Strange Fruit

Strange Fruit

The poem “Strange Fruit” ,written by Abel Meeropol, conveys a very strong message about how racist the white people were to the black people. Adel graduated from Dewitt Clinton in 1921 and he went back to teach there for 17 more years. He was inspired to write this intense poem when he saw a picture of a white crowd around two black people who had been hanged. The white people’s faces didn’t seem to be bothered by the site; in fact they seemed to have a carnival type of atmosphere with smiles. In this poem is about two black people who have been lynched and how their mouths are all twisted from being beat and their eyes are popping out. And they are just left there to be eaten by the crows and they make an awful smell like burning flesh. The point of view in this poem is more than likely a first person view of someone in the crowd. The strange fruit that hang in the tree are the black teenagers who got hanged, although “The lyrics never mention lynching, the metaphor is painfully clear” (Blair). The author wrote the poem because it was “a haunting protest against the inhumanity of racism” (Blair). It showed how bad people could be to other people. This poem gives me the chills a little because it is rather disturbing to see that image and then

It goes on to tell us abou thow two black teenagers had been lynched and people weren’t horrified at the sight. In fact, the people that were at the lynching when it happened seems to be happy with what was going on. The message this poem sent us taught us what was happening how whites were racist towards the blacks and it showed us that it was not right. Abel Meeropol was very successful with conveying her message because it struck millions of people when they heard Billie Holiday sing it. I feel that this poem has a strong message. That message is that we need to learn from what we have done and not do it again because it was not