Immediately, after hearing the title of the poem, “We Real
Cool”, I thought it would be about society and relationships between the
characters. This was a fairly good
assumption, but after hearing Gwendolyn Brooks full poem I became aware it was
about much more. The story is about
seven boys skipping school to play pool, but Brooks reaches deeper than
that. She writes to make the reader ask
themselves why people need the appearance of “being cool”.
The beginning of the poem repeats the title, emphasizing how
important it is to the boys in the poem to be considered cool. As the story continues, the image of the
characters in my head grew from young boys to older men. When Brooks says they skip school, I was
imagining middle school students, but when she continues to describe the boys “lurk(ing)
late” and “thin(ing) gin”, the image of innocent boys grew to reckless young
men in my head. Ending the poem with “die
soon” continued to age my image of the characters. The ending lead me to imagine old men lying
on their death beds full of regret and pain, the farthest thing from young
innocence.
Reflecting back on the poem, the line “we sing sin” then
became clear. These seven boys lived
their lives in a way that was “cool” based on society’s standards. Brook makes it clear that society’s image of “cool”
is only a temporary pleasure. Although
it might be fun at the time, when the men look back at their lives, all they
see is regret. The importance of this
poem exists because it makes the reader reflect on their own personal life. She makes it clear that society’s image of
you does not matter, it is your own personal image of yourself that defines who
you are.
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