Eric Breedlove Journal #2

My initial thought of the poem "We Real Cool" was that their were a group of self centered guys playing billiards while skipping class.  I originally thought the poem was coming from the perspective of the guys because of the use of "we" in the poem.  This led me to think that the guys were self-centered because they were calling themselves cool.  As the poem went on I started to think these guys were mischievous since they were skipping school, and partaking in sin.  This made me dislike the speaker for bragging about all of these things, and being proud about it.  However, after hearing Gwendolyn Brooks speak about her poem it changed my mind about it.  The first look on it that changed was that she was putting herself in their shoes, and they were not actually talking about themselves meaning they were not necessarily self-centered like I thought. Her explanation of it also lightened up the scene I had in my head of what was going on because although what the guys were doing was wrong, she did not take it as really doing too much evil. The last line of the poem where it says "We die soon" is what really got me to change my decision on the poem.  This line made me think that these boys were not trying to cause trouble like I had originally thought, but they were just trying to enjoy the time they had while they were living.  I think the message is that everyone dies, and often life seems short and that is what Gwendolyn Brooks took out of watching these boys in the pool hall.  I think it is interesting how my perspective of the poem changed after knowing something simple like who the speaker was meant to be.  My original thoughts of the poem were so negative towards these boys and then all of a sudden my view changed almost completely.