Bean Eaters

by Gwendolyn Brooks opens our eyes to the world of poverty. Through the literary techniques of theme, setting, and imagery, Brooks' poem tells a story about a couple barely surviving. This poem demonstrates how writers can tell a story without coming outright and saying the most obvious things. Brooks' poem sets the right mood and delivers the perfect imagery for telling us a tale about this couple's world of poverty.

Setting and imagery are significant to the poem's overall message. The small kitchen represents the small world that the couple shares. In that kitchen, the old couple does what they can do survive. Their meals are "beans mostly" (1) and "casual" (Brooks 2). We also know that those meals are eaten on "plain chipware" (3) with "tin flatware" (4). Their home is a "rented back room that / is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths, / tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes" (12-3). Setting and imagery operate together to establish the tone of this poem, which is somber. The couple realizes that their best years are behind them and they remember them with "twinkling and twinges" (11). Here we see an image of a couple that is committed to one another through good times and bad and this is what makes the poverty seem bearable.

"The Bean Eaters" is a short poem but it delivers a powerful punch. We can see the old couple sitting in the mall kitchen at the table with the old dinnerware. Brooks demonstrates the power of imagery because we can see the couple and she also illustrates how setting is important in establishing the theme of a poem. She never once mentions the word poor or poverty but she never needs to because she has painted that picture for us.

Work Cited

Brooks, Gwendolyn. "The Bean Eaters." Little, Brown Compact Handbook. New York:

Longman Publishers. 2007.