Class struggle Review of Related Theories
Three years later, World War I happened in 1914-1918. As the impact of this war, Lebanon suffered the Great Famine, a mass-starving tragedy. Thousands
people died in hunger. Through his works, Gibran expressed his empathy toward his people. According to Nasar 1980: 23, “The early New York years were
overcast for Gibran by the terrible fate of Lebanon during the Great War fully one-third of the population of the Mountain starved. His chronic melancholia
pervades the prose-poems in Arabic of this period”. The description about the condition in late eighteenth century certainly and the situation of Lebanon in that
time had affected Gibran’s works. Suheil Bushrui and Joe Jenkins state that, His early works are tales of courage, stories in which the down trodden for
liberty and proclaim a message of justice – a whip in Gibran’s words as he unleashes his vituperation on those who exploit the poor. There is also a
message of conciliation for those who struggle to be free from the shackles of nationalism, sectarianism, and medievalism Bushrui and Jenskins,
2007: 22.
According to Bushrui and Jenskins 2007: 115, “We and You,” published on January 6, 1911 in the emigrant newspaper Mir’atal-Gharb Mirror of the
West”.Bushrui and Jenskins also say that, Like his other work of the time, “We and You” is laden with overtones of
social protest – the outspoken intensity of the poem reflecting Gibran’s own increasing self-confidence within American society, his “reposeful
power,” described by Mary as “the big lines of his character” which she sensed were becoming “more pronounced, more dominant, steadier”
Bushrui and Jenskins, 2007: 115.
Based on these explanations about the background of him, it is clear that Gibran’s works are influenced by his social condition during his time. According to the
Bushrui and Jenskins, the poem “We and You” describes about how Gibran depicts two different group of peolpe. They say,
The poem is a litany of contrasts between “we” – the poets, prophets, and musicians who “fill the hands of the Angels with the seeds of our inner
selves”38 – and “you” a pronoun representing the social, political, and ecclesiastical supporters of the status quo, the “sons of the pursuit of
‘earthly Gaiety’ ”, who “place your hearts in the hands of Emptiness.
From the quotation, the narrator in this poem is the people who claim themselves as “the poet, prophet, and musicians”. It is can be said that Kahlil
Gibran as the poet, who writes the poem “We and You”, has involved in the poem that is included in “We”. Thus, this poem can be considered as the way Gibran
tells about the discrimination in the society. As Bushrui and Jenskins have said, most of Kahlil Gibran’s works including “We and You” are the expression of the
social protest in which Gibran stands to voice the idea of suffering people in society.