Gwendolyn Brooks
On June 7, 1917, Keziah Corine Wims and David Anderson Brooks gave birth to one of the most gifted African-American poets of the 20th century. They named her Gwendolyn Brooks. Although she was born in Topeka, Kansas, Brooks grew up in Chicago where her mother worked as a schoolteacher and her father worked as a janitor. He quit going to school for financial reasons and while quitting went away his dream of becoming a doctor. David Brooks was still a proud man. Being a janitor wasn't, and still isn't considered a highly skilled job, but Brooks was still proud of her father's self-sacrifice. Brooks' wrote a poem directly titled In Honor of David Anderson Brooks, My Father. In this poem she writes of how much she misses him and the things he did for his family. Lines such as "A dryness is upon the house/ My father loved and tended/ Beyond his firm and sculptured door/ His light and lease have ended" show how much she cared for her father. Growing up in the south side of Chicago gave Brooks an insight to the social poverty that existed in this world. The people around her may have been poor, but they still had pride in their existence. The poem The Bean Eaters is a reflection of her surroundings. The
Although she was honored by many, perhaps the best description of Brooks' life and career came from her publisher, Haki Madhubuti, when he said, "She is undoubtedly one of the top 100 writers in the world. She writes, "Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love/ My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls/ Are gone from the house/ My husbands and lovers are pleasant or somewhat polite/ And night is night. This rejection effected her deeply and she retreated with poetry. They believed they were invincible, but that was not the reality for many young men. As she was growing up, members of her own race spurned her because she lacked social and athletic abilities, and to add to these factors, she was also light skinned. " The "Pool Players" symbolizes the average man, but with the "Golden Shovel" is foreshadowing death. A Sunset of the City shows all that Brooks was feeling at this period in her life. " Her poem is saying although this man has traveled and has seen the country, he is still considered by many to be just a "plain black boy. With lines such as: "Maud went to college/ Sadie stayed at home/ Sadie scraped life/ With a fine-tooth comb/ . " The violence and the lack of change that was happening in America frustrated Brooks and she couldn't understand what was taking so long for things to change. " They don't know anything about him, nor do they care to know anything about him, simply because he is a "plain black boy. The city symbolizes Brooks, and the sunset is as if there is an ending to a chapter in her life.
Common topics in this essay:
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Acceptance Essays
