Incident by Countee Cullen

Incident

by Countee Cullen

Once riding in old Baltimore,       

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,

I saw a Baltimorean

Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,

And he was no whit bigger,

And so I smiled, but he poked out

His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'

I saw the whole of Baltimore

From May until December;

Of all the things that happened there

That's all that I remember

Explorations of the text :

1. What is the nature of the interaction between the two boys?

   Discrimination is the interaction between the two. In stanza 8 "he poked out his tongue and called me 'nigger'" shows the racism offence because the word "nigger" is use to describe the black people in a negative form and show how at that time racism and discrimination is still shadowing the society. An act that the black people don't deserve the world.

2. Why does the speaker remember nothing more than the incident,    even though he stayed in Baltimore from "May until December"?

   The word "nigger" have a deep affect on the boy who although he is still a kid. The human race are born with different varieties and that the beauty if it. Such discrimination has made the boy warp with pain while remembering the incident that made him feel isolated and humiliated although he stayed at Baltimore for a long time.

3. In a paragraph, compare your experience of prejudice with the    persona in the poem.

   I always experience the way one society treated the black people. When a foreigner came to this country especially those from the region of Africa. The society always whisper that those people are bad, troublemaker, thief, and many negative perspective throwed at them. This kind of prejudice is bad practice for the society because i have met some of these people and they are not what the kind that what have been describe. Some of them are very religious, nice and have high in moral fiber. Don't judge the book by its cover, learn to know them.

4. What do its form and rhyme add to this poem?

   All this form of rhyming in this poem were to emphasize the insults the persona gets while in Baltimore. It could also shows the reader about a timeline of his staying. At first, he was delighted to move to Baltimore. The word "me" to describe he is alone and might be in dire need of friends. The word "bigger" shows the size of the boy he met but he was insulted by the word "nigger". And, along his staying until December, all he could remember is the insults he received from the Baltimorean boy whom he thought could be his friend.

5. What is the power of language? What are the effects of the use    of the term "nigger"?

   Language is a powerful tool in the usage of life. Language is use for communication among humans. Although we spoke in different language for different culture, we can still understand the needs of each other and human can learn what other's feel. Language can connect us to be as one who shared the same air and the one world. But, the use of the "nigger" is not a good way to use your tongue. The word can trigger sadness and anger on certain race that would damage a relation that has been built up for all these years and leave a deep scar for years to remember. It's doesn't matter if you suit up in what kind of skin because human values is not base on that. It base on the personality and the things they do.