Summary Of Gwendolyn Brooks 'Poem Old Relative'

Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem old relative begins with a commentary on death, that is somewhat flustered into a morality poem. The poems morality contemplation is not an austere good or evil, but a just-unjust analysis of social institutions. Within the first lines, we are shown a gentleman who is not ‘dead’ until he is arranged for death. Demonstrating that the funeral as a conventionality eclipses the reality of life and convolutes man into a God assessing when one passes. One’s body is in limbo as it bathed and prepared, therefore casting doubt on the morality of funeral customs. Preparations corrupt reality and lengthen the expedition of death. This man absence of identity within the self is reflected in the loss of life's comfort, analogous of the …show more content…
The poem shows great apathy in the lackadaisical appraisal of funerals being, “Good or bad, Hypothesis, tradition, and fad.” The speaker shades an absurdity out of the mortal deceleration that is a funeral. Our speaker mentions notions of “good or bad” to confront the reader's ignorance of the dead’s integrity. Undermining dedication towards the funeral that appears to be out of conformity. An exercise that largely disregards the act of death by the living. The speaker portrays funerals to lack sincerity towards the memory of the departed. Funerals disregard the charge of life in the crusade of ritual. On reflection of the woman's actions, such condemnation of funeral traditions holds strong. The woman arrives at the man's coffin with an air of elation at his passing. The man appears to be a burden on his relatives with the word: "rid." This term "rid" denotes an animosity towards the dead but the woman furthers his tradition and attends his funeral. In attending his wake, the woman absolves herself from the departed man’s wantonness. As the woman sticks her tongue at the man's coffin, she anatomizes the deceit that is his