A Sunset of the City

Victoria Anderson

Mrs. Jernigan

English IV AP

1 February

Response #2

            Make sure you identify the speaker, the person addressed, the circumstances, and the character traits of the speaker.

       This story reflects the thought process and actions of any middle-aged woman. Worn out by the inevitable changing seasons and the lackluster that comes with marriage of age, she feels like the “marbles and dolls” that her children play with. Days shift, seasons change, but the raw loneliness of depression still remains. In the end, she clings onto the hope of something more; something that will fill the hole. However, she finds the foreboding truth, “Somebody wanted to joke.”

       In my opinion, the speaker in “A Sunset of the City” could be one of two people, either Gwendolyn Brooks used Kathleen Eileen as pseudonym for herself or the reflections of a woman the author knew knew. The intimate details reflect the every thoughts of a hidden woman, one who speaks real only to herself. Through the display of this usually unseen emotion, the author gives the reader a chance to identify with the woman of struggle. I found myself identifying with the protagonist in her solemn pain of finding worth. I immediately noticed her beat-down, ragged, and seemingly defeated demeanor as her thoughts flowed from stanza to stanza. The author humanizes this character with her contemplation of “Whether to dry/ In humming pallor or to leap and die.” Therefore, she tells the reader to abandon loneliness and find life. We are not alone in our thoughts.