"Strange Fruit" is a song about the lynching of black people that occurred chiefly in the South but also in all regions of the United States. It is a famous protest song that condemns American racism and was performed most famously by Billie Holiday. This collective violence inflicted by a white mob upon the bodies of black people was notorious in American history. Lynchings ocurred frequently during the 19th century. Even by the 1950s, lynchings still existed, especially in the South. In the 1960s, lynchings rose as reaction against civil rights activism.
"Sonny's Blues" takes place in the early 1950s, prior to the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement. The story is set during the dark days of segregation and supposedly "separate but equal" accommodations in public facilities.
Enclosed in this post you can find a picture of lynching and a vedio clip of Billie Holiday performing "Strange Fruit." Below are the lyrics:
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Listen to Billi Holiday's haunting and melancholy voice. Observe her emotioanlly arresting performance. Look at the photo of lynching. How do you make of this "strange fruit" here? The imageries presented in the song are so beautiful but are also horrifying. Wouldn't you wonder how much suffering Billie Holiday as an artist must have had to go through in order to sing like that? How does all this relate to Sonny's desire to become a Jazz musician? Look in particular at each brother's take on the subject of "suffering."
37 comments:
This song is too melancholy to believe there once had been such a cruel lynching. In my openion, "strange fruit" is a metapher impling that black people who were forced to hang themselves on trees by the white. The lyric also implies the appearance of those who were lynched. The bodies swung in the air, and the branches, leaves, and root were dyed blood. They died without respect and value. It's a horrble as well as heartless scene. So sorrowful, so realistic.
Billie Holiday must suffer deeply, for only the one who goes through the same sadness could appreciate how sorrowful those people were. Besides, she once said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's death.
"Isn't is better, then, just to-take it?" said Sonny. This sentence indicates that Sonny wanted to make different and doesn't want to take it. There shouldn't be "seperate but equal"; nonetheless, Sonny indeed lived in the dark days of discrimination and segregation. Only when he had performed Jazz, he could have been out of the reality. Perhaps he could sooth his suffering as well as his people's through music.
The picture on the top is really frightened me. Especially the laughing on the white's faces, it's really ironic and ridiculous!
And that let me think "strange fruit" might mean the blacks who are hung on the tree. That's not actually a fruit, however it's on the tree just like it really is.
"Fruit" should be meant like treasure, but it changes to be a tragedy indeed.
I used to see "Freedom Writers". It's really a good movie to reflect the Black and the White. Especially it is according to the reality.
The scene strike me the most is that the white teacher told the black students stood on a line, and answered her question which were about the relationship between the gangsters or the drugs... with them or their family. But it almost everyone were still on the line (if the question did not related to you, you had to get away of the line). Not only the teacher but we'd got shock.I think it's really the highlight of this movie, and also is the scene that directly convey the theme "RACIAL DISCRIMINATION"!
There's no doubt that racial discrimination still there, the scars in black's heart will not ever vanish.
I didn't understand when i first saw the name of the song "Strange Fruit." I didn't understand what the strange fruit represented. But after i watched the video and read the lyrics of the song,i could understand why she named the song strange fruit. The song is beautiful but also horrifying. I can actually imagine how black people were hung on the trees with blood all over the trees,just like the picture on the top.
Sonny isn't like his brother,he wants to express his depression through jazz. Sonny doesn't want to take the suffering while his brother thinks the opposite way. He's brother just wants to take this fact that there's no way they can change what happens around them or to stop suffering. So he just accepts it. Sonny doesn't want to take this,which is why he has to play jazz to identify himself.
There is a huge contrast between Sonny and Sonny’s brother. Sonny is rusher、younger and still has the courage to dream. On the contrary, his brother is maturer and just wants to take good care of his family rather than taking adventure. When I was young, I look down on those people who act like Sonny’s brother. I thought people should fight to prove he is alive. But I think in a very different way know. I think none can really change anything. Things go in their own ways. We can only respect it happen in the way we want but we can never affect it. It’s a little sad to say so, but we will always find the ways to release the traumas. Sonny found a good way to heal the pains. He found Jazz!
The pic is disturbing.
I, too, would say that "strange fruit" symbolizes the corpses of those blacks.
According to the first part of the lyrics, we all can see that it talks about those Black bodies, being hanged up and left blood on leaves and roots.
Also, let's take a look of the first line of the last part:
"Here is fruit for the crows to pluck"
Isn't it kind like the way we eat fruits?
As for Sonny, I can see why his brother is so opposed of him being a musician.
Being a musician means that you get to go on stages and perform.
Sonny would likely be dragged into streets and get lynched if some racists show up in his performance.
In that way, being on stages or famous could be dangerous for Sonny.
In addition, I think the reason that he's so persisted of being a jazz musician isn't only his desire, but he also wants to fight against something.
I suppose that he probably wants to change the way that most Whites used to think of Blacks, or even better, the entire world, by his performances.
The song give me a bloody image about African-American being persecute. Blood, smell of burning flesh, and stuff. And the way she sings is like she's having lots of bad memories and experiences of being discriminated; I feel like there are tons of stories behind the song and voice. I can't say I really know what feeling is like to be discriminated but I can tell that is really painful. Sonny chose his way as being a jazz musician in order to express his pressure; I think it is a good idea. People need ways to give away their bad motions. If a person suffer from pain but no pipeline to release the pressure, one might be insane. I think no one can really understand what it's like to be discriminated that bad if one hasn't been in the same encounters.
When I see the picture at the first sight , I am frightened that image. I watch carefully that picture ,the black man was hanged on the tree .In that time I realize why the "strange fruit" mean. That is so horrible.
After listening to the music ,I feel I can imagine that racial prejudice hurt them deeply. whatever they want to do,they will be limited to do everthing.Even so they find the way to express their feeling ,that is music. Only music could make them out of suffering.
What a sadness song , "strange fruit" i heard this song from youtube , but the singer wasn't Billie Holiday , there have some picture about the negro hang on the tree,and i had read the speech " I Have A Dream" From Martin Luther King" , he is a black guy who try to fight for freedom , for their rights!
In April 1968 he was shot and killed , and because of his dead , the black man finally get their freedom~! wish come true. King , a hero.
About the "Strange Fruit" , a song they try to express of feeling , they try to get their rights, they used their life to exchange what they want,they commit suicide for justice~. The history tell us , we can't discriminated the other nation , and if you were a black guy , what would you do in the era, fight for justice or stay at house to be like sonny elder brother. The story also tell us , we should try to get what the other people feeling, don't just make your own decision. this is worth to us for reading this story.
When I saw the picture on the top, I really felt that it was too terrible to be believed. To my surprise, the black were treated in the inhuman way. The song "Strange Fruit" is full of sorrow and heartache. I think I can know the black's feelings after I read Sonny's Blue and the lyrics of Strange Fruit. To realize our dreams needs very huge courage.Especially, as a black man in the early 1950s, Sonny faced a lot of actual difficulies. We maybe have no idea when facing the coice between reality and dream. Many people want to have safe and sound life in reality and hide their dreams, like Sonny's brother. It's more tranditiolal and conservative. However, I think that the more difficulties we suffer in reality, the more beautiful dreams we want to pursue. Sonny is the best example.
After I listened to the song "Strange Fruit", I felt a little melancholy. The melody made me to have imagination about the cruel lynching. The fruit was like a person hanging on the tree, and their blood was like water and fertilizer to irrigate and cultivate the tree. I was shocked by the picture because it was like the imagination of this song and expressed that the blacks were like playthings at that time.
"Sonny's Blues" also referred to the cruel thing, when their father’s brother was died by a deliberate car accident, which became a scar in their father’s heart. The whites looked down on the blacks, and they had the hatred to each other. Because of the racial discrimination, many blacks wanted to recover their soul and put themselves into the jazz music. They found their spirit and the lyrics of the music also presented their feelings to the society.
After I read "Sonny's Blues", I also reflected myself and changed my attitude to my sister, I should stand in my sister’s side and do not just wanted her to observe my rules. Sonny and his brother’s point of view about suffering were different. Sonny didn’t want to suffer, he wanted to find the freedom from music, but his brother thought that don’t complain while you’re suffering.
I felt so irritated listening to the ironic song “Strange Fruit”. In the beautiful south lay an ugly truth. The sweet scent of flowers was mixed with wafts of the disgusting smell of rotting flesh. The unsightly corpses of black people hung on the stout branches of flourishing trees, like fruits the trees bore. These “fruits” were like one of the abundant crops of the rich and fertile land of the south, where racism thrived, discrimination bloomed, and people had no heart.
Undoubtedly, Billie Holiday had suffered greatly, seeing her people being lynched and being in danger of it, too. Every note she sang stabbed into my heart like daggers. I felt suffocated as she winced with pain. Her voice was overflowing with misery and agony. The way she sang the last note seemed to me as if she was crying out, hoping that someone would listen to their weeping heart and reach out to them.
Born as a black during the time that the song described, Sonny refused to be oppressed and suffered greatly because of that. Just like Billie Holiday, Sonny needed a way to express his pain and depression. “There is no way not to suffer”, so he “tried all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it” (p.105), including using heroin. Being a Jazz musician satisfied his needs. Having a dark skin color, he was being looked down. However, the bar where he performed was “his kingdom”, as if “his veins bore royal blood” (p.107).
On the contrary, Sonny’s brother compromised with reality and settled with the status quo. All he wanted was to stay out of trouble, and he expected Sonny to do the same thing. He hoped that Sonny would just “take it” (p.105), and therefore, failed to listen. When they had a chance to talk about suffering, he finally used his ears to listen to what Sonny tried his best to say. Then at last, when he entered the bar, he entered Sonny’s world. He learned to listen not with ears but with heart, and began to understand and appreciate his brother, Sonny.
Lack of lawful permission to utter their disaffection, the Africa American used their gifts of singing songs where they hid their fear, suffering, helplessness, agony, and anger. Because in the world of music, there is no racial prejudice, no lynchings, and no pain, they could meet any possibilities there, their wonderland.
The author used Sonny to represent the Africa American’s will. “We should not be like them. Though we are odd to them, we have something they would never achieve. That is the gift featured only on the Black－the ability to sing in the most fantastic and impressive way.”
“Why should I live with the descrimination?” “Why should I bear the suffering?” “Why sould I fit the social expectation, the White’s value?” I think these questions might emerged in Sonny’s mind when listening to his brother declaring how important and serious making a living is. His brother was so strict as if their panic feelings were pretty crass. This implied that it’s rediculous to endure the discrimination and see the tortures as an inevitable way to recovery. His brother’s opinions which might represent the White’s viewpoints stressed on how to be rich and to get into the upper class as well as winning higher social status. He never think of going his own road and just being who he really is.
As Billie Holiday began singing, her knitting brows made me wince with sorrow. Her fancinating and haunting voice was so vacant and grieved as if she was telling us their encounters in the hard age they lived. They, the Africa American, at that time were just like appendages to the White, similar to the relationship between fruits and the trees. The”strange” fruit, from the White’s viewpoint, tortured the Africa American. The White’s twisted racial prejudice toward the Black made them suffered and felt as if their existence were culpable and “strange.” “Blood on the leaves and blood at the root” revealed that though their color and appearance is completely different from the White, they are man kind, just like the White bearing blood inside. This suggested that both the White and Africa American are “equal.” They should not be “separated.”
After listening to the radio and reading the lyrics, it made me feel heavy. Billie Holiday sang the song not only express her sorrowful feeling but also expounded the horrible events that were occured before. Although the lyrics seem lovely, they implied what the lynch which black people encountered. It was miserable that they died tragically.
The discrimination between white people and black people is always the existent issue in the world. Actually, I have seen many singers of black people, and most of them choosed jazz to stand for their dreams and souls. Unlike Sonny's brother, they thought it could comfort their hearts, and not to remind the suffering. We know that music can release our pressures from life, and so do they.
They're also human, we can't neglect their human rights. Every thing has gone, the most important thing is that we live in current society. All of the human is equal now.
The photo makes me crazy and horrifying. And I also recall a movie whose title is Mississippi Buring. The movie tells how by coincident he had helped crack a 42-years cold case in which two black teenagers had been randomly murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. While white supremacy groups have been around for quite a while, they were openly active during the Civil Rights Movement period in the deep south. At the time, KKK members were often people in positions of power and authority. In 1964, after the two young men were tortured and drowned and their bodies found, two suspects were arrested and then set free on bonds. Both were subsequently discharged free without trial. One of the two suspects was James Seale who at the time was the Sheriff's Deputy. For the longest time, the older brother of one of the young men had been trying to track down the suspects. But Mr. Seale's family told reporters that James Seale had passed away, while in fact, the 71 years old reputed KKK member was still enjoying life in a near-by town. Mr. Ridgen worked hard and eventually was able to track down Mr. Seale. Forty two years later, the suspect was arrested and indicted by the FBI for kidnapping and murder. The maximum penalty, if found guilty, is life in prison. This movie is good to watch！ Moreover, the “strange fruits ” mean that dead black people whom the white killed by lynching. It’s terrible. And I fell so sad for them.
correct.
i feel so sad for them
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this song use many fearful words to describe the situation that African American had been discriminated thus persecuted by white man. Actually we can't say that we know how they feel during that time because we are not disciminated by any races at all, and we didn't go through this!However, i can still fell the sorrow that the singer tries to give me, and i think that Billie Holiday must had been suffered for a long long time.
The first line of the lyrics, "southern trees bear strange fruit", gives me some images about how unfair and horrible the society is in the southern America.
It seems to say that things in the southern America are so different and strange than in the northern America.
And the lyrics also make a perfect connection with the photo of lynching.
Trees, fruit, hanging are common words we use in our daily lives; however, these words seem rather cruel and disgusting here.
The haunting and touching voice and the melancholy melody may be one the temporary ways to get out the cruel reality.
People like Sonny who have had hard experiences have many stories in their mind but can not be eazily expressed by words, so they use a more soulful way, blues, to tell others.
I think music sometimes can catch more attention than words; in addition, along with the melody and voice, music can be so powerful and influencial.
After seeing Billie Holiday singing the song, I can understand how much painful she has endure. And the “Strange Fruit” in this song means the Southern black peoples who have been killed by the government. I think the blood body which hangs on the tree forming a picture of strange picture of strange fruit.
Billie Holiday as a represent of blackmans singer, she must have encountered a lot of condemn and judgment so she know the feeling of her sibling. She can use her voice to sing the deepest trauma to let the whole world know.
Sonny is different from his brother. He wants to break the rule. He doesn’t want to live in an ordinary life. In some way, I think Sonny is braver than his brother. It seems that his brother just live in his small world. However, Sonny he has more courage to make his dream come true. In addition, I think Sonny is not merely wants to be a jazz musician. He wants to use music to express the discriminate and suffering which he has met in these days.
I think it’s really cruel and unimaginable for what black people suffered at that time. As I saw the picture at the top, I was full of pity and anger. It’s unfair for the black people to treat like that. But the white oppressed them just because their color of skin. As I heard the “Strange Fruit” I was touched by the voice of Billie Holiday. The lyrics “Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze” let me remind the picture at the top. So, I think the “Strange Fruit” means the tragedy of what the black people had suffered.
Through the voice of Billie Holiday, I can imagine what she had suffered. In that generation, even a black people had great talent, he or she would treat just like the normal or even the inferior. So, Billie Holiday must break many predicaments to have such beautiful voice.
After read “ Sonny’s Blues”, I couldn’t help but thinking that what would I do if I am Sonny or his brother? I think it’s normal for us to choose the way Sonny’s brother took, but just like Sonny said “Nobody just take it.” To not been drown by the feeling of what he had suffered, Sonny chose music.
When I was young,I heard a lot of news that were about the black people were discriminated.I found that people still don't like to stay with the black people.When there is a black people,there must be no people around him.Is it so cruel to them?Did they do anything wrong?They just do the things that people always do in their life.However,they just can't be accepted.
Once I talk to the black people,people that around us just looked at us in a strange way and went away as fast as they could.Did they know that they are doing one thing that is extremely cruel to them?
In Sonny's Blues ,Sonny wanted to be a jazz musician.However,his brother don't accept him to do that because in that time ,black people is in the lower class.
I think everyone in the world should be equal to the others.There should not have the sence that one is higher and one is lower.The USA President Barack Hussein Obama II is the first black people who become the presdent.That means black people in the world is going to be respected.They don't need to live in a very awful place and bullied by the others.
When I first saw this picture.which really scared me.
I can not imagine thate this situation happened in reality.It's so terrible and hopeless world to black man .
When I read over "Sonny' blue",I think of the movie I have ever seen.The movie named "freedom writers",which describe chaos life to the black student.
Because of the discrimination,iife to them is hopeless,meaningless,and they almost give up their humain life.
The movie content's background is similar to "Sonny's blue".Sonny represent the general black chirld whose thought.
I think that white people should reflect what they had done to the
black.Although nowadays have less discrimination than past,life still can be more equal to the black.
Fruit usually gives me an image to be eaten and to get energy. However, in this grievous song, the “strange fruit” is something that terrifies me! This “strange fruit” is irrigated by blood, but people seem to take it for granted to eat that kind of “fruit.” “How do I identify this behavior of eating the strange fruit?” I questioned myself, “is this because the time makes them choose the way to treat the black or they just feel that they’re prior to black people?” The causes of this behavior are so complex that I couldn’t find an appropriate answer to it. With Billi Holiday's touching voice, I thought that there must be a long story behind her to sing this sad song, which is full of sorrow and pain.
In my opinion, Sonny’s desire to be a Jazz musician is a method to set his soul free during the serious discrimination time. He sang not only for himself but also for all miserable black people in the United States.
What makes Sonny and his brother most different are their attitudes toward suffering. Sonny struggled not to suffer though he couldn’t make it at all. On the other hand, Sonny’s brother thought that it would better to take it without excuses. The two personalities conflicted with each other and became the climax in the story. Between the two personalities, I like Sonny’s better because he once said “I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?” This simple sentence gives me a shock and lets me aware of what I need to do for my life!
Revision:
The third paragraph, line five should be "it would be better..."
When I had been at the sight of the picture on the top of the article,I just realized what those people went on. we always discuss about discrimination, but do we really understand what is its definition.It is awfully painful and scaring,black people were not treated like human being.It is not only discrimination,but it is torture and affliction. Billie Holiday probably suffered from this kind of pian. Sonny did not want to endure this discrimination.
He wanted to escape from this trap.He did not want to follow this damn rule. Fruit is lovely thing,but this song discribed bloody,painful. fruit is metaphor of people's beatiful lives, because of their skin.All things became strange,terrible and even bloody.
James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" is a story about a balck boy growing up in a racist society. Sonny has a talent for music and he wants to become a jazz pianist. Growing up in the impoverished neighborhood of Harlem and breathing the atmosphere of racial discrimination, Sonny has an experience of pain, discontentment, and frustration. Sonny wants to escape from that situation. He plays music; he wants to get people listen to his music. By listening to Sonny’s music, his brother begins to uderstand Sonny’s anguish.
Through Billie Holiday’s song, we can also imagine the painful lives of African Americans. Even though the situation is better now, the racialdiscriminationstill exist in American society. However, whan Barack Obama won the election of 2008, it’s a new milestone in American history.
Although I have heard the discrimnate of black people when I was little,I never image the problem is so serious in the world.When the time I first saw the picture on the top,it's too horrible,ironic heartbreaking to believe that really happenes.It's poor for the black people that they don't have dignity and suffer many unfair thing to them.Just like the melancholy song "Strange Fruit"in this article,it's express their blues and pain.
In the article of Sonny's Blues.It represent the classic problem of black peaple.Sonny wants to be a musican;however, his brether didn't support him to do the things what Sonny wants to do.In my opinion it is pity that there are no people support us to reach our dream.At that time, no matter what things the black people what to do,it is unacceptable to white people or even the most people in the world.
It is no denying that the discrimnate will continue in the world.But I wish there will be one day that it will be no pain, no discrimnation and full of peace in our lives.
the picture in the top frightened me ,in that time people didn't had way to express their feeling about the govement or the sociality so they use songs to expressed thrir depression and enrage when i listen this song it convey the feeling of misering and the first time i saw the title of this song i thought it is the song about but after i saw the lyrics the image let me felt uncomfortable and sorrow.i am so happy that i can live un this time.
When I first looked at the picture I was totally shocked and stared at it wondering that was it really a dead person hanged on the tree which is really the "strange fruit".
Well，we all think that America is a country with equality now. There is no any difference between you and me or anyone else. But during the 19th century it can be the darkest time in America, black people (or color people) are separated by the white people but they still call it “equal”.I don't think it's equal,and also think it's not right to lynch people.
I think Billie and maybe Sonny might think about the same thing. African Americans are human beings they are not animals or anything they need some respect. But at that time they can't have any so they feel very unhappy and they need to find a way out,to express their emotion and feelings.SO they decide or want to be a jazz musician to show people or audience how do they feel and what are they thinking about.
This song makes me scared.It's so hard for us who never been through that period of time to imagine how white people so cruel to black people.But after listening to this song,i can start to imagine that bad feeling.I can't understand why the black should be treated like that.All man are created equal.I don't think the white is superior to the black.The white should think about why they are so proud of themselves.
The"crop"and"strange fruit"in the lyrics is just the symbol of black people or those who suffer from the lynching.The song also describe the death of black people.The south(America)is filled with the corpes.This is a sad song that i've never heard.If i were black,i would fight until i die
"Strange fruit", full of sadness, feels like that the fact of racial discrimination will never had an end. Wanting people to know there obstacles and express there feelings, they make "blues".
In the story of "Sonny`s blues",it`s Sonny`s brother`s point of view. Saying how they differ from each other when facing racial discrimination. I think its a very tough problem for those who are separated from society. We have to devote more care to them.
When I saw the picture, I can’t image African America how to face their life.
In the world, social injustice in our life, we can examine self conscience do we care about it. When I heard this song, I feel uncomfortable because we can’t change the tragedy.
When I saw the picture, I can’t image African America how to face their life.
In the world, social injustice in our life, we can examine self conscience do we care about it. When I heard this song, I feel uncomfortable because we can’t change the tragedy.
The picture also make me feel horrible.
"Strange Fruit" was a protest song Lewis Allen wrote about the ongoing and intransigent problem of lynching in the American South.
I think "strange fruit" might mean blacks who hang on the tree.
And after i see the picture, i can't image America why can deal with blacks in this cruel way.
I thinks blacks must have big pain.
Sonny desired to become a Jazz musician because he wanted to sing his songs to console other blacks.
As what the picture shows, the situation is very brutal for the african american at the time.
But when every time we look back to this sorrowful history, we still should think, are we really not doing the samething?
(Even if we didn't found that.)
Take ourselves for example, though we always consider that we taiwanese people don't have discrimination, but sometimes we are still acting with discrimination.
The way some taiwanese people talk about the foreign maid from the south-eastern asia are actaully some kind of discrimination.
Also, we streotyped the aborigines as athelets and singers, just like the white people streotyped the black people.
There are still lots of works that need to be done, so whenever we look through the history, we shouldn't forget that, we are in the middle of the history as well.
The book tells us a sorrowful story, so as the story and the song delievers, we shouldn't let such thing happen again.
When i look at the top picture,I feel so sad and feel so cruel.We live in the same earth,everyone is human.In the world,we are a big family.Why humans like to hurt the culture same kind? I heard Wolf can’t attack wolf.It’s so strange.
When I listen the song,I can hear the singer’s unfortune.It’s sounds so strange.The singer must have a lot of mental crush.I think she’s heart must be hurt when she sings the song.Music can release their stress.That’s why sonny want to be a music player.Music also can release the pain temporary….
Strange fruit is symbol the black man.From the white man sight.
In the past(even now).Blackman are always discriminated by whiteman.They can’t not take on the same bus;they can’t drink water at the same time so forth.Blackman’s life like a servant,they often do some terrible work.On the contrary,the whiteman always work easily.That’s so unfair.
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