“Minority Poem,” similarly to “Bullet the Blue Sky,” also utilizes figurative language, such as symbols, in its text. The poem addresses racial discrimination through figurative language, explaining how the majority group, Caucasian Americans, discriminates against or ignores minorities in the United States. Lum symbolizes the culture of the United States as an apple pie. He begins his poem by sarcastically stating that minorities are considered Americans just as equally as Caucasian-Americans: “Why, we’re just as American as apple pie” (Lum). These lines are instantly followed by Lum’s implication that minorities are negatively viewed by Caucasian-Americans. Lum states, “That is, if you count the leftover peelings lying on the kitchen counter” …show more content…
(Lum). Lum elucidates that the minorities in America are only considered American if an outsider considers every single individual residing in the United States as an American. In these same quotes, Lum symbolizes the minorities as the leftover peelings lying on the kitchen counter. The leftover peelings are an essential part of the apple in the apple pie. Without the peelings, the interior of the apple would become spoiled, and there would be no apple pie to bake. However, apple peelings are not considered by many individuals to be an integral part in making apple pies. Likewise, minorities may be American in terms of citizenship or culture identification, but to the majority, they are viewed as not American. Lum elaborates, “Which the cook has forgotten about [the apple peels] or doesn’t know what to do with” (Lum). The cook, symbolizing Caucasian Americans, has forgotten about the apple peels and how they have played an integral part in making the apple pie. Lum uses this to symbolize how Caucasian-Americans view minorities. They do not consider them truly American, forgetting that America is a nation made of a diverse group of people. Lastly, Lum states, “[The cook] hopes that when she cleans off the chopping block, [she] will chuck them away into a garbage can she’ll take out on leaving for the night” (Lum). Through the tossing of the apple peels, Lum figuratively explains that Caucasian-Americans, the majority population in the United States, want the minorities to be deported out of the United States. Overall, the poem utilizes symbols to illustrate and address the issue of minority discrimination in the United States. “Minority Poem” directly addresses the dramatic situation existing between the minorities of the United States and the majority race, Caucasian Americans. Lum implies throughout his poem that Caucasians do not consider these minorities to be truly Americans. Lum states, “[The apple peels] which the cook has forgotten about or doesn’t know quite what to do with. Except hope that the maid, when she cleans off the chopping block, will chuck them away into a garbage can she’ll take out” (Lum). Lum implies that, similar to how the cook views the apple peelings in relation to the apple pie, Caucasians view minorities as trash that contaminating their nation. They forget that the minorities are also Americans, judging them on their skin color, or want them to be deported from the United States in order to “purify” the United States’ population of minorities. Similarly to how the cook does not realize the importance of the apple peel in making the apple pie, Caucasians do not recognize that these minorities play an essential role in creating the diverse culture that the United States is identified for. Overall, the poem sympathizes with the minorities, implying that minorities are a fundamental component of the diverse United States culture. The theme presented in “Minority Poem” is racial discrimination. The poem symbolizes how the majority group, Caucasian-Americans, discriminates against minorities. Lum utilizes an example of how the cook discriminates against the apple peels, ignorant of how important they are in the process of creating apple pies. Lum, through his figurative writing, implies that Caucasian Americans discriminate against minorities based on their skin color. Blinded by racial discrimination, they view minorities as invisible or want the minorities deported. In reality, however, these minorities are responsible for the diverse culture that composes America. The minorities, similar to an apple peel that keeps an apple from rotting, maintains the cultural identity that America is recognized for. Overall, the poem expresses how racial discrimination still exists in the United States and how it makes the majority race blind to the fact that minorities help give the United States its diverse culture identity. Lum utilizes a variety of poetic techniques, such as tone, active voice, and explosive consonants to catch the audience’s attention. Lum introduces his poem with how the minorities are as American as apple pies. However, the tone that Lum utilizes implies that he is being sarcastic about it. Furthermore, the lines directly following the first three lines clearly state that the majority of Americans view this belief as faulty. Here, Lum uses the word “apple pie” to catch the reader’s attention under the assumption that the readers like apple pie. In addition, apple pies are often considered a quintessential American food and feature in the common phrase “American as apple pie.” On another note, the word choices in his poem are in the active form. The words themselves imply assertiveness and demonstrate the fact that Caucasian-Americans really dislike minorities. Lum does not describe his sentences in the passive voice, such as “The apple pie was chucked away by the maid.” Instead, Lum uses the aggressive, active voice. For example, Lum writes in his poem, “The maid will chuck the apple pie away” (Lum). With this aggressive choice of words, Lum implies to the audience that Caucasian-Americans really do not want minorities in their country, “chucking them away.” Lastly, Lum utilizes explosive consonants, such as p and t, which are formed by completely stopping the flow of air. Lum uses the hard consonant-containing phrases such as “forgotten,” “quite,” or “chuck” to abruptly draw the reader’s attention. Utilizing explosive sentences causes the reader to make an effort to read the poem, making them less likely to be distracted. Through tone, aggressive word choice, and explosive consonants, Lum successfully captures the audience’s attention. The poetic techniques and figurative language utilized by both poems unquestionably grabbed my attention as a reader.
The instruments utilized by the songwriters in “Bullet the Blue Sky” created a chaotic vibe for me as I was reading the poem. The big intro before the first verse of U2’s song helped me feel the tension in the song before the lyrics even commenced. I noticed that “Bullet the Blue Sky” kept referring to the tune of “The Ants Go Marching In.” I thought it was an excellent fit to the lyrics of the song, the tune symbolizing the United States military marching into the country of El Salvador. In “Minority Poem,” I enjoyed how Lum integrated tone, active voice, and explosive consonants into his poem to catch the audience’s attention. The symbols he utilized in his poem, such as apple pie, caught my attention. I was impressed with how Lum was able to convey a sarcastic tone in the poem merely by using certain words. The fact that Lum writes his poem in an aggressive tone gave me a sense that he was describing the hostility in which Caucasian Americans treat minorities in the U.S. in the active form. The words themselves in “Minority Poem” imply assertiveness and demonstrate the fact that Caucasian-Americans really dislike minorities. Overall, the poetic techniques and figurative language utilized in both poems set up a tone that helped me emotionally relate with the
protagonist. Lum and Bono both utilize poetic techniques and powerful figurative expressions, such as metaphors and simile, to illustrate how the United States and/or its government negatively treat minorities and citizens of third-world nations. “Bullet the Blue Sky” employs symbols and figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, to demonstrate how the United States government utilizes deception and war to coerce other nations into adopting its political beliefs, vividly illustrating the unnecessary devastation and destruction caused by the U.S. government. It expresses the protagonist’s position, showing how the U.S. government utilizes war and deception to exert power over weaker nations and to maintain its position as a world power. “Bullet the Blue Sky” also utilizes poetic techniques to set an emotional tone that helps the audience relate to and empathize with the protagonist. “Minority Poem” utilizes symbols to address racial discrimination. The poem directly addresses the dramatic situation existing between the minorities of the United States and the majority race. The poem sympathizes with the minorities, arguing that minorities are a fundamental component of the diverse United States culture. The poem expresses how racial discrimination still exists in the United States and how it makes the majority race blind to the fact that minorities help give the United States its diverse culture identity. Through tone, aggressive word choice, and explosive consonants, Lum successfully captures the audience’s attention. Overall, “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “Minority Poem” are two poems which utilize symbols and figurative language, such as metaphors and similes, to artistically illustrate how minorities and third-world nations are treated by the United States or its government.
The world today can sometimes be a hard place to live, or at least live in comfort. Whether it be through the fault of bullies, or an even more wide spread problem such as racism, it is nearly impossible to live a day in the world today and feel like it was only full of happiness and good times. Due to this widespread problem of racism, often times we tend to see authors go with the grain and ignore it, continuously writing as if nothing bad happens in the world. Fortunately, Claudia Rankine, is not one of these authors. Rankine manages to paint a vivid picture of a life of hardships in her lyric Citizen: An American Lyric. In this lyric Claudia Rankine shows that she truly has a very interesting and not commonly used approach to some literary
“Here bullet” is a poem by Brian Turner in which the persona is struggling to coup with the situation in which he finds himself. In this poem the persona is able to establish the low point in which they have reached with lines such as “If a body is what you want, / Then here is bone and gristle and flesh.” (LL 1-2). This line establishes right from the onset of the poem that the persona is at wits in. The poem could leave a first time reader of it wondering how the persona reached this point. This point in which the persona is fantasying about death with lines like “Here is where I complete the word you bring/ Hissing through the air, here is where I moan” (LL 10-11).
In the book, Half The Sky, author’s Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn bring to light the oppression of women in the developing world. Anecdotal stories, filled with sadness, anger and hope, collected after years of reporting, depict just a few examples of this global struggle for women. At the end of their book organizations are listed, in alphabetical order, in hopes of creating a starting point for people to further support women in developing countries. With so many organization doing great work to empower women it becomes difficult to decide where money should be distributed. As a grant manager it is important to take a closer look at each of the organizations and their work to better assess where the money should go. However, the
Song lyrics have set off a great generation of our leisure time than reading poetic devices, therefore song lyrics are better than poetic devices. Song lyrics have dropped numerous lines that attach to us now a days and make us listen to the line over and over unlike poetic devices. Song Lyrics have so much meaning by word choice and by relations.”Mr. Rager” by Kid Cudi, is about people fed up with society and plan on taking a journey. “Dreams” by Edgar Allen Poe, is about a man who dreams of a greater life. Mr. Rager, the song by Scott Cudi, has a better meaning than Dreaming, the poem by Edgar Allen Poe, by personification, allusion, and symbolism.
Sociologists often employ intersectionality theory to describe and explain facets of human interactions. This particular methodology operates on the notion that sociologically defining characteristics, such as that of race, gender, and class, are not independent of one another but function simultaneously to determine our individual social experiences. This is evident in poetry as well. The combination of one poet’s work that expresses issues on class with another poet’s work that voices issues on race, and so forth, can be analyzed through a literary lens, and collectively embody the sociological intersectionality theory.
In “Citizens: An American Lyric” by Claudia Rankine the audience is placed in a world where racism strongly affects the daily American cultural and social life. In this world we are put as the eyewitnesses and victims, the bystanders and the participants of racial encounters that happen in our daily lives and in the media, yet we have managed to ignore them for the mere fact that we are accustomed to them. Some of these encounters may be accidental slips, things that we didn’t intend to say and that we didn’t mean yet they’ve managed to make it to the surface. On the other hand we have the encounters that are intentionally offensive, things said that are
...r wealth. As the poem progresses, Baca’s writing tone is switched to anger. The angry tone expresses the writer’s feelings towards racial discrimination and both immigrants and those living in poverty. The reader is able to easily identify the tone of the poem because it is shaped by the use of powerful imagery, significant symbolism, and insensitive diction.
Have you ever wondered how your ethnicity can impact the way you interact with people? What about the conversation you might have with people? Do you have a voice in our society that allows you to speak for yourself or a group of people? In the poem “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question” by Diane Burns, the author focused on showing the importance poetic devices have through allusions, repetition, and imagery. Through poetic devices, author of “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question” shows how stereotypes from societies and her ethnicity affects her life. Diane Burns uses three poetic devices to communicate her tone throughout the poem.
The poem also focuses on what life was like in the sixties. It tells of black freedom marches in the South how they effected one family. It told of how our peace officers reacted to marches with clubs, hoses, guns, and jail. They were fierce and wild and a black child would be no match for them. The mother refused to let her child march in the wild streets of Birmingham and sent her to the safest place that no harm would become of her daughter.
In the line “I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen” (Hughes 2-3) is denial of a particular person due to the pigmentation of their skin. The African American race had to suffer and be treated differently because of one small detail that was out of their control. Many individuals struggled with how they were treated during this time and others let such treatment make them stronger. As seen in the following lines “Nobody’ll dare say to me, “Eat in the kitchen, then.” Hughes illustrates that the narrator is in touch with being the same as everyone else. These lines show that he knows what he deserves and he will stand up for himself. Guilt of being a certain race is not hanging over the narrator’s head unlike many others who feel defeated. This poem stands for those who see themselves equally with the ones that look down upon them. “I, too, am America” is a testament of faith in his countrymen and women to recognize and appreciate the contribution of African-American citizens.” (Lewis) shows that America should be proud of the strong ethnic mix. Hughes possessed optimism for all human beings and took a lot of pride in showing that through his
...ites a short 33-line poem that simply shows the barriers between races in the time period when racism was still openly practiced through segregation and discrimination. The poem captures the African American tenant’s frustrations towards the landlord as well as the racism shown by the landlord. The poem is a great illustration of the time period, and it shows how relevant discrimination was in everyday life in the nineteen-forties. It is important for the author to use the selected literary devices to help better illustrate his point. Each literary device in the poem helps exemplify the author’s intent: to increase awareness of the racism in the society in the time period.
The poem America by Claude McKay is on its surface a poem combining what America should be and what this country stands for, with what it actually is, and the attitude it projects amongst the people. Mckay uses the form of poetry to express how he, as a Jamaican immigrant, feels about America. He characterizes the bittersweet relationship between striving for the American dream, and being denied that dream due to racism. While the America we are meant to see is a beautiful land of opportunity, McKay see’s as an ugly, flawed, system that crushes the hopes and dreams of the African-American people.
Pushing tears from her eyes, a frantic mother scrambles through what remains of her beloved church. But she does not locate her choir singer. Only a little white shoe and a glove to match. In his poem “Ballad of Birmingham,” David Randall uses descriptive imagery, dialogue, irony, and a tonal shift to give the poem emotion and draw the reader’s attention towards the dramatic situation.
When discussing the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, due to the strength of their relationship, one must look at Blues and Jazz. Many viewed this genre as a voice for the black communities and as “the New Negro poets expressed a deep pride in being Black” (Smith, 1983, p. 37) it is easy to see how this influenced their poetry. The main theme of Blues were the troubles of life and finding an escape, and this underlying dissatisfaction was incorporated into poetry as a response to many of the injustices present. For example, a clear example of this is Langston Hughes’ Homesick Blues which uses many of the key techniques from Blues songs, such as short lines to create urgency. The poem discusses the effect of prejudices and injustices on the black communities, especially when it comes to finding a home and an identity. There is a subtle, irregular rhyme scheme from words such as “sun… done” (Ramazani, 1994, pp. 152-3) which strengthens the influence. The dull, full rhymes create a sense of dissatisfaction and boredom, as if the speaker has given up on life. Hughes similarly uses many colloquialism and phonetics, which were common in Blues songs, such as “De Railroad Bridge/ a sad song in de air” (Ramazani, 1994, pp. 152-3), which furthers racial pride and identity, present in Blues and Harlem Renaissance poetry. However, perhaps the strongest example of how the Blues genre infl...
...ine contains a repeated phrase that develops the theme of the poem. The poems structure is relatable to music, The poem’s sense of musicality is also evident in its title. The ‘blues’ is a musical style that is today considered to be a sub-genre of jazz. Blues is generally calm, quiet and depressing, this can relate very well with the content of the poem. Blues originated from slavery. this is similar to the jewish people in concentration camps.