The Colonel Requiem Forche Analysis

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Recommended: El Salvadoran civil war

This poem recounts past events that happened during the Salvadoran civil war. The narrator met with the colonel to gain information however, the meeting quickly turned sour when the colonel brought out “…a sack used to bring groceries home. He spilled many human ears on the table…” The sack of human ears symbolized the colonel’s power and how dangerous he can be because the poem states “I am tired of fooling around… As for the rights of anyone, tell your people they can go fuck themselves…” which shows that he is not afraid to do inhumane actions to assert his dominance. Forche expresses the theme of war and dominance when the poem states “…how difficult it had become to govern…tired of fooling around…” This establishes dominance because he

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