Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks seems to have some skill in writing, able to use metaphor well and pack some very complex feelings into her poems. I read a couple extra poems to try and figure out more of who she is, and it really helped when I got to “The Boy Died in My Alley.” In that poem, the speaker says “I joined the Wild and killed him/ with knowledgeable unknowing.” (26-27). I wondered what “the Wild” meant.

In Brooks’ poem, “Gay Chaps at the Bar,” Brooks explores the sentiments of an African-American man returning from fighting in World War II. In the section, ‘The White Troops had Their Orders but the Negroes Looked Like Men,’ we see that in war the whites who normally oppressed them realized that blacks were just as human and just as noble as anyone else. Tragically, however, we see these brave men going back home and facing a society that is trying to reestablish its past disregard and subjugation of African-Americans. That society sits in smug pride and disdains black Americans. They would not reach out and help or understand their black brothers and sisters; they would forever keep them as unenlightened savages—they would keep them “wild.”

“Wild” is a derogatory term that would choose to see a person or group as animal-like: ruthless and instinctual, devoid of common kindness, instead of seeing him, her, them as truly human: full of dignity, self-sacrifice, compassion, and beauty.

When I read “The Boy Died in My Alley,” and the speaker said he or she “joined the Wild,” I asked myself, Is violence so prevalent, do they hate and are so disgusted with their environment, that a person would degrade themselves to that level?

On this note, one other thing caught my eye. I wondered why the speaker would call this Boy an “ornament.” I don’t think it is consistent with the rest of the poem to see this as joyful, to say racist, nor to see sarcasm (the repetition makes the speaker sound deeply struck by this death). It could be irony, but more than likely it is pained hope.

Brooks uses the phrase, “I saw him Crossed,” (29) a crucifixion image, to describe the Boy’s death. In line 31-34, we see him in agony; in lines 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39, we see his cry rising to heaven; and in lines 40-41, the speaker says that “The red floor of my alley/ is a special speech to me.” It seems like the speaker feels a similar pain and a similar cry. I read this poem, and I have a hard time not reading the speaker as a praying Grandmother. When she uses the word “Ornament,” it seems like she’s thinking, I like that it happened, In one sense, because it brings attention and maybe an answer.

It is interesting to note that unlike the record of Jesus' crucifixion, here, there is no mention of a resurrection, that is to say, there is no solution; we do not see the problem end. And in that Brooks is calling her reader to be that change.