Literary Ananlysis - The Little Black Boy (Deconstructionist Criticism)

Laguna State Polytechnic University
JOSE MARIE F. QUIAMBAO, MAED-ENGLISH

0420-2347, First Semester
EDUC 207 LITERARY CRITICISM
PROF. GLEN P. CORTEZANO
Literary Analysis (Deconstructionist)
The Little Black Boy

William Blake
The Little Black Boy argues for racial equality, claiming that mortal identity is vanishing and
that everyone is deserving of God's love. This is narrated through the eyes of a black child who is
reminiscing about his mother's lessons in the southern wild. In the poem, many unfavorable and even
racist perceptions about black people are reinforced that there are some evident binary oppositions.
The speaker opens the poem by discussing his upbringing. The first quatrain identifies a conflict
of black and white.
“My mother bore me in the southern wild,

And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
White as an angel is the English child:
But I am black as if bereav'd of light.”
White is clearly a privileged term as it is associated with angel, while black is disadvantage for it
is linked with dark. The contrast between blackness and whiteness is developed in the second line. The
little boy is aware of his skin tone but declares that his "soul inside is white,” to connect the well-known
religious symbolism of light and dark or good and evil with skin color. The speaker claims that his "soul
is white," implying that his soul is true and pure regardless of his appearance. If skin color really is an
indicator of goodness, then what worries the speaker is his own dark skin that makes him look as if he is
"bereav'd of light" or in holiness he is deprived.
The poem makes extensive use of the word light. Sun stands for God, as well as his warmth and
love, the speaker's mother mentions in the third verse. Importance of sun is to life on the earth, its rays
are the beams of love.
In the fourth stanza it identifies patience and humility to less fortunate individuals. Acceptance of
the given space and bearing of standards. It says:
“And we are put on earth a little space,

That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.”
Down to earth with acceptance, Black in this world does not have substance. Learning to endure
mere privileged based on physical paradigm. Only when learning good act can unveil darkness. They
then be accepted as the lines 17-18 stated; “For when our souls have learnt the heat to bear,” “The cloud
will vanish we shall hear his voice.”
Only pure souls that have learned God’s love will be saved, since only after “our souls have
learnt the heat to bear” will “the cloud vanish” so that “we shall hear God’s voice” inviting us to
“rejoice” The text seems to be promoting an ideology revolving around the concept that one must “learn
to bear the beams of love” so that “our souls” can “come out from the grove” which is shaded and join
God “round His golden tent like lambs rejoice” (14, 17, 19, 20); only white, lighted souls will be saved.
Overall, the little Black boy comes to comprehend his social limits because he is black, and it is
only in death that he will be considered as equal to the English boy, giving the poem a tragic theme. The
color of the boy's skin represents the societal barriers he will face in life and how he will overcome
them. Even before the first verse, the poem begins to demonstrate some of the racist beliefs that it is
attempting to break. It depicts Africa as a place of uncivilized wildness and moral and social
sophistication. These kinds of reasoning were frequently used to justify invading nonwhite peoples and
enslaving black men, women, and children. It's crucial to keep this in mind while you read the poem,
which represents many of the racist views of the time while still advocating for equality.
Works Cited:
Howard, James. "The Little Black Boy." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 6 Mar 2020. Web. 1 Sep
2021.
Deconstructionist Criticism. (n.d). Retrieved from salirickandres.altervista.org/category/literary-

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Laguna State Polytechnic University

JOSE MARIE F. QUIAMBAO, MAED-ENGLISH

The Little Black Boy

“My mother bore me in the southern wild,

“And we are put on earth a little space,

Deconstructionist Criticism. (n.d). Retrieved from salirickandres.altervista.org/category/literary-

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