"The Liar" is about self-deception or a lack of genuine understanding of one's identity. Furthermore, this poem reveals misunderstanding about one's position in society. Imamu Amiri Baraka emphasizes a disconnect between spiritual awareness and one's worldly ego, leading to a state of fear and confusion.
The poem starts off with the speaker expressing his confusion regarding his character. He found that fear occupied his heart instead of the love he thought was there. Even during instances of spiritual stimulation, the speaker still wrestles with misunderstanding his true identity. He further mentions profiting from evolving his soul, although the weight of doing so has caused him distress. In a sense, he felt distant from his own being - that which was familiar to him. He ends the poem by questioning the withering substance of his life.
In the context of Baraka's book S O S, "The Liar" is a critique of the social, cultural, and political identity that Baraka perceived of many African-Americans during the 1960s. This book highlights the struggles he faced trying to create balance between his culture, history, and activism through his poetry. Baraka was going through a period of transformation during the mid-1960s.
He made a switch from white bohemian culture to black political activism. This switch was inspired by turbulence of the civil rights movement. Although this was an empowering change, he experienced inner conflict regarding his cultural and political affiliations. In other words, Baraka felt he was disowning his own blackness by affiliating with bohemian culture.
