Protest Songs and the Symbolism of the Protest Social Movements

A protest song is a song that explains a particular movement that’s searching for a social change. It’s also a song that expresses the artist’s feelings toward current events that are currently happening in their society. Billie Holiday recorded a song called “Strange Fruit” which is basically about the lynching of black people back in the days and how you would smell their skin burning. The song “Strange Fruit” was originally a poem written by a white Jewish man who witnessed the lynching of black people in a picture during the early 1920s.

Sam Cooke was an American singer who invented soul music, which is a mixture of rhythm & blues, aka (R&B). Cooke wrote the song, “A Change is Gonna Come” to support the civil rights movement. Another reason for him writing this song is because he was refused to check in a hotel based on his skin color. Nina Simone was an American musical storyteller she didn’t sing; she read lyrics out loud with style, passion, and empathy. She wrote the song “Four Women” which is a song that describes four different African American women and their stereotypes in their society. These three songs “Strange Fruit” By Billie Holiday, “A Change is Gonna Come” By Sam Cooke, and “Four Women” By Nina Simone all fall under the category of songs written about the protest. They reflect the society of Gilead, because of how people were killed, hanged in the same way the artists described how people of color got murdered in their days.

In ‘The Handmaid’s Tale, ’ women are enslaved and judged based on how they looked. The women in this novel weren’t allowed to look in mirrors to see their true beauty because the mirrors were banned. They also didn’t want them to know their true identity, just like in the song “Four Women.” For example, in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Atwood states, “My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others, but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter. I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I’ll come back to dig up, one day”. (Atwood 84).

Offred identity changed as soon as she stepped foot into Gilead. Her real name isn’t Offred; it’s just a name she was assigned. Also, in “The Handmaids Tale, ” it states, “But whose fault was it? Aunt Helena says, holding up one plump finger. Her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison. Who led them on? Aunt Helena beams, pleased with us. She did. She did. She did. Why did God allow such a terrible thing to happen? Teach her a lesson. Teach her a lesson. Teach her a lesson. ” (Atwood 71-71). Helena made the other maids chant that it was Janine’s fault that she got raped when she was a teenager and that she led the men on. The song “Four Women,” says, “But my father was rich and white He forced my mother late one night. And what do they call me?.” (15-17). Saffronia explained how her mother, a slave, was raped by a white slave master. In the song “Four Women,” it states, “Whose little girl am I? Anyone who has money to buy. What do they call me?”. (24-26). In this stanza, African American women are being stereotyped by young men calling her a different type of name based on her looks.

People wonder why Abel Meeropol, a white Jewish man, would write a poem about to protest racism and call it “Strange Fruit.” Strange Fruit is about African American men being lynched. The statement relates to Gilead, because they would hang rapists, pedophiles, etc. on the walls so the open crowd could see them while passing by. In the song “Strange Fruit,” it mentions “Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.” (3-4). Also, in the song, it states, “Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.” (2). These lines described how you would see people’s bodies hanged on trees swinging because of the breeze. Blood would be splattered everywhere, and that was a sign of death, just like in Atwood’s novel, blood was a sign of fertility and the woman's menstrual cycle.

In ‘The Handmaid’s Tale, ’ it says, “Each month I watch for blood, fearfully, for when it comes, it means failure. I have failed once again to fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own.” (Atwood 73). In the book, it also says, “Beside the main gateway there are six more bodies hanging, by the necks, their hands tied in front of them, their heads in white bags tipped sideways onto their shoulder. There must have been a Men’s Sakvaging early this morning.” (Atwood 32). Early in the morning, they would go looking for bad men to hang on the wall, they also have unique places already set up for them on hooks you wouldn’t be able to see who it is because their faces were covered. The civil rights movement was a protest led by people of color to end racial discrimination. Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” mentions “It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die ‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there, beyond the sky.” (5-6). Also, Cooke’s mentioned, “There have been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long, But now I think I’m able to carry on. ” (17-18). Cooke’s trying to say that back in the days, it was a struggle to live, and because it was a struggle to live, you were at risk of dying.

Through struggling, then you have to find a way to get out without getting killed, and that’s just like the civil rights movement. In Atwood’s book, she mentions, “He could fake the tests, report me for cancer, for infertility, have me shipped off to the Colonies, with the Unwomen. None of this has been said, but the knowledge of his power hangs nevertheless in the air as he pats my thigh, withdraws himself behind the hanging sheet.” (Atwood 61). The Handmaid’s Tale shows how Offred one of the maids thought about leaving when she went to a doctor’s appointment, and the doctor tried to help her by giving her a false diagnosis. But she refused because she knows that would get them both killed.

As proven Atwoods dystopian world can be related to in so many ways. Atwood’s world has been used so many times back in the days, and it never ended suitable for people. In the book, people were hanged, burned, raped, etc and all of that happened to people of color. The females were either maids or housewives. In Gilead, the maids wore red, which symbolized fertility and their menstrual cycle. Atwood used many historical events and extended the endings to fit her setting of the dystopian world. As you can see, the protest songs do reflect on the society of Gilead in many ways. For example, torture, discrimination, and also being faceless because their identity was taken from them, and they weren’t able to access that identity no more because of mirrors being banned from them.