American Hero Poem Analysis

Have you ever been accepted? And not only does everybody loves you but you love yourself, but you know that if you went to another school, town, or place, and etc. that people will probably hate you or just straight out dislike you, probably because of your skin color, or gender, and any other reason. This is exactly what the poem “American Hero”, talks about.

The poem “American Hero” by Essex Hemphill, Is a short poem that shows that how there is some people that's not going to like you no matter how hard you try. Even if you're the best basketball player like in the case of the man in “American Hero”.
In the poem “American Hero”, the poem uses metaphor, imagery, and tone to convey how sometimes people will accept you, and sometimes they won't accept you just because of what makes a person a person.

One of the literary devices that the poem use is imagery, the poem uses this literary device to paint a picture of how much fun he was having when he was playing basketball and he happy to feel accepted . For instance in the poem says “It's a shimmering a night club and i'm dancing slick in my sweat”. The picture the sentence paints in your head is, that he’s probably tired, and he's sweating for sure, but yet he still having fun. Also it kinda paints this picture in my head that he probably
Also he use tone to show how good it felt to feel accepted, and how serious this game was for him. For example “ I have nothing to lose tonight all my men surrounding me, panting as i spin the ball above our heads on my middle finger”. The tone that the author set was that this game means a whole lot to him and he is ready for it. Another example of tone that the poem provides is “everyone hollering is a friend tonight”. This show’s how much it means that everyone is cheering for him and how much he loves the game of