The Sundays of Satin Legs Smith
A Look at the Element of Voice in Brooks' Poem
The third person perspective offers a unique viewpoint into the character's persona and lifestyle. The point of view itself adds to the overall message of the narrative.
Gwendolyn Brooks’ "The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith" contains characters that live desolate lives. "The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith" is written in the third person point of view. Therefore, the reader is left to interpret the feelings and emotions of Smith—his internal feelings will not be directly related. An advantage of the third person voice in "Satin-Legs Smith" is that we can objectively interpret the events of the poem, and we are not biased at all by the character’s voice. Because the narrator is not Smith, we can observe him from a detached perspective.
Smith's Egotism
Many of Smith’s actions show that he is essentially enamored with himself. When he admires himself in the mirror, he exhibits narcissism and “loves himself” (14). Here we receive a detached look at Smith’s vain actions; if it were from Smith’s perspective, a watered-down version would probably be substituted.
This separated view of Smith offers colorful views of him; when he wakes, it is not simply a rising from bed, but rather he “unwinds, elaborately: a car tawny, reluctant, royal” (12). Smith “waits a moment, he designs his reign”—quite a spectacular way to wake. This spectacle at first appears sarcastic, but proves to be a realistic interpretation of Smith’s egotism: Smith is royalty; Smith is Satin-Legs Smith. And on Sundays, Smith is truly himself.
Smith's denial and detachment
While Smith exhibits quite a haughty persona, at various points he seems aware of the reality of his dreary situation, only to quickly dismiss it. For example, on page 16, the “pasts of his ancestors…fog out his own identity,” and “he quite considers his reactions his, judges he walks most powerfully alone”; he concludes that everything is “simply what it is.”
Smith, of course, can not change what is, for he “walks most powerfully alone” and can not concern himself with others. Earlier in the poem, as Smith walks down the street, he is again surrounded by reality as “sounds about him smear, become a unit,” but yet “he hears and does not hear” (15).
Smith is indeed in his own world; he is not simply Smith on Sundays, but rather is Satin-Legs Smith. The third person narration perfectly complements Smith’s aloofness—its detached viewpoint shows Smith’s physical surroundings and his outward reaction to them.
Smith’s actions answer the question of whether he can love the “Lonesome Blues, the Long-lost Blues” and other songs of the street (16). He can not recall events of the past—and therefore can not love the songs—because on Sundays he is only focused on material effects: food, clothing, women, and sex. The disengaged point of view mirrors Smith’s separation from the real world.
A means to and end
The narrator points out that Smith is not concerned with the means of satisfying his desires; he is not concerned with “such minor points as these” (17). Rather, Smith is interested only in the final result. While he is not concerned with “minor points,” the fact that he is so aware of them (“vivid shoes frontless and backless, Chinese fingernails, earrings, three layers of lipstick”) shows that these events have become routine for him.
While Smith appears to be quite the hedonist and adventurer on Sundays, it is possible that his doings have become just a routine for him—a weekly release on which he is now dependent. Nevertheless, each Sunday, Smith continues his pleasure-seeking, and each Sunday he will “go out full,” because for Smith “The end is—isn’t it—all that really matters” (17).
Source: Brooks, Gwendolyn. “The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith.” Selected Poems. New York: Harper, 2006. 12-18.
