"Incident" isn't super-explicit about its coming of age theme, but it's there nonetheless. The incident that the poem describes is a moment of shock, but it's also a moment in which the speaker understands something new (and awful) about the world, and his place in it. It's a major bummer to think that this moment of coming of age comes about not because of an awesome achievement or a happy experience for the speaker (like winning a spelling bee or having his first kiss), but because of a disgusting moment of racial prejudice. Blech. But such was the reality for many African Americans in the beginning of the 20th century, and unfortunately, the reality for many racial minorities even still today.
Questions About Coming of Age
- How would you describe the relationship between the speaker as an adult, and the young version of him on the bus? What does the present day speaker know that his young self doesn't know? What parts of the poem give you your ideas?
- Has any good come out of the speaker's experience and recognition of racism in the world? What might that be?
- If the speaker were older than eight at the time of the incident, might things have happened differently? How important is the speaker's young age in the poem?
- For that matter, how important is the Baltimorean's age? Do you think the impact of this word would be harsher or softer if the person saying it were an adult, instead of the speaker's age?
Chew on This
As painful as it is, the speaker learns a valuable lesson in this poem. Namely: prejudice is real, and people can be just the worst.
The speaker would have been much better off not knowing about jerkfaces like the Baltimorean until he became old enough to deal with the grim reality of racism.