English Literature Discussion Question Week 8

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 English Literature Discussion Question Week 8
Ballad of Birmingham is a poem that was written back in 1969 by Dudley Randall in response to the 1963 destruction of a southern church in Birmingham, Alabama. It is a conversation between a daughter and a mother during a period when there were commotions and upheaval in the African communities in America. The review expresses how the characters and the context of the poem relate to the current life and In turn displays lessons to be learned from the poem.
The mother calls her daughter baby, and this confuses the reader to think that the daughter is a child. The perception is not true since in the American communities it is a culture for a mother to call her children baby no matter how old they are (Dudley, p55). There lies an ironic situation in the talk of the innocence of the child and the protective nature of her mother. The poem is not just about the moments of hate and crime during the time, but symbolism and imagery are clear when we encounter a child who comprehends racism and her mother who protects her from all the problems.
The young girl in the story asks her mother to guarantee her permission to participate in the march along the streets of Birmingham but her mother objects since the march was technically dangerous(Dudley, p55). Instead of the march, the mother proposes for her daughter to attend a church service and sing choir and in the church, she will be safe. The poem considers unexpected turn when an explosion is heard by the mother from the church.

The church was bombed at a time when we expected a hate crime to be performed at the demonstration in the streets.
The poem describes a specific event of hate war crimes that even happens at present. Although the poem was written late in the 1960’s the reader adopts a feeling that they are there and precisely contemplates of a time when we have to follow orders from our parents that only lead us to danger ( Dudley, p55). The child in the poem is aware of the present racial discrimination and was ready to pay an ultimate price so long as the quest is achieved. Despite the understanding of the girl, it is foreshadowing that the girl ends up at the church at some point.
The story as compared to the other stories is a set-up of a real discriminatory world where a race and the atrocity of superiority emerged between the black and the whites in America. Currently, this has to be a major war, and therefore the lessons learned from the poem are encouraging that this war was started to annihilate discrimination and its pursuit should bear fruits. Parents, as observed from the story, are concerned with their children to the extent that they appear to endanger lives of their young ones. Therefore as the child comprehends and believes in the adversarial effects of racism from generation to generation quest to deliver African Americans from the predicament should be considered positive.
 

Work cited
Boyd, Melba Joyce. “‘Roses and Revolutions’ Dudley Randall: Poet, Publisher, Critic and Champion of African American Literature Leaves a Legacy of Immeasurable Value.” Black Scholar, vol. 31, no. 1, Spring2001, p. 55. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=4497335&site=ehost-live.