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Literary Analysis Of Abel Meeropol's 'Strange Fruit'

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Conflict between ethnic groups have always been a societal issue all across the United States. In particular, the poem “Strange Fruit” written by Abel Meeropol is a prime example of the injustice that the African American community faced during the segregation and the Jim Crow law era. As stated in the article, “Strange Fruit” is a haunting protest against the inhumanity of racism” (Blair 2012). Meeropol utilizes literary devices to paint a picture of the horrific treatment and the lynching of the African Americans in the south. The poem will be analyzed based upon literary devices that the author uses to relay a message to the rest of society of his concerns of lynching ritual against African American people. “Strange Fruit” is written to create awareness to protest the lynching act and the cruelty behind it. The “Strange Fruit” is composed of a rhyme scheme that consist of aabbccdd and so on. The rhyme scheme is crucial to the poetic piece due to the fact that when …show more content…

According to a source, the tree is symbolic for eternal life, strength, and nurturing life. In the poem, the tree is bearing African American bodies instead of apples and other fruit that nurture life. Instead, the tree in used as a murder weapon which completely goes against the original purpose of the tree and what it’s supposed to do and that is to produce fruit to give life to the many living creatures on Earth. Specifically, the “poplar trees” are mentioned in line 4, again depicting the “black bodies” that are “hanging from poplar trees”. According to another source, the poplar tree is supposed to symbolize abundance, but the only fruit that was produced from the tree were dead African American bodies. The purpose of symbolism in this poem is for the reader to understand what the author is trying to say through specify an object he is using to explain a concept or

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