Dalton 1
Dalton
ENGL 1302
March 17, 2005
Safety and Irony
Dudley Randall's "Ballad of Birmingham" is acted out like a play with three characters. They are the mother, the daughter, and a third person. This ballad uses irony to depict the struggles of a mother in times of racial inequality and violence and her eagerness to please her daughter by offering a safe alternative to what her daughter wants to do. The daughter wants to take part in helping the world become a better place by participating in a Freedom March. Her patriotism is commendable, but the mother is certain of the dangers of such a march and ironically, she offers a compromise that is possibly the worst decision she will make in her life.
In the first stanza, the daughter is offering to her mother a compromise of going downtown instead of out to play. She wants to march in the streets of Birmingham in a Freedom March. Her mother is all too aware of what goes on at these types of demonstrations and how......
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Approximate Word Count: 995
Approximate Pages: 4 (260 words per double-spaced page) |