no difference between him- or herself and the other boy until the “Baltimorean" boy calls him/her "nigger" (3).

American history is fraught with racism. Its evolution is depicted in literature through the ages, from journal entries of colonial slavery to novels about modern-day race relations. Countee Cullen was a black poet alive during the Harlem Renaissance whose poems “Tableau” and “Incident” portray racism as it was in the early 20th century. Through the use of figurative language and tone, Cullen develops in each poem themes about the effects of small actions.

Racial interaction was very low in the early years of the 1900s. Many children of both races were afraid to talk to one another because of the era they lived in. Countee Cullen was an African American poet in this time period that wrote about his view on this. In the poems “Tableau” and “Incident” by Countee Cullen are good examples of the emotions in racial interactions in the point of view of an African American kid. The theme in the poem ¨Tableau” is everyone one is the same despite the race and the theme of ¨Incident” is something so small can have a big impact. Figurative language helps develop the theme and tones through both poems to create racial interaction.

“We were not made to eternally weep,” wrote Countee Cullen in his poem “From the Dark Tower,” referring to the way blacks feel about prejudice. Cullen was a famous African American poet who wrote poems during the time of the Harlem Renaissance, a movement to give blacks a new identity. He wrote many famous poems, including “Tableau” and “Incident,” which gave an insight into the way that blacks were treated. “Tableau” and “Incident” did this by depicting the racial interactions between a black child and a white child. In “Tableau,” a black boy and a white boy walk together with locked arms. The town folk see this and stare at them, because they are offended that a black boy and a white boy would ever walk together as friends. This

I interpreted this poem as a very sad one. A love unrequited by the pursued. In the first two lines the poem tells you to forget about the love you share and hear a tale of this. Not to literally forget, but possibly put aside. The man is a winter breeze, cold and rough and sort of roams the land. The woman is a window flower, shut off from the outside. This sets up the separation.

By using figurative language the author expresses his views on racial injustice. In “Tableau” Countee Cullen uses the simile “[t]hat lightning brilliant as a sword / [s]hould blaze the path of thunder” to create a feeling of power. This simile uses strong words like lightning and thunder to show the change the boys are making. By everyone seeing these boys be friends despite their races. This hopefully made some people wake up and realize race does not matter. The poem “Incident” by Countee Cullen uses imagery in powerful ways like “[h]eart-filled, head-filled with glee” to create a sense of cheeriness and later on sorrow. Near the start of the poem a young child is extremly happy to be traveling to Baltimore. Although, by the end of the poem the kid is upset because all he remembers about his trip was another child calling him a racial slur.

first expect it to be a romantic poem but as we read on we see that it

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.

In the poem “Incident”, Cullen recounts his encounter with another similarly aged boy that left him desolated with a reflective, outraged, and sad tone. Cullen writes, in regard to the other Baltimorean boy, “And he was no whit bigger, / And so I smiled,” which proves he viewed the boy as an equal before the unfortunate experience to follow. He also writes about how, prior to meeting the boy, he was “Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,” highlighting the contrast between his emotions. He initially felt excited to be in the city; however, the encounter brought forth disappointments that would, unfortunately, enlighten him of the racism of the early 1900s. Concerning the actual incident, Cullen is very straightforward as he documents the exact

As we mentioned in the introduction section, one of the time problems related to the Tableau procedure is checking if the branch is closed or not. The ordinary way for checking if a branch is closed is known as highly time-cost process. We need an intelligent and simple way to construct and check the branches.