An Analysis Of Lucille Clifton's At Last We Killed The Roaches

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” Gautama Buddha, a figure responsible for the founding of the Buddhist culture, urges that those who experienced a fulfilling life will succeed. However, in this generation, social norms placed on citizens prevent this state of spiritual acceptance. For instance, humans have this certain mindset to crave perfection, knowledge, and power; and, as a result, these needs hinder any attempt to succeed. In other words, humans have the condition to continuously strive for success through the means of power and control. Contrarily, this excessive need to succeed, consequently, segways to conflicts; and, as a result, the solution

for success is found through the imperfect formula: failure.
As mentioned above, humans possess this obligation to succeed through means of perfection; however, people do not choose this need for perfection.

On the contrary, programmed humans desire this state since they associate success with perfection. For example, Lucille Clifton’s nostalgic poem, “At Last We Killed the Roaches,” illustrates a child's reflection on her past manipulated actions. Namely, the speaker discloses her revelation of her programmed nature. To elaborate, after exterminating roaches, the speaker points out, “...such cleanliness was grace when i was twelve” (Clifton 7-8). These lines reveal that during a naive time in her life, the speaker had murdered roaches in order to become purified and conformed to society. To reiterate, the speaker reflects on her prior beliefs and understands the wrongfulness of her programmed values. In specific, the word “cleanliness” relates to ideas such as ethnic cleansing, a practice of purifying society through eradicating unwanted races. Nurtured with these beliefs of purification, the speaker followed these ways of life at an innocent age. However, the use of past tense demonstrates the speakers’ contrast of reliance in her once instilled morals, for

she has gained a new understanding. In sum, the speaker trusted the knowledge she received rather than question the truth due to the condition humans have to prefer indisputable information over fickle emotions. Therefore, though humans are not all corrupt, in the beginning, society programs them to be narrow-minded and ignorant. And, to add, social norms decline humans the ability to fight against this program. To reiterate, the common perception of the American Dream to achieve success has, in turn, caused humans to aspire perfection. In turn, society oppresses these dissonant beliefs. To illustrate, in William Zinsser’s candid essay, “The Right To Fail,” Zinsser exemplifies the hatred for the acceptance of failure. He urges readers to fight against society's norms—the very norms which society advocates. For example, in his opening paragraph, Zinsser intimates the quandaries that students face if they deviate from the standard education system: “To hold this opinion, however, is little short of treason in America. A boy or girl who leaves college is branded a failure—and the right to fail is one of the few freedoms that this country does not grant its citizens” (p. 3). As seen in this quote, Zinsser opines that these oppressed rights pressure students to succeed. Society instills this pressure into students in attempts to achieve a perfect society. As a result, in society, perfection is impossible to achieve with the lack of education; therefore, society enforces this idea that those with more knowledge will succeed.
However, though humans strive for perfection, in reality, this utopic goal is impossible due to both knowledge and imagination.

Conformity, a crucial element in utopias, authorizes the extermination of individuality between groups, and, consequently, establishes the superior side. “He is our national idol, and everybody else is our national fink,” reveals Zinsser in a criticism of society’s impractical expectations for perfection (p. 3). This quote, accordingly, discloses that society places humans in two polarized groups: the successful and the unsuccessful. However, with factors such as knowledge and imagination, polarization increases between these two groups since those with power can beat this system. Furthermore, through the author’s cynical tone, the reader understands that social norms have, in turn, made the average, insignificant, and only the powerful, strong. As a result, this need for perfection has caused this desire for a nonexistent entity. Therefore, in spite of this need for perfection, humans will never be able to achieve this peaceful, yet equal state. Similarly, in Viktor Frankl’s psychology book Man’s Search for Meaning, the author finds flaws through the “perfect society” while he records his experience at a concentration camp during World War II. In an argument about the importance of failure, Frankl asserts that “without suffering and death human life cannot be complete” (36). Hence, in order to grow as people, humans need to fail in order to

succeed. However, society oppresses this acceptance of failure, and as a result, imperfection frightens humans. To reiterate, Frankl acknowledges that the very failures he overcame are, consequently, responsible for his success story. Therefore, failure, a crucial element in evolution, is inevitable, thereby rendering utopias impossible. As a result, humans cannot achieve success through perfection, so they, in turn, rely on conforming to society. In sum, though perfection is impossible, humans attempt to succeed through the means of conformity.
Furthermore, societies make humans incapable to choose for themselves, therefore, social norms render humans to conform. To elaborate, conformed societies, the ultimate case of manipulation, dictate the norms society privileges. As a result, these socials norms are responsible for the lack of creativity and individuality. For example, in the Chapter “The Loss of Human Values,” Frankl opines:
Under the influence of a world which no longer recognized the value of human life and human dignity, which had robbed a man of his will and made him an object to be exterminated (having planned, however, to make full use of him first—to the last ounce of his physical resources)—under this influence the personal ego finally suffered a loss of values. (21)
Since society dictates the dominating morals, humans conform to these beliefs; and, in turn, the manipulation of these indifferent people occurs. And, in the end, society renders the individuals in this uniformed group are insignificant. Therefore, in these conformed, controlled societies, like concentration camps, the individual lives of the citizens were worthless; however, this groups’ acceptance to work, is, in turn, the important factor. As a result, society manipulates this mass group of people into believing that conformity will lead to their success; while, consequently, this uniformity and acceptance will bring their downfalls. And, in the end, this manipulation is possible with the lack of imagination. For instance, in Kathleen Taylor’s informative article, “Is Imagination More Important than Knowledge? Einstein,” she explains the reliance society has on knowledge and facts, rather than creativity. To name, Taylor claims that society relies on shared knowledge “when a society feels under threat” (p. 15). This dependence on knowledge in a time of need, in turn, exemplifies the control society possesses over humans. To expand, knowledge is concrete and indisputable; consequently, there is only a finite amount of information. Therefore, in manipulated societies, this higher power control which information citizens receive. As a result, societies give their citizens selective information, therefore, these people are incapable to break from this conformity. In sum, manipulative societies choose the practices beliefs and, consequently, will render humans incapable to choose for themselves.
Since humans surrender creativity in exchange for conformity, this willingness to comply in exchange for a loss of power poses a question: Why would humans give up their own power to society? The answer is, in fact, acceptance, a byproduct of success. Programmed to want success, humans believe that achieving acceptance is the same as achieving success. To reiterate, the human need for success distracts people to believe in the enforced social norms. To illustrate, Taylor asserts that “we use [tangible proofs of success] to satisfy our needs, flaunt our wealth and status, tighten our social bonds, or distract us from realities we would rather avoid” (Taylor p. 8). This distraction from imperfections blinds society from tackling the true problem: conformity. To reiterate, these artificial displays of superiority blind humans into believing that they achieved success. However, they are under the false allusion that they had, in fact, attained success. In other words, this allusion of success leads to this false sense of accomplishment which humans crave, likewise. Therefore, this feeling of success allows society to manipulate humans. Moreover, humans are willing to believe in society’s norms in exchange for this taste of success. For example, in the opening line of the poem, the speaker declares “at last we killed the roaches” (Clifton 1). In this line, there is a sense of accomplishment shown in the words “at last,” since the speaker, programmed to desire purification, felt successful once she fulfilled society’s norms. However, the speaker’s reflection on this memory reveals that this sense of accomplishment was not of hers, rather society’s. To elaborate, the speaker, herself, doubted this need for purification once she understood the true values society had. The speaker, in the past, felt gratification from purification, however, now, she understands that this proof of success, in turn, was an illusion. Therefore, at first, the speaker sacrificed the ability to have her own beliefs to confine to society for a goal to strive for.
Ultimately, society, in turn, dictates the preferred norms that humans will follow. And, as a result, humans believe that they will achieve success through society’s plan, in spite of the absence of hatred and failure. However, under this false impression, humans are bound to fail if they attempt to avoid this process of trial and error. In the end, perfection is yet another impossible social norm that society enforces to distract humans from the actual problems they are avoiding. After all, the life of a perfectionist is always imperfect.