Analysis Of Gwendolyn Brooks Poem We Real Cool

Written in 1959 Gwendolyn Brooks' poem "We Real Cool", was during the height of Civil Rights Movement. It took a long time for desegregation to fully integrate and caused many youths to doubt their life purpose. It epitomizes what many youths faced if they chose to forgo school. Many youths gave up on any hope for the future. Why try when they are constantly told they have no future. The start of the poem there are seven boys at a pool hall named the Golden Shovel. Seven is the number normally associated with luck. The seven can also be seen as a gang, who need luck, in order to survive their precarious endeavors. The pool hall name, The Golden Shovel, is the perfect name for those who choose to be criminals. The golden part of the title …show more content…
These boys truly are not cool. The diction of the poem promotes the idea that they are uneducated. Brooks then list activities the boys involve themselves in. The narrator states that they "lurk late," most mischievous thing happen in the dark of night. They "strike straight," lets us know that they commit crimes in a way that they won’t get caught. They "sing sin" leads us to believe that they brag of their transgressions, and wear them as a badge of honor. They "thin gin," watering down drinks so that they can make more money. The last stanza sums up the life of those who choose to leave school. The narrator states that they "Jazz June;" Jazz is a very defiant kind of music, June begins the summer; it gives a feeling it allows people to feel freedom from drudgeries of normal life. The ending of the poem, the narrator concedes that their life style will surely lead to a quick death, but seems ok with it. The boys life are full of exhilaration and jeopardy, but they are ultimately not sustainable; they are awfully likely to die as a result of their choices, they not only know it, and embrace