The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

The old house, which appears in Stanzas 3 and 4, is a symbol for poverty and racism. Brooks uses poetic and figurative language to describe the house—its crumbling plaster “[s]tir[s] as if in pain” (Line 10), for example. Recasting the shabby old housing in figurative language allows Brooks to connect Reed’s dream of a spacious house to the universal desire to protect and shelter one’s family. In American culture, a house is a key element of the American Dream; hard work allows even working-class people to secure housing for their families. Brooks characterizes Rudolph Reed as an uncompromising man with strong character and aspirations, so the house doesn’t match the man. The shabbiness of the house shows that for Black Americans, the overlap between racism and class inequality is the main impediment to achieving that dream.

The “House” (Line 31) appears in its capitalized form in the eighth stanza, and it symbolizes the fulfillment of Rudolph Reed’s dream of equality and fairness. The physical structure of the house includes walls that have “windows everywhere” (Line 38), “a beautiful banistered stair” (Line 39), and a “front yard for flowers and a back yard for grass” (Line 40).