19 pages • 38 minutes read
Gwendolyn BrooksTo The Diaspora
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Road
In this poem, the road represents the quest for Black identity. Black identity in the poem emerges in the context of the transatlantic slave trade and enslavement in the Americas. When Black Americans first entered the transatlantic slave trade, they had no idea of where they “were going” (Line 2). They had no sense of what their destination was because their literal movement was controlled by enslavers. They did not know who they would be at the end of their journey because they lost control over the power of self-definition. When someone like the speaker comes along and tells them who they are or could be, they disbelieve the speaker because they have yet to understand that they can take back the right to define themselves.
When Black Americans encounter the speaker again, they are “somewhere close” (Line 15) by the road because they have settled for how others have defined them. The last version of the addressee is one in which they are “dry, drowsy, all unwillingly a-wobble” (Line 21). They are on the path and only just awake. Their power of self-definition has been damaged by disuse, but they are on the road again, and ending there sounds a hopeful note for the Black Americans’ quest for identity.
Sun
The sun represents knowledge, specifically self-knowledge, and hope. “[S]un” (Line 8) is initially what the speaker wanted to describe to the addressee but could not due to a failure of foresight. In this instance, the “sun” (Line 8) is the knowledge that enslaved people would endure through the trial of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in the Americas. “[S]un. Some” (Line 19) appears in the last stanza, with this sun representing the partial self-knowledge that contemporary Black Americans have about the significance of their connection to the African continent and other members of the African diaspora. That knowledge is only partial because acquiring it requires additional work that is “to be done to be done to be done” (Line 23), meaning that self-knowledge requires constant work to achieve and sustain it. The sun, especially in Western cultures influenced by Judeo-Christian sacred texts, is also a symbol for resurrection. When the speaker in the poem promises that there is sun ahead, the implication is that whatever Black people lost as a result of slavery, they can regain if they strive for it.
Diamonds
Diamonds symbolize anything that is precious. The “diamonds” (Line 11) in this poem are those extracted and plundered by those responsible for the transatlantic slave trade, meaning that the Black people in the Americas are essentially stolen treasure. If the sun is a symbol for enlightenment and self-knowledge, diamonds are also the potential for self-knowledge since it takes a light source for diamonds to flash. Diamonds are also created by the weight and heat of the earth over time. Diamonds are thus the deep, historical connections between Black Americans and the African continent. The stuff that makes Black Americans capable of self-knowledge is their African heritage, in other words.
Related Titles
By Gwendolyn Brooks
