“A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon”

[Dr. C.]

Gwendolyn Brooks, “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi.  Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon” (2500)

How do you respond to the title prior to reading the poem?  After you’ve read the poem, how does your response to the title change - if at all?

How does this poem function as a narrative or story?   Why is this story being told?

How does the poem end?  What is the tone of the poem at its end?  Do you see shifts in tone throughout the poem?

Do you see similarities between the concerns of this poem and other texts we’ve read this semester?

Resources:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/gwendolyn-brooks

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/165

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/brooks/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVZ6KTLN7O8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCH1pm-QTbw

[adamsjm6]

I really did not understand the title but got the overwhelming feeling that injustice and violence occurred against a young African American Boy. I felt like the ending alluded to the fact several white men were set free in a courtroom and that the young boy did not receive justice for the violent acts committed against him. The tone was interesting because it seemed to go from normal everyday life to a dark and disgusting existence. The enjoyment of life seemed to be smothered by violence and ultimately destroyed and forever remaining. To me, the tone seemed to linger well beyond the end of the story.

[fran...@miamioh.edu]

The title initially had no meaning to me. The only parts I could make any reference to were Mississippi representing the south (obviously) and I possibly thought of the "mother burns bacon part" to represent a woman who messes up at home. But even through most of the poem I still could not pick up on much of the meaning. I think the tone initially starts in a happier way with some pleasantries being discussed. As it goes on, it turns darker and towards the end almost has a violent feel to it. A few lines stood out to me with this, "Then a sickness heaved within her," "She did not scream she stood there," and then the last set of lines. This ending almost seemed to not only put an end to the story, but to the lives of the people in the story, or mainly the mother.

On Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:45:04 AM UTC-4, Dr. C. wrote:

[noblejg]

Prior to reading the poem I was unsure how to really interpret what the title meant. My guess was that the poem was going to be about two different walks of life, which one person was poor or living on the street while another person was living comfortably bringing home and frying the bacon. After reading the poem my thoughts on the title did indeed change. The title does not make much sense to me. The poem ends with a lot of emotion. The lines "she did not scream," "the last quatrain," and "but a hatred for him burst into glorious flower bigger than magnolias" all made me feel a sense of calmness inside the main character, and chaos all around. The tone of the conclusion presented a feeling of finality amongst the case and the people in it. I see similarities between this poem and "the Witness." Both poems deal with race and follow the same structure as both poems end with a feeling of anger, sadness, and finality to the characters. 

[Andrew Wilkening]

Of the poems this week, I had the most difficult time understanding certain parts of this piece. After re-reading the piece many times I felt like I began to understand the overall concepts. The violent acts were easy to pick up on and created a very powerful impact. I agree with the previous post about how the tone was changing from normal to a very dark and intense state. I liked this poem but still have many questions about certain parts. I feel like if I continue to re-read the piece I will begin to pick up on other aspects and will begin to better understand what was occurring.

[Jeremy Newport]

Gwendolyn Brooks' poem allows a look into a historical event regarding the murder of Emmett Louis Till. While many of the short stories and poems indicated instances like this, the story of Till is a great example of the ridiculous nature of racial killings. Something as simple as whistling at a women, generally intended as flattery, was seen as a threat in some cases. A lot of what happened historically was the development of the false idea of white women's safety. Racial extremists would rationalize that many white women weren't safe and that black men would rape them. Historically, the percentage of lynchings actually related to a case of rape only make up about one fourth of all cases. That includes cases that were never proven which means we can probably assert that very few actually occurred. Many violent Southerners simply looked for black individuals to misstep at which point they would brutally murder the individual in the hopes of bettering the community. What this poem shows is that these men and women who performed such brutal extrajudicial acts of violence is that there was no real purpose to these attacks. Not only was there no purpose, these acts were so clear of conscious that even small children were fair game. The title itself I felt evoked a sense of shock; maybe the mother was burning bacon as she was distracted. It is possible that the mother upon cooking breakfast learned of her sons death and stopped what she was doing. Also, it could be the woman the boy whistled out experiencing shock after the death of the boy. The boy may have not insulted her as much as her husband and she may not have consented to his death. Either way, I feel the poem was a great look into yet another perspective in the extrajudicial killings of the South during the civil rights movement.

[David A. Riley]

What a marvelous piece. The ending, where the wife realizes she hates this man, is sickened by him, is such... poetic justice.  Especially since the man had escaped justice for murdering an innocent boy. Bronzeville is a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, where the boy killed was from. His mother was in Mississippi for the trial, and one of the accused was married. That is where the title comes from, Emmett's mother is loitering in Mississippi, and the murderers wife, the Mississippi mother burnt the bacon. We discussed this incident in my Sociology class today, and the poem does nothing to soothe my anger at the injustice.

It seems to me that this entire poem must be imagined, as I don't see any way for Brook's to have gotten this information first hand. I supposed the woman's story was in the newspaper. But the recounting of how the event unfolded, in little snapshots or storyboards, is brilliant. A good likeness of traumatic memory: things are never very clear after something so traumatic. And seeing her husband beat a child to death must have been traumatic. Lines 21-23 seems particularly well written "He should have been older, perhaps. The hacking down of a villain was more fun to think about when his menace possessed undisputed breadth, undisputed height." That was how this boy was portrayed, as a villain. The idea here that it should have been somehow romantic if he had been some horrible monster turns sour in the next stanza. 

Here is a link to the clip we watched. It gives a concise recounting of the case. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMdSYxZqIXc&list=PLF079D89C9DE9ED31

On Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:45:04 AM UTC-4, Dr. C. wrote:

[Dr. C.]

Jimmy,

The title is a bit off-putting prior to reading the poem.  It's a lengthy title, for one, and it doesn't sound "poetic" in a traditional sense.  Also, if you don't know what the word "loiters" means, that also makes it difficult.  I think after reading the poem, the title should be much clearer to you.  You mention the connection between everyday life and something dark and disgusting.  Could that be part of the poem's point?  That horrific things are becoming part of the everyday fabric of society?

[adamsjm6]

Dr. C. I do think that the dark disgusting portions are points within the poem and the idea it is within the fabric society is a strong point within the poem.

[kasibhm]

Hey David, 

  I couldn't help but be intrigued by your thoughts on this poem so I had to respond! I'm also sickened by what happened to that poor young man...to think that at one time our country was okay with that kind of terrible stuff happening to anybody, but especially children is very off-putting to me. I think the "burning bacon" could potentially symbolize the wife's burning hatred for the man she married after he killed Emmett. I don't know if you would have thought about that, but it seems to make some sort of sense to me. I don't know however, if she would have felt love towards him had Emmett been older. What made you say that? I'm just curious because I feel like she would have eventually come to the same conclusion about her husband regardless of what had happened. 

[David A. Riley]

Good call on the bacon.  I think that is a great way to look at it.  The fact that she was unaware of her hatred, and burned the bacon on accident seem to indicate that they are related.

I made the point about Emmett being small because the narrator mentions it several times. How it would have been romantic if there had been some terrible enemy. I believe this to be a pretty typical little girl's rescue fantasy, that, like many things from childhood, turns out to be not at all what she thought. She expected to feel thrilled, relieved, saved... instead, all she felt was guilty. She could tell this boy was never a threat, despite growing up being told that all black men were horrible sexual predators. I think this whole concept serves the role of pointing out how the whole mythology being perpetuated by the white establishment is just lies. She sees the lie with her own eyes. And she realizes that her husband killed this boy because he wanted to, even though he said it was to protect her. She didn't need protection from this child, and now she is forever saddled with the guilt of being the "cause" for this heinous murder. While she is reflecting on this, the bacon burns... like her hatred.