Double Consciousness, Modernism, and Womanist Themes in Gwendolyn Brooks's "The Anniad" - African American poet

Some of tan man's choices in women are dangerous; they will be the death of him. Unlike Annie, though, these other women are vibrant and alive within themselves. Perhaps more than anything else, tan man rejects the weak, spiritless, feigned attitude that Annie adopts. Yet, there is no doubt that he also doesn't value her chocolate skin-color. Tan man's post-war women are "gold," "maple," and an indeterminate (probably Filipino) "gypsy." These women not only are lighter shades of brown than Annie but also are in possession of their own voices as well as their own methods of conjuration. The woman with the gold skin is a "shriek." She voices strongly stated opinions, and enchants tan man so that he is blind to her imperfections: "Hissing gauzes in her gaze, / Coiling oil upon her ways. His "maple banshee" also is associated with spirit-work or preternatural knowledge, which she conveys through the sweet wailing of her powerful voice. Tan man, ostensibly, ignores her message or is oblivious to its importance. The final woman among tan man's "violent vinaigrettes" or "bad honey[s]" is his "gypsy moan." Her voice may not be articulated as clearly as the voices of the other women; her eyes may not be as open to the spirit-world as the eyes of the other women, or perhaps her eyes are shaped differently; but she still is associated with other-worldly--gypsy--knowledge and a voice of her own--instead of a received voice that she takes from an external source (104). These women speak for themselves; they are saucy flavoring, that enliven Annie's nearly wasted tan man.

Annie, nevertheless, undercuts her own worth in her relationship with tan man. "Sweet and chocolate" Annie is uncomfortable with the demure and coy attitude she believes society prescribes for women, but she decides to adopt this attitude anyway. Realistically, though, Annie is not an "icy jewel" (105) for tan man's "bejeweled diadem" (8). She is a woman who can "remark his feathers off" (108), but she feels compelled to tame herself, in the same way she tames the tumult of her hair. To complement her adopted attitude, Annie fantasizes about a man who is as unreal as the woman into which she attempts to make herself. She hopes tan man will be her paladin. Such a role for him or, in fact, any man is unrealistic. Yet, Annie's romantic perceptions of the world do not allow her to see tan man in the context of the society in which they live. Through her narrator Brooks demonstrates that for Annie and tan man the myth of the United States that is perpetuated in the dominant society is as fictitious for them as Annie's idealized notions of love are for her.

In the opening stanzas of "The Anniad," Brooks employs oblique allusions that point to post-war patriotism as part of the myth of Americanism: freedom, democracy, opportunity. This myth is juxtaposed against Annie's idealized notions of love and is depicted as equally fantasy-laden. Brooks opens her second stanza with a double-focused line that points to Annie's illusions about romance in the first stanza and at the same time moves readers forward to the illusory splendor of a segregated United States: "What is ever and is not." Brooks uses oxymoronic contrasts of beauty and decay to describe Annie and to describe her relationship to the beacon of democracy in which she lives: "Pretty tatters blue and red." This images suggest a ragged flag in which Annie is wrapped or a dress in similar disrepair. The next two lines of "The Anniad" continue to develop this image. The fruited plains are dried-up and spoiled: "Buxom berries beyond rot." The blue skies are cloudy and the bright stars are not at their fullest brilliance. All of the patriotic images which refer to the United States as well as patriotic songs such as "America the Beautiful" are "Fairy-sweet of old guitars / Littering the little head": old music(10) altered by pleasing illusions of change (99).