“a Black Man Talks of Reaping”: Figure of Speech Essay Example

improve the African American life. And in line 7, Bontemps uses “the hand” as a synecdoche to represent not only the speaker but also all black slaves in America who experience the bitterness of being taken advantage by white race despite their hard work.

Irony The irony in this poem is a situational irony describing the unbalance between the effort the African American people have made and the gain that they get back. Bontemps compares the bitterness of black people’s life to the planting that no matter how hard they plant, they lose their profit to the white people who actually do nothing but have the best things. Characterize the poem This poem was written presumably not based on the direct experience of the poet as Arna Bontemps had not work in agriculture field but academics.

By calling back the experience of hard work of the speaker who has cultivate the crops for his children but has been cheated by other people, this poem on the surface seems to be only a description of unfair actions . However, beneath the surface, the cultivation scene in this poem is used metaphorically to criticize inequality in the society as white people are treating the black as the inferior to their race. In other word, this poem serves as a social comment.