Running Gwendolyn Brooks was a very experienced author and the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize. Before she died of cancer on December 3, 2000 she wrote multiple poems including the poem called, “The Explorer.” The poem is about a man who is trying to escape to a place where there is nothing but quiet and he can get away from everything whether it is the voices of human beings or the choices that need to be made. In the poem “The Explorer,” Gwendolyn Brooks conveys the message that one cannot run from his/her problems by using imagery to create a visual image of the character’s surroundings, tone to express how the author feels towards the subject, and diction to give a description of what is happening. Gwendolyn Brooks’ use of imagery throughout the poem allows for a clear image of what is…show more content… Throughout the poem Gwendolyn Brooks’ tone is never positive. There are multiple shifts in her tone, but always from one negative emotion to another. At the beginning of “The Explorer,” the tone of the author is hopeful. She states what the man is looking for and you can just hear her silently hoping that he finds it. Then, towards the middle of the poem her tone shifts and becomes detached and hollow. This part of the poem is where readers find out what he is running from. Once one reads this section of the poem it becomes clear that the man is detached from everything. All he wants is to escape and leave all responsibility behind. Last but not least, at the end of the poem Gwendolyn Brooks’ tone becomes defeated and disappointed. She says, “There were no bourns. There were no quiet rooms.” There is no place where the man can go that will satisfy what he is looking for. This makes her upset because she wanted so badly for him to find that safe place. But, she should have known all along that this would be the outcome, because running from life solves
