~::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 things that happened there
That's all that I remembered.



Exploration of the Text:

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

 As the kid, we used to communicate with the people around us,especially when we live in neighbourhood
In this poem, it is natural that the persona want to communicate with the person that he saw even with just give the smile.


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

This is what we called as behaviorism. In this theory, when a person face  with the certain experience that cannot be forget,it will effects his behavior.And, in this poem ,the persona feel disturbed by the word "Nigger" and he cannot forget that.

The Reading / Writing connection:

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

In my experience of feeling prejudice, I will easily feel prejudice toward the Bangladesh men. This is because I was told that these Bangladesh men loved to tease and disturb woman even though she is a married woman. It makes me really in scare especially when I have to be in the lift with them.

Ideas for writing:

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

  

The rhyme scheme in the first stanza is A,B,C,B. The second stanza has a rhyme scheme of A,B,C,D,B. The last stanza has a rhyme scheme of A,B,C,B. This poem repeats the words Baltimore and filled twice.

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


Language is the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.  How powerful the language is depends on how it delivered. For example,  if the language is use with full of manner,it can attract other people to get close wit us. But, if we use it harshly,  it can hurts other people's feeling. So, in this poem, the persona get offended by the word nigger that have been speak to him because it seems as a humiliation towards him.
In A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), H. W. Fowler states that applying the word nigger to "others than full or partial negroes" is "felt as an insult by the person described, & betrays in the speaker, if not deliberate insolence, at least a very arrogant inhumanity"; but the second edition (1965) states: "N. has been described as 'the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks.'".



References:

1. http://hanifrahm.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/teori-behavioral-dan-kognitif/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger
3, https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+language&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb