Isolation Of Social Injustice In 'Angel' By Jericho Brown

As you can see so far, these poems are full of “I” statements in this book. The book also takes the readers into the deep thinking about the racial and sexual tensions from the poems. In the poem, “Angel,” the poem complicates things about the brother’s wife, and his murderer and how it is read, and about the dramatic parts of it. Through this poem, Brown lets the brother’s wife speak for herself as a victim of domestic violence. This allows for her to speak as an individual for her own right. This book reaches and uses the biblical, fundamental, and language that the title of the book gives it. The voices used in the poems are sharp and direct. The syntax in the poems are great too. Also, the alliteration and consonance, long sentences with
Brown’s poetry is beautiful and impactful. In The New Testament, Brown wants to make a change of the social injustice in the world. He wanted to make these poems more powerful than any of his other poems that he wrote. Again the book is more for people who do not completely fit in, or are made to feel less human. The events and images of the poems manage to surprise the reader every time they read them. In the poem, “The Interrogation,” “II. Cross-Examination” and “IV. Redirect,” Brown defends his heritage with the line “What you call color I call/ A way.” The interrogator responds back to him with “Forgive us. We don’t mean to laugh/ It’s just that black is,/ After all, the absence of color.” These lines between the interrogator and Brown are chilling and are highly memorable. This just shows the reality of the racial relations we have in America today.
The book then goes from talking about race to talking about religion because of the events and the poem titles that reference from the Bible itself. The passages used were from Romans 12:1, 1 Corinthians 13:11, and Psalm 150. These passages have a statement that “To believe in God is to love/ What no one can see.” The New Testament is a book that is so complex that there is no possible way to get a certain theme or themes for them. For me, I have found that Jericho Brown’s work is personal, so his work is more on the lines of race, religion, and sexuality. Brown’s book The New Testament overall inspires the readers that read it to make a positive change on the world and impact yourself to change for yourself and for the better