Gwendolyn Brooks Hardship

Brooks’ pieces portray a universal themes of hardship that any person can relate to. Kenny Jackson Williams suggests that even though Brooks, raised in Chicago, had other experiences outside of the city, she still has a strong connection with Chicago because of the bond she developed with her family during hard times. Most people have experiences hardships in their lives. Williams thinks that, "Gwendolyn Brooks writes from an intimate knowledge reinforced by her own life." People can relate to the hardships she had in her life because everyone experiences hardships. According to Contemporary Authors Online , Brooks had been writing about black people from a young age (“Gwendolyn Brooks.”) According to Janet Mullane, Brooks' writing changed
a lot after she left her mainstream publisher and made her poetry more available for black readers (“Gwendolyn Brooks.”) Mullane says this happened after she met young activists. Brooks has written about blacks, yet any ordinary person can relate to the themes in her poetry. “I wasn’t writing consciously with the idea that blacks must address blacks, must write about blacks.”