Incident by Countee Cullen
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Literary Appreciation #1- “Incident” by Countee Cullen
“Incident”, is a poem that was written to make us as readers think, not only about racism but also about how one occasion can allow us to judge a race, or a place. Racism is an issue that plagues not only African-Americans but also other creeds, genders, and races. In this essay I will discuss the poem and the role that racism took within it, by using personal knowledge, the text, and obtained research.
The poem in its self takes on a rhyme scheme that allows you the reader to feel the narrator, so that you can not only imagine that you were there, but you can also almost gather the same feelings as the narrator. In the begin he talks about how he first rode through Baltimore happy, and filled with glee. Until he spoke to a stranger politely and the stranger poked out his mouth and calls him/her a nigger. In this event he states towards the end of the poem, “I saw the whole of Baltimore from May until December; of all the things that happen there thats all that I remember”. It took that one event to leave an impression about Baltimore that was unforgettable. And no matter how nice the remainder of his/her stay the event was imprinted in their mind.
Is it true that one “incident” can allow us to place judgment on one area as a whole? Is it fair to do so? Although the answer to these questions should be no reality allows us to say yes. If I were to go somewhere and someone was very rude than I would probably gather from that, that all the people from that area are rude. And even if that may not be fair to say or do it remains to be the truth in society. For example the masses of people that have one bad experience from one individual whether they be a different race, gender, or sex we tend to allow that person to assist us in gathering an impression or a marker on all people of the same kind, because that is all we know about those types of people. All of this bias, maybe even unfair is hard to not do.
All in all, the poem defines itself, “incident”, and it is up to us as humans to not place judgment on one group based on an “incident”.