"We Real Cool"

Black Arts Movement was a time period that helped inspire African-Americans to shows their talent in literature. Many of the African-Americans poets started to put down their thoughts in terms of poetry using techniques such as metaphor. Gwendolyn Brooks uses metaphor in “We Real Cool” to help her readers better understand the meaning of the poem.

Brooks presents her metaphor in a way that the meaning could be interpreted differently by each reader. For example, when she uses “We” no one really knows what the poet is referring to. Maybe she is talking about all black boys, maybe the seven boys she wrote it for, or even African-Americans in general. The poem’s biggest metaphor is the first sentence, “We real cool. We left school.” This sentence represents all of the African-American boys who either dropped out of school or left school thinking that is the way of life, not just the seven boys she was referring to. Another great metaphor is the sentence “We sign sin.” This sentence by itself does not make sense, but it represents the way all the boys talk (usually vulgar or “ghetto”). The poem then continues and says “We thin gin. We jazz June;” which represents the increase in partying and drinking alcohol among young African-Americans (probably talking about the boys).

The metaphor in this poem helps its targeted readers, because it speaks their language, while telling teaching them a lesson. The poem is written like one of the readers themselves have wrote, giving t a very emotional and personal effect. Along with metaphor, the irony in this poem also helps it readers, because in a sense the poem it self is an irony. Brooks probably helped many young African-American boys in going to school with this poem and the use of metaphor in it.