The Dehumanizing Nature of Exploitative Labor

A central theme of “Reapers” is how the economic demands of the harvest strip the reapers of their individual human dignity. This is notable even from the title of the poem and the first reference to the “Black reapers” in the first line. The reapers are referred to collectively by their job title, with no markers of their individuality. Additionally, the speaker applies the same adjective, “Black,” to all the reapers in reference to their skin color, emphasizing this single, observable, shared aspect of their identity. Therefore, the speaker, from the very title of the poem, fails to look beyond appearances and sees the reapers as a group of laborers defined by homogeneity.

Around halfway through the poem, the speaker parallels the “Black reapers” with the “Black horses” also contributing to the harvest by applying to them the same color adjective...