Sympathy By Paul Laurence Dunbar

Marginalized, a word America is familiar with. Throughout American history, people of different skin colors, ethnicities, genders, and sexuality have been pushed to the side and been marginalized. After the civil war, when slavery was abolished and the 14th amendment gave African-Americans citizenship, there was a major demographic change, but that didn’t stop African-Americans from being ostracized and pushed aside. African-Americans were heavily discriminated against, birthing some very impactful literature about their experiences and being marginalized. Using literary devices, Authors such as James Weldon Johnson and Paul Laurence Dunbar were able to express what being marginalized is, what is means, and the experiences it produces. Through an allegory, Paul Laurence Dunbar is able to explain what being marginalized is in his poem, “Sympathy”. Dunbar’s poem describes a bird thrashing around in a cage, seemingly singing, but when you look deeper, it seems the singing is really a cry for

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a poem about a past full of pain but a future full of hope. Johnson talks about the past, the “path” being full of the “blood of the slaughtered” (Johnson, line 18). But, Johnson also talks about the “rising sun of our new day begun” the new day being the future and the rising sun being good experiences (Johnson, 9). Johnson wants the reader to understand that despite the hurt his predecessors felt, and the hurt he is currently experiencing, he will not let it stop him from feeling optimistic about the future. Comparing the past to a path and optimism to the sun helps him get this point across in a more meaningful way. Johnson is able to convey so many emotions through few words and lines, he’s able to show that no matter what hurt and touture the past and present brings, there is always going to be hope for the