In To Kill a Mockingbird Tom Robinson
is a black man accused of raping a white woman. Everyone knows that Tom will never get a
fair trial because he is a black man. In the end Tom is convicted and eventually killed
although he was innocent. In the poem "Strange Fruit" we see the same kind of horrible
injustice.
Southern trees bear a strange
fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the roots,
Black bodies
swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar
trees.
These same words from
the poem can be used to illustrate the way the people of Maycomb thought. The mentality
of most of the people in Maycomb was one of ignorance and prejudice. Racism was an
everyday thing and black people were murdered on a daily basis. Strange Fruit is just
another example of how racism ruins people's lives. Strange Fruit is a short poem, but
leaves a lasting imprint once you read it.
No comments:
Post a Comment