Author's purpose in poem 'Strange Fruit'

Through this poem we see the author attempting to raise awareness about this issue of inequality and injustice as 'blacks' are continually lynched for no reason other than the fact they are different. It is essentially a protest poem, created to shock the reader and highlight the horror of this era. We see visceral imagery used in order to increase the shock value of the poem, by making the reader feel physically sick at the grotesque images described. An example of this is found in Stanza 2- "the sudden smell of burning flesh!" He uses an extended metaphor of "strange fruit" to describe the hanged black men, which conveys the idea of them being unnatural and the fact that they should not be there (this type of thing should not be happening or allowed). The juxtaposition of positive and negative imagery (e.g. "scent of magnolia" against "bulging eyes") also highlights this idea that the hanging bodies do not belong, and should not be put up with. It is entirely against the racism and lynching of that time, using bold images and diction in order to shock and horror the audience.