Literary Analysis Of Coal By Audre Lorde

A Celebration of Identity: A Literary Analysis of Coal by Audre Lorde There was a point in history that the color of the skin determines the identity and fate of people. It mostly affected the black race as they were condemned and their rights were constantly violated during those times. Further, not so long ago, the LGBT group almost experienced similar condemnation, and even up until now some critics continue to oppose these gender preferences. How much more if you are a black and a lesbian at the same time? Although, we can say that even these cases are still existent, we have already came a long way and freed ourselves from those kinds of discrimination. As we are now in the business of promoting equality for all race or gender and embracing all differences in identities. Lorde, in her poem Coal, uses double consciousness, referring the images of coal and diamond as sourced from darkness and light. Moreover, the author showed her transformation from
As I go along with my discussion, let me share to you my thoughts about it by breaking the poem into parts and interpreting them as a whole towards the end. She opens the poem with, “I is the total black, being spoken from the earth's inside.” Noticed that she uses “I”, which established the truth that it was based on her experiences. Then, she continued by saying, “is a total black”, which for me was an indication that she wanted to set herself apart from the rest and emphasized her own identity as a total black. And, “being spoken from the earth’s inside”, was somehow a subtle outcry that words of black people remained unheard, and does not appear audible and visible because they are in darkness. She further reiterated with the succeeding verses of the poem how the situations were totally different with the “diamonds” which I could easily guess referring to white people, as they can freely express themselves and be