Dramatic License
One of the overarching themes of this poem is an examination of the utility of the literary technique known as dramatic license. Cullen takes a minor character from the Bible about whose background nothing is known other than where he lived. Using dramatic license, he endows him with dark skin for the purpose of making Simon's encounter with Jesus into a narrative about racism. The thematic foundation of this poem significantly differs from the bulk of the poet’s body of work in using this device. One of the purposes of engaging dramatic license therefore seems specifically to be geared toward illustrating how altering details of existing stories can become an effective strategy for writing about racism in America by literally distancing it through setting.
Racism and Oppression
The alteration allows the point of Simon’s story to be refocused onto racism. When Simon is called upon to relieve Jesus Christ of the burden of carrying the heavy cross to his crucifixion, Simon is initially reluctant because he believes that he was only picked out for the task “Because my skin is black.” He has a change of heart with the realization that Jesus is carrying the cross as punishment for daring to pursue a dream of defying his oppressors. The change of Simon into a Black man is charged with the symbolism of the long history of oppression of Black people in American history. Simon makes an intense emotional connection with the circumstances of Jesus and is moved to take up the burden of carrying the cross.
Conversion to Christianity
The poem begins with a stanza that is essentially constructed of two couplets reiterating the same thing, using almost the exact same language. Simon insists that Jesus first called upon him to take up the burden of carrying the cross without speaking a single word or giving any visible sign. Despite this lack of verbal or visual communication, Simon feels the presence of Jesus identifying him alone. Any time a poem features such repetition within the same stanza it is traditionally viewed as carrying more interpretative weight than a single mention. Thus, the poet is calling attention to the fact that Simon is being called to the “word” of Jesus without any outright indication. The beginning of the poem therefore establishes a theme related to the nature of conversion to Christianity, suggesting that it is a spiritual experience that commences privately as unspoken discourse between the person and Jesus. It is this interior urge which ultimately leads a person to seek out the actual words of Jesus through the instruction of the Church rather the other way around in which the words of a minister or priest is the catalyst of conversion.
Empires and Revolution
The decision to make Simon a Black man moves the poem relentlessly toward its concluding imagery which makes taking this very tiny incident from scripture worth the trouble of repurposing. By the final stanza, the poem has succeeded in creating parallels between Jesus and Simon and Simon and the African American experience. The use of “Rome” as a metonymic reference to the massive power wielded throughout the empire being unable to put a final end to the revolutionary ideas of Jesus merely by killing him fully establishes that Simon is recollecting his story from a point in the future at which Christianity has already taken hold and spread. The poem concludes on a thematic note that the oppression of Black people in American history need not continue forever. If one man named Jesus could bring down the entire Roman Empire in death, then Black Americans should not suffer slavery, but rise to the challenge of overcoming the agents of their own oppression.
