Analyzing the Literary Analysis

¶ … Authors Use Similar or Contrasting Elements of Fiction

In his autobiographical work, "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow," Richard Wright describes a disturbing violent scene that was very common among Black communities in Southern United States. He claims that one day, when he was polishing brass at the front of a clothing shop, his boss, together with his young son (aged 20), drove up in their automobile and got out half kicking and half dragging a Black female into the shop. A policeman who stood just at the store's corner did nothing but look on, "twirling his nightstick." The poignant image depicted here summarizes the essence of the author's work, revealing how racism was, at the time, deep-rooted in U.S. society. The policeman's callous attitude -- emphasized by the expression "twirling his nightstick" -- and his lack of intervention in the matter proved that the law institutionalized and virtually upheld racism; thus, the infamous laws termed as "Jim Crow" were able to somehow evade federal government oversight. While Jim Crow was a violation of all principles upon which America was founded, the Southern states upheld it as the sole social and political institution for generations. Through enforcement of Jim Crow, America's sacred institutions (which included its system of justice) ensured Negros had zero access to financial, cultural or social capital. Hence, class and race became intricately entwined.

In his poem, "Bitter Fruit of the Tree," Sterling Brown makes use of an anecdotal layout for describing the experiences of racial discrimination and how it affects power access and social class. Brown reflects on the generation of his grandparents and how they were taught to remain subservient to Whites, who were power authorities. Similar to Wright, who dealt with systematic American racism through his personal experiences, Sterling Brown writes about how the Black population was told not to be bitter, and simply accept racial discrimination as part and parcel of life. The poet answers Wright's question of how Blacks feel with regard to their way of life, posed by him in his work "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow," in the aforementioned poem's final line: "my brother is bitter, and he does not hear." Overall mistrust and bitterness of White power/authority establishment in America is the sole natural result of the systematic racial discrimination, on the lines illustrated by Brown and Wright in their respective literary works.

Sterling Brown employs more symbolism than Wright. The latter's piece of literature is more direct, frank, and literal -- Wright narrates actual tales from his own experiences. Brown's "Bitter Fruit of the Tree" is a remarkably literal poem, since the image of beaten and bloody individuals was unfortunately very real for Blacks in Americas. However, imagery such as "weather-stripped house that he could not enter" denotes class disparities resulting from shifting of African-American citizens straight to an underclass status. Thus, Sterling Brown as well as Richard Wright demonstrate how racism gave rise to African-Americans' systematic disenfranchisement, which successively resulted in drastic income disparities within the U.S. Harlem Renaissance literature was basically a type of political remonstration, a means of promoting activism in support of comprehensive human rights.

How do these elements specifically affect the overall work and the reader? What lasting impact or message do they leave with the reader?

While Wright uses imagery to a limited degree in his work, a clear line existed between the White and Black population of America, as evidenced by the very first paragraph of his sketch. The imagery utilized places readers in the precise situation and facilitates their experience of lessons to be learnt from Jim Crow: the abysmal hierarchy that gave whites superiority over blacks. Emphasizing the attitude that a person was classified by his/her "color," Wright states that "there were black churches and black preachers, there were black schools and black teachers; black groceries and black clerks." The aforementioned recurring theme signifies the impossibility and untouchable nature of equality in that era (Susan, 2014).

Numerous elements such as imagery applied by Brown have different impacts on the reader. One such image is a religious image that is created by his poem's title, with the metaphor of 'bitter fruit' also potentially alluding to the concept of "primogeniture," wherein property and land is traditionally inherited by the family's first-born male. But, the case was totally different for Negro slaves, who were almost a commodity to their masters:

"When they sold her first-born and let the second die" (line 2)

The poem's title also alludes to the Biblical Genesis, in which Adam and Eve partake of the "forbidden fruit" belonging to the "tree of knowledge." In their disobedience of God's command, they acquire knowledge of evil and good, contributing to mankind's fall from Paradise. Slaves' masters have, in Brown's poem, recreated Paradise; however, this is done at the slaves' expense:

"Some must work and suffer so that we, who must, can live" (line 6)

The repetition of 'must' twice stresses the master-slave inequality, contrasted starkly in the following line:

"And they left her shack for their porticoed house" (line 9)

'Porticoed' houses represent grand structures that were characteristic of affluent Whites in Southern USA's plantation states.

Sterling Brown applies symbolism and imagery in his poem for highlighting the unjust practices of racial oppression and slavery. Though the poem is written as a matter-of-factly, its tone conveys 'emotional catharsis' and anger (Anderson 1029), highlighted by the repeated use of the term 'bitter' all through the course of the poem. Harsh 't' and 'b' sounds stress the poem's biting tone, which is further underscored by its alliteration with 'beaten' and 'bloody' (line 4) within the first stanza. Line 19 continues the alliteration with 'c':

"Where a cutting wind warned him of the cold to come"

The above line links to the poem's last stanza that comments on the problems encountered by African-American citizens who are adjusting to a life following emancipation, within an atmosphere of racial segregation, lynching and inequality (Anderson, 1998).