"Strange Fruit" sung by Billie Holiday

"Strange Fruit"

 

Southern trees bear

a strange fruit

Blood on the leaves

And blood at the root

Black bodies swinging

in the southern breeze

Strange fruit hanging

from the poplar trees

 

Pastoral scene

of the gallant south

The bulging eyes

and the twisted mouth

 

Set of Magnolia

sweet and fresh

Then the sudden smell

of burning flesh

 

Here is a fruit

For the crows to pluck

For the rain to gather

For the wind to suck

For the sun to rot

For the tree to drop

 

Here is a strange

and bitter crop

D. Scarlino c. 2002

In Billie Holiday's song "Strange Fruit," the theme demonstrates the horror of lynching in post-Civil War America in the Deep South.  As the song progresses, a much deeper interpretation of racial prejudice emerges.  This concept is fully expressed by a metaphor of lynched bodies being compared to fruit hanging from trees.

In this essay, I will explain my thesis by analyzing the metaphors within the song.  I will also discuss the time in which the song was written, and why it needed to be sung.

When an individual talks about mthe South, images of poplar and willow trees immediately come to mind.  Pink and purple sunsets, as well as an unbearable humidity beckon from the corners of my mind.  Southern hospitality from the locals encourages me to visit again, but there is one thought that is not so pretty.  I see giant plantation houses that were once kept up by slaves.  I think of the fight for slavery, and the "don't ask, don't tell" attitude.

In her song, Holiday uses beautiful imagery, and then contradicts it with grotesque undertones.  The style is effective because it makes you listen intently to every word sung by Holiday. 

The song begins by the narrator's statement that the trees in the South bear a strange fruit.  The song continues with "blood on the leaves, and blood at the root." The vision of blood portrays bloodshed prior to the actual lynching, when the lynch mob would beat the individual, just as an individual beats the dust off a rug on a clothesline.  The blood is also described as being at the root.  The root itself is an object that could be interpreted in various ways.  The root could suggest the natural root of how good the lives once were before the institution of slavery.  I imagine that in Africa their lives were better free, and that the bloodshed upon the root could symbolize the battle fought before being ripped out of their homeland.  The theme of racial prejudice is strengthened by the lynch mob's having no reference for life, life especially based on skin color.

In the second verse, the song takes on its most contradictory aspects.  "Pastoral scene of the gallant south, the bulging eyes and the twisted mouth," combines an image of a proud scenic landscape which thrived on agriculture and the gallantry displayed by its inhabitants, only then to be disrupted by the shocking image of one's eyes bulging out, and a wide, gaping mouth trying to consume any air to stay alive.  This verse contradicts the idea of the stereotypical pleasantness of Southerners, by describing the gallant lives being a front for what happens during nighttime.  This verse is most disturbing to me, because of the description used to depict the actual face of the victim since the face portrays the terror and misery of lynching.  The description of the face makes it more personal and brings to reality the fact that a human being has been killed so violently.The theme of the actual act of lynching is best portrayed in this verse.

Within verse three, Holiday goes from visual imagery to olfactory imagery.  "Set of magnolia sweet and fresh," brings another pleasant feeling. "Then the sudden smell of burning flesh," counters the magnolia's sweet smell with what I believe would be the putrid smell of burning human flesh.  Once again, the theme of racial prejudice is portrayed, just because the individual is black; such a portrayal indicates that there is no reverence for life. 

As the song proceeds into verse four, it reaches a climax through Holiday's change in the pitch of her voice.  During every lyric, her voice becomes higher and higher. 

             Here is a fruit

for the crows to pluck,

for the rain to gather,

            for the wind to suck,

            for the sun to rot,

for the tree to drop;

no longer are there any references to a human hanging from a tree.It is as if the human has in fact become a fruit, a strange fruit not found in nature.It is in the fifth verse that the lyrics speak to me as strongly as the second.

Slowly and pensively, Holiday sings, mHere is a strange and bitter crop.My interpretation of this quote is that the fruit is indeed strange, because it is not derived from the earth but from the hands of men.  It is the last lyric that gets very deep.

The lyric states that the crop is bitter.The bitterness is generation and generation of oppression and prejudice towards blacks, which has made their communities extremely bitter indeed--bitter at "the system" which constantly fails them.  They are bitter at the stigma that America views them, and bitter simply because there have never and will never be a formal apology for slavery or lynching.Not that a simply apology would at all reverse the feelings of blacks, but just knowing that your country understands your plight and actually gives a damn about you, may extinguish some fires on the burning issue of prejudice.

The period when this song was written was a time when Jim Crow laws were in action. Segregation was throughout the nation and atrocities like this were being done. No one was talking about these events; they were skeletons in the closet.

The song was written for Holiday to sing.She was approached to sing it, but she declined at first.She thought the song too graphic, but she eventually agreed to sing mStrange Fruit. The song became one of her biggest singles, and earned critical acclaim, due to the song's contents.

"Strange Fruit"by Billie Holiday is a song that proves music can influence the lives of many people indeed.