The main characters of “The Bean Eaters” are the Bean Eaters of the title, an “old yellow pair” (1) who “eat beans mostly” (1). The poems of The Bean Eaters were based on Brooks’s observations of life in the Black community of Bronzeville on the South Side of Chicago, so the titular couple were likely drawn from real people. By referring to them through their staple diet as opposed to their individual names, Brooks achieves several purposes. She underscores the importance of the cheap yet stable protein source of beans for the community at the book’s heart, and she indicates that the lifestyle described in the poem belongs not just to one particular couple but to a community of people who face poverty, old age, and racism. The poem in some ways reads as an ode to this couple, who are “Mostly Good” (5) and who “keep...