Shaw mentions in the beginning that the ‘place’ that blacks hold in society is suppose to be fixed and those who try to escape it will always die. When it came to Rudolph Reed, he knew he wanted to die. He wanted to fight and not stand back as his family was hurt. He knew the consequences of that choice and took them. Shaw explained that there was two ways to die, spiritually and physically. To die spiritually, all one had to do was endure the racist views of the white society. This would leave them to die slowly inside, but they would still physically be there. But this was not enough for Reed, he wanted to make a stand, to show his hatred of the racism. In the end, he way have won that battle, but at what cost? His choice to stand up for his rights was understandable, but in the end he failed to successfully win the fight against discrimination with his death, since it would be easily forgotten by the white society come morning. …show more content…
In Gwendolyn Brooks: Poetry and the Heroic Voice by D.H. Melhem, digs deeper into Rudolph reed’s character.
“The Ballad of Rudolph Reed” again piles the form to tell a story with a strong moral or social theme. For the first time, however, the regular stanza serves the heroic concept, as it did partially in the previous poem. Rudolph Reed takes nihilistic action. While political solidarity compels social change, the latter ultimately rests upon the conscience of one who, as Herman Melville observed of Nathaniel Hawthorne, can say “No! in thunder.” The poem comprises sixteen ballad stanzas in tetrameter and trimeter and varies strong rhymes with some syncopation and inventive terminal rhyme and half-rhyme schemes. “Rudolph Reed” is a strong, alliterative name; the first line describes the man’s character as much as his color.
Rudolph Reed was