African-American Writings: Oppression & Servitude - Essay Sample

Introduction

Oppression is usually a common theme in most African-American writings since this is the main subject that attracts the attention of many authors. Servitude is another most covered theme but also in this theme oppression cannot be let out. The slavery era was full of brutality and racial discrimination and most of those who suffered a lot were people with color. Authors then came up in large numbers to condemn such actions through artistic works and writings. In this essay, I will be looking at how the theme of oppression has brought out poetically. I will base on two poems, which include Chimney Sweeper by Blake and America by Claude Mckay. Different poets use varied approaches to depict certain themes and most of the time a single theme may be addressed by different poets of using dissimilar forms and languages.

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In 1979, just at the start of the French Insurgency, Blake launched his poetries among them being Chimney Sweeper. The poem is written in the first voice and is about a conduit sweeper who is grumpy about the tribulations of sweeping the smokestack and unearths the brutality that has been founded due to upsurge of prosperity. The Funnel Sweeper's existence was accompanied by too much of insolvency and mistreatment. Outsized households generated using fortunes acquired from craft have parallel vents warming enormous quarters that might only stay gutted by a lesser youngster swarming inside them. The chimneys factually developed into obscure sarcophagi that ended up slaying numerous diminutive teenagers (PoemAnalysis, par.1). Any cleaner's day-to-day chore remained wooing bereavement due to the dangers of asphyxia and scorches. The children that were used in cleaning the chimneys existed either as orphans or had been sold by unfortunate parentages to the Chief Sweepers and in return had been given a few guineas. Blake's use of youngsters' voices in the poem Chimney Sweeper is effective since it brings out the sense of suffering that the children were being exposed to and the pains they endured as they engaged in the daily activities of sweeping the chimneys.

The dangers associated with the cleaning of the chimneys include being exposed to large clouds of smoke which affected the children's health. These children later became victims of malignances instigated through the smut, plus sporadically petite youngsters petrified by the pitch-black duskiness of the vents were lost inside them, only for their skeletons to be found later in the chimneys.to find their skeletons later. In some parts of the poem, we encounter a little young man explaining the hopelessness he is facing since her mother deceased. "When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue, Could scarcely cry "' weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!". So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep." This little boy tells of how his daddy sold when he was so young that he could not even utter the word 'sweep' instead he would say it as 'weep'. Later in the poem, Tom is brought up crying since his hair has been shaved off and is being encouraged by the narrator to cry but remain peaceful since he had been saved from the lice (PoemAnalysis, par.5). Tom dreams later that night of little chimney sweepers lying in caskets and are later saved by an angel to freedom. Tom and other sweepers wake up the next day and get to reality where they have to prepare for the day's chores.

America also addressed the oppression of people in society. The poem talks of a state nourishing its youth with acrimonious bread as well as taking away their lives. The author uses the metaphor "tiger's tooth" to imply the violence that was imposed on people without being considerate (GradeSaver par. 1). America is compared to a foreign animal meaning that it knows no one and therefore most people face the oppression equally. The stripes on the American flag are compared to the stripes of a tiger implying that American is inhuman to its African-American citizens. In the fourth line, the character refers to America as hell signifying the kind of atrocities that happens in America. Mckay uses metaphors in his poem to imply the oppression that the black people living in America face (GradeSaver par 3). Even as the speaker faces oppression, he chooses to still love American and develops an idea of fighting back. The speaker gains inspiration from the suffering that he undergoes.

Occasionally, poets address the same theme but in varied forms and languages. The Chimney Sweeper and America both address the theme of oppression but the authors apply different poetic forms and languages. The use of child voices in Chimney Sweeper is effective since it brings out the oppression the children face and their complaints. The children complain of having to sleep in the chimneys without washing. Others complain of being sold by their fathers to master sweepers. Again, another complaint is of being shaved. In all the instances, the voices of children are effective in bringing out the message. Blake chose to utilize children's cries to enlighten people of the suffering of children in child labor and the need for the society to be shameful about such occurrences. Mckay chooses to use metaphors in his poem to bring out the brutality that the African-Americans face. Metaphors such as "hell" and "tiger's tough" imply how inhuman America is in handling the blacks. In both poems, there are deaths and much suffering and the poets are witty in bring these subjects up.

Works Cited

GradeSaver. America (Claude McKay poem) Summary and Analysis of Lines 1-4. (2019). Available at https://www.gradesaver.com/america-claude-mckay-poem/study-guide/summary-lines-1-4

PoemAnalysis. The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake. (2019). Available at https://poemanalysis.com/the-chimney-sweeper-by-william-blake-poem-analysis/