In Dudley Randall's poem “The Ballad of Birmingham”, he presents an idea of ​​how the normal lifestyle of a mother and daughter can take a turn for the worse due to racial injustice effect during the United States, in the 1960s. The Birmingham church bombing was an attack perpetrated by the Klu Klux Klan because they were unwilling to accept the newly integrated parts of their city, due to the growing popularity of the fight against racial injustice. Four innocent children were killed during the bombing, which has called Americans to pay attention to the racial violence that takes the lives of young people who are still unable to overcome the danger imposed on them because they are only teenagers. This event attracted national attention and helped the Civil Rights Movement gain momentum because the general public only thought about the discrimination of African American adults, but the images of young children oppressed by these acts of bloodshed moved them deeply and prompted action, In this poem, a naive little girl asks her mother if she can join the march through the streets of Birmingham, but her mother hesitates to let her because she knows the dangers and atrocities that occur during many of these marches, and she feels irresponsible of him in allowing his son to join this march, exposing her to the possibility that there was an assault during the event. She informs her daughter of the different dangers that emerge in these challenging episodes, but despite what her mother tells her, the little girl insists that she let her go because her friends will accompany her along the way. The mother is afraid that her daughter will get hurt and insists that she go to church instead because it is a blessed institution, and she is sure that no harm will come to her while she is there. Shortly after her daughter leaves the house, the mother hears a deafening explosion and runs through the streets looking for her beloved daughter. He finds no remains of his daughter except one of the shoes she was wearing this morning. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Dudley Randall highlights the need to stop racial discrimination in this poem by using imagery, symbolism, metaphors, and irony as a way to portray and persuade his audience to take action on the issue of civil rights. He also wants to influence people who doubt to join the fight due to the problematic outcome. Randall applies the dramatic nature of the situation, presented in the poem, to evoke emotions in his audience by showing a trustworthy and innocent relationship between mother and daughter. Furthermore, it takes a different point of view of a historical event to make readers believe that these scenes of cruelty are not just from a world of imagination, but are constantly happening through the hardships faced by African Americans around the world. on a daily basis. The direct attitude/tone in this poem is extremely dark and melancholy. The author's handling of imagery, along with other literary devices, illustrates the anguish he endured during the time of racial injustice. The author proceeds to elicit bitter feelings of grief, allowing the reader to see what horrors were committed against the daughter through the mother's response to the explosion. The poem argues that no place/institution is safe when people's thoughts are polluted and that anything can happen even when a person least expects it. Randall uses imagery and irony to help the reader form a visualization of the events occurring in the poem, synchronously evoking the emotions due to theunpleasantness of the poem set around the attack incident. The poetic elements place additional importance on what the poet is trying to achieve, allowing the reader to make connections with the objects and understand the paradox created by the meaning of church. The writer states: Because when he heard the explosion his eyes went wet and wild He ran through the streets of Birmingham calling for his son. This immediately brings out the image of a mother grieving because she couldn't find her son in all the dust and noise caused by the bombing. It forces the reader to sympathize with the mother because of her desire to discover her daughter amidst the rubble, and her teary eyes show an expression of madness and irritation because of her internal feeling of panic caused by the sound of the explosion . Mothers, who are part of the intended audience of this poem, can relate to the feeling she is going through because the thought of losing their child can be heartbreaking for anyone, but it can be extremely difficult for a mother since they are the ones who brought children in their womb and are devoted to them from the moment they are born. There is a sense of panic in the mother's eyes because the explosion indicates that something is wrong, and her animalistic instincts come into full play as she tries to figure out if her daughter is safe or if she has been injured. He is in a state of urgency to locate his daughter as quickly as possible, as he has been "clawing at pieces of glass and bricks" due to the fact that he cannot think straight because his daughter is nowhere to be found. a horrible experience through the mother's eyes, makes the reader want to comfort her to calm down, but deep down, the mother is inconsolable because her daughter is missing. The poet draws irony by using the church as the place the mother tells her daughter to visit: "But you could go to church instead / And sing in the children's choir and his mother smiled knowing that her son / Was in the sacred place." The church is supposed to be a holy place where no wrongdoing can occur, but in this case a sinful act occurred there and it was far from a safe destination for the child to go. The mother was adamant in trying to convince her daughter to go to church and sing, instead of marching through the streets of Birmingham due to the riots that can occur during these events. She is afraid that something might happen to a child in a huge crowd and doesn't know the safety precautions that are taken during one of these marches, so she refuses to risk her child's safety. The irony is that the church will provide a safe haven for her daughter while the march will not, but the events that happen after she leaves the house are completely the opposite of what the mother intended. The little girl is killed during the violent bombing and her participation in the march would have actually spared her life, making her much safer from the disaster that occurred. It was unexpected that a political assembly, where violence is easy to occur, would be a very safe place for her daughter to be. It seems that one might think of a church full of purity, not evil, but the attack happened there and showed how hatred and racism have no boundaries. To show the innocence of the little girl, the author uses forms of symbolism and metaphors to cement the naive personality of a normal child, when he is unaware of the corrupt world and accepts challenges one day at a time, without giving too much consideration to the aspects negatives of life. The poet wants the daughter to represent an innocent child and the fight for equality symbolizes an antagonistic entity that resides in America during the Movement for.