“The Bean Eaters”, published by Gwendolyn Brooks, is a poem about an elderly couple who are doing nothing but reminisce in their squalid house. One of the themes I think what the poem illustrates is sheer hopelessness, which reminded me of the “As I Walked Out One Evening” poem. The old couple may love each other and share good and bad memories, but in time, they (and their memories) will be lost to it, alongside everything in their home. Their home is in a sorry state itself, being a “rented back room that is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths, tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes” (11-12). The memories they have of their home is one of complete neglect and insignificance. Really? After all these years and those are the times you can come up with in your head? It’s kind of heartbreaking to see two people so poor be unable to do anything in their condition at all. The second stanza now comes across as more haunting than before considering they don’t seem to have much emotion as to their current and future states. Most of their waking hours appear to acknowledge that they “have lived their day, / But keep on putting on their clothes / And putting things away” (6-8). Thinking about old age is quite depressing, since by this point a person is hardly capable of doing things a young or middle-aged person would do, and it just serves as a reminder that the end of their lives are near. I think it was an interesting poem to read, it’s just hard to read again because it’s glum and there’s no positive outlook for the main characters (or the things around them).
the bean eaters
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