I got to go! She say she can’t hold on no more. Say the white people have gone crazy. I got to go back down there to get her. Eli say he staying her with you. But I go to go get my sister. This my last trip. I’m getting old. I can’t do more than one more. I don’t know what I’m gonna do then. I was thinking about living my life for you. But I got to go back down there and get my sister” (Wilson, page 19).
In conclusion, Solly does not get the change to save his sister. He was shot by Cesar trying to flee the city for accusation of burning the mill. Moreover, the burning of the mill was an act of frustration and the feeling of injustice that is blanketing the city. Secondly, the oppressions that are described in the poem also states of what the people of color are facing in Pittsburgh. For example, when Citizen arrived to the city he was offered a job, and was lied too regarding the pay and the conditions:
Me and a fellow named Roper Lee went over the mill. They say they was paying the two dollars a day but when we got there they say a dollar fifty. Then they say we to pay two dollars room and board. They sent us us over to a place the man says we got to put two dollars on top of that. Then he put two men to a room with one bed” then he continues “I asked o e fellow what board meant. He say they supposed to give you something to eat. They ain’t give us nothing (Wilson, page …show more content…
In like manner, Austin Wilson reminds us that even the people hurting seem to lose faith of any change, he states “The people think they in freedom. That’s all my daddy talked about. He died and never did have it. I say I go it but what is it? I’m still trying to find out. It ain’t never been nothing but trouble” (Wilson 28). Furthermore, the discrimination also is being challenged between their own race, for example, the author states “I see where they hijacked your wagon. I’m gonna need to get a statement from you. You told me you was going downriver but when I seen your wagon I knew something was wrong” (Wilson 83). In the above sentence Cesar is states to Salig (the white man) is a victim of robbery without knowing that Salig was a conspirator. Then, Salig mentions to his friends what the other folks are talking about around the city. The author uses Salig as a person that the people of color can trust to give inside information that they cannot