Gwendolyn Brooks We Real Cool

In the late 1950s Gwendolyn Brooks writes “We Real Cool”. During this time it was the middle of the civil rights movement and that had a big impact on her writing and this poem in particular. In this poem she writes about her observation of a group of kids and what they must be thinking and feeling. It appears to the reader the kids in the poem are rebellious because she writes of them doing things such as skipping school and drinking. The style of writing is very simplistic but conveys a strong image in 8 lines.

Gwendolyn Brooks wrote “We Real Cool” it was the late 1950s and the civil rights movement was on the rise and that had an effect on her writing this poem because she wrote about the kids of the time. Images at that time in the news and papers were of violent protests. In her poem she writes “We Jazz June. We die soon.” which could mean that in one instance there is fun and music and enjoyment, and in the next there is violence and death.

“We Real Cool” can be looked at from a literal perspective, analyzing all 8 lines and 4 stanzas, to see what they could literally mean. In the first stanza “We real cool. We Left school. We” (1-2) …show more content…
In the second stanza “Lurk late. We strike straight. We” (3-4) The author is conveying that these kids stay up late and misbehave by breaking the rules. In the third stanza “Sing sin. We thin gin. We” (5-6) the author portrays that the kids are listening to bad music and stealing gin and thinning it so they wouldn't be caught. In the fourth and final stanza “Jazz June. We die soon.” (7-8) Brooks shows us how these kids like to listen to jazz in the summertime but because of their rebellious nature they might die soon. Looking at this poem in the literal sense you might get part of the picture but to get the full picture you need to also look at the figurative side of the