121,809 views
38 votes
38 votes
“How does the imagery in Strange Fruit explore systemic racism in the United States?”

User George Helyar
by
2.8k points

1 Answer

16 votes
16 votes

Answer:

The trees in the southern United States hang heavy with an unusual fruit. These trees have blood on their leaves and at their roots. The dead bodies of black lynching victims sway back and forth in the gentle southern wind; these bodies are the strange fruit that hang from the branches of poplar trees.

Picture the natural beauty and chivalry of the American South, where corpses hang with swollen eyes and contorted mouths. The sweet, fresh smell of magnolia flowers floats on the air, until suddenly interrupted by the smell of burning flesh.

Crows will eat the flesh from these bodies. The rain will fall on them, the wind will suck them dry, and the sun will rot them. The trees will drop them, this foul and unusual crop.

User Rjpadula
by
2.8k points