Personal Response to Countee Culeem's "Incident" .
This poem is very short yet very powerful as well. The main character is an eight year old boy who is confronted with the cruel reality of racism. The narrator describes how a boy so "heart filled, head filled with glee" is dramatically influenced by a single incident. Ignorance and maliciousness can have a negative impact on anyone. In the poem the boy is visiting the town of Baltimore. The boy is called a "nigger" by another boy not much older than himself. The narrator ends on a note that describes the impact it has on the boy. When the boy thinks back to how his experience in Baltimore was like, he states, "that's all that I remember," referring to the boy who called him that name. .
After reading this poem I was immediately saddened. It had a profound effect on me. This apparent form of cruelty being exhibited by a child not so much older than my own makes my heart ache. A child by nature is innocent and pure at heart unless tainted by some other being or perhaps the environment. Words have a very powerful effect on people, especially when they are used in a certain form as to inflict pain on others. A single syllable can bring a man out of a coma, while a negative expression could kill the very essence of another man's soul. Words can be used as weapons for both good and bad. They can cause wounds that may someday never heal. While for others, it is what drives them to become better and more humane individuals. We live in a world where individuality is praised. Yet, we should consider that fundamentally we are all the same, a nation of one race, the human race. We are born the same way, we die the same way, and we should be given the opportunity to live the same way. .