Citizen: An American Lyric Lesson Plan

What do the images like the rain and the vomit symbolize?

The scenes with the rain and the vomit are not specific instances but rather show the ongoing, perpetual effect of racism. The vomit is a response to when “the wrong words enter your day like a bad egg in your mouth” (8). In that scene, “you” has to pull herself together, “pull yourself to standing, soon enough the blouse is rinsed, it’s another week, the blouse is beneath your sweater, against your skin, and you smell good” (8). It is important that the blouse is rinsed and placed beneath the sweater. This signifies that the effects of racism do not go away. They cannot be washed away and the blouse replaced like...