What Is The Theme Of We Real Cool By Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks wrote “We Real Cool” in 1959 and is the third one from her book. It is a very short poem but has a deeper meaning to it. “We Real Cool” features a group of people who rebel and do bad stuff in order to have that “bad boy” connotation. Brooks wrestles with the theme of rebellion and how they experience the consequences of such actions. This poem spoke to me about things I experience in life, but it can also be universally applied to anyone else.

Brooks applies a universal theme of rebellion into this poem to speak to the younger generation who fall into this poem exactly. Throughout the poem, Brooks essentially states what the kids are doing, and how they are defining society and the norms. She says how they skip school, stay out late,

She wants them to understand how detrimental their actions are for themselves with them experiencing them firsthand. In my life, I experience this with failure and growing up, and I think many of these things' kids need to experience themselves. With growing up; getting a job, driving a car, getting gas, buying food, and talking to people are all things everyone needs to encounter on their own. Failure is one of those things that is best used and absorbed when you face it. Everyone is going to fail but the real test is how you rise up from under it. It’s important for kids to naturally fail so they learn how to get back up, rather than someone who will do everything, so they don’t fail ever which is unhealthy. Failure happened to me in the fall, but I used it and succeeded in something else equally as important. We have our big school golf tournament in the fall at the end of the season, which includes districts, regionals, and states you go through if you're good enough. Anyways, I expected myself to get through districts because I was cocky but also because I went through last year so surely, I would this year. In fact, I let the fame get to