An Analysis Of Gwendolyn Brooks 'A Bronzeville Mother Loiters In Mississippi'

Capitalization and Pronouns Gwendolyn Brooks employs the use of capitalization and pronouns in her poem “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon” as a way to demonstrate the tensions between white femininity and black masculinity in the south during the era directly preceding the Civil Rights Movement. During this time, the white man was afforded the ability to dominate over the word of white women and black men. Throughout this poem, Brooks portrays the complex dimensions that race and gender played in the murder of Emmett Till. Brooks first use of capitalization serves to introduce the masculine and feminine characters of the poem, while emphasizing the lesser importance of the feminine character. We read, “Herself: the milk-white maid, the ‘maid mild’” (6) as the

“She did not speak. When the Hand came down and away, and she could look at her child” (92-93). The Hand is a representation of the force that the Fine Prince utilized against the Dark Villain. The Hand is also a way to show the aggression that the maid mild knows the Fine Prince is capable of. He is using his hands and white masculinity as a means for justifying the atrocities that he commits, and she lacks the privilege to speak. The Hand is the same that he used to kill Emmett Till, the Dark Villain. Till was not allowed to dispute the Fine Prince’s request to come with him. He was also not able to escape the hands that beat him to death. The maid mild was able to speak only to claim that Till had made an advance upon her. She was not allowed to speak before the violence began, but Till never even had the opportunity to speak. The Fine Prince is the only character who is allowed to dominate over both races and genders, and Brooks is able to accomplish this by her use of capitalization and pronouns throughout her