Why does the poet ask himself, at the end of the poem, the following question?
Mother, mother,
Why,
Why was I born
Black? (68-71)
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About Me
- Daniel Freeman
- trying to figure out most of what there is to know about most things.
He asked himself the question because he found it hard swallowed whole of anguish; he troted out for us that African are ignorant, and they feel content with their ignorant state. Therefore, he would prefer to forget his past, in other words, he wanted to deny his race-Africanness.
ReplyDeleteIf he is not a Black, the ignorant state will be change, and all the diseases can get medical care. Comparing to his ignorant state he can live better due to if he is not Black. If he is not a Black he can get an equally chances as the other Race people. He won’t have an unhappy ignorant state in his memory.
ReplyDeleteThe poet ask himself at the end of the poem why was he born Black probably because he saw that being Black was a tradegy. He feels unlucky and even shame that he is born black. Which I see as pretty ignorant. Instead of accepting himself and actually being proud he has given himself up to the racism that was flowing along. He wished he wasn't Black so he wouldn't be suffering the misery that all his fellow brothers and sisters were going through at that time
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else, it would seem that the poet is very unsatisfied with his ethnicity. The misfortunes of being Black listed by the poet indicates that he would rather have been anything other than Black to avoid his current condition.
ReplyDeleteThese questions implicate his unhappiness, sorrow unsatisfaction. If he is not black, his situation would be totally different, at least he didn't need to suffer from difficulty. He used these questions to appeal his sorrow and painful feelings.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with the above opinions. Furth more, I think at the end he asked himself again because he could not change the fact that he was black. However, it gave more power to the poem because we could know that he was proud of himself as a black. If he was not a black, everything was total different
ReplyDeleteI don't think the intention of the author was to denial his race. In fact, he is not happy at the situation he is at becasue we all know about Africa is a country that poverty and richness is very diverse. When difficulties happens to human, we usually blame around the problems around us, He just happen to be born black. Afica is lack of resources, under poverty, dominat by strong country for their goods.The author try to blame on his race so he can over come from the difficulties he is facing. Indeed, he also mention about the happiness of being black " And yet laughing , always laughing on his legs jangling ".He notice even though africa is a country that is hard to cuel from disease, but in their genes, All african are happy and lovely people that happne to be born in such a difficult situation.
ReplyDeleteI do agree what they said above; he might think to be a “black” person is not god enough for him in this society because of the races and discrimination. All the negative situations make him don’t want to be a black person or he does satisfy what he is having now.
ReplyDeleteHe asks himself this question because the poet was maybe born in the place of hwat he was describing, or he knew someone that has been through those situations. As he hears or sees those things happening it is hard for him to accept the fatc that some black people are less fortunate than other people in this world.
ReplyDeleteThe poet starts the poem off by asking “What is Africa to Me?”. He continues the poem with his description of Africa. The description is anything but pleasant. The author describes a continent full of disease, poverty, mental enslavement, laziness, and ignorance. I believe the author felt no connection to or pride in any of the descriptions he listed; therefore he felt ashamed of his relationship to Africa and he ended the poem by asking his mother “Why was I born Black?”
ReplyDelete