Poem Analysis: After Jumping Other People

Many things can be inherited from family, friends, and the community where one grows up. One thing we learn from our environment is behavior. In the poem “ After Jumping Some Kids and Taking Their Money, 1988,” the poet James Tyner wrote," This is what we were given, the children of the ghetto, this is what we inherited,/, as we laugh at fights, at money stolen,” . I grew up in a diverse community called " Nyame ye Odo" located in second largest city in Ghana , West Africa with a lot of children and adults from all walks of life, different religious beliefs, various cultural back grounds, educational levels, households and marriages and any other behavior one can think of. This community that I grew up in has taught me to be sympathetic, able

An example a sympathetic person is that of a young woman in my community who took upon herself to take care of younger and older folks whose parents or children are bread winners of their households had left for work when they are sick without being asked or paid. One day I asked the young lady why she went out of her way to help sick people and she said to me," We need to have sympathy for one another to make life easier for each and every one”. Another example is that my father told me to give a helping hand to somebody when the need arises, so when I am in need someone will also come to my aid. Yet another example is during my elementary school years the head teacher of my school used to tell me to see things from other people’s perspective and that would assist me to live peacefully in any community that I find myself. These sympathetic lessons that I learned from Nyame ye Odo has affected me positively by me being able to live among any group of people peacefully. I am also able to give assistance to other people without them asking for my

This community had people from different religious denomination: Christians, Jehovah Witnesses, Muslims, and Atheists. I also lived with people from various educational backgrounds: graduates from elementary schools, high schools, colleges and dropouts. People from almost all the tribal groups in my country lived in that community and also from different households and marriages like single parent, two parent’s households and polygamous marriage households. I had to adapt to many situations like how to great older folks from other tribes for me not to portray myself as rude. One example is in one tribe if I met an elderly man I had to bow on my knees to greet him, and I had to ask about everybody in their house hold including their livestock or they would think I did’t care. Another example is languages. Most of the people didn’t understand my language and I didn’t understand theirs but I managed to communicate with them pointing to things. Having experienced all these examples that I had mentioned in this paragraph has helped me to be a good spouse and mom as much as possible and also to adapt to any situation in adult