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Irony in poetry
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The Irony in the Title Nothing's Changed In my opinion nothings changed is a tragic and revengeful poem, which reveals the veracity of the way nothing has changed even after apartheid. The poem is set in District six, Cape Town, South Africa and was written by Tatamkhulu Afrika. A man who once witnessed the solace and recreation of district six. There is an ample of irony in the title nothings changed. District six has changed physically but in no other way. For starters in stanza one the man is walking through district six which has been evicted of the ethnic cultures and instead been inhabited by whites. Through this stanza we discovered that district six is kept a shambles “into trouser cuffs, cans, trodden on.” This means that no one really cares about it anymore. Another factor mentioned are the purple weeds. The color purple is often referred to as dried blood (hence there must have been a massacre). The scattered rubbish and the purple weeds (in this case symbolizing death) are all ironic because during apartheid people were being killed/ beaten and ...
In the poem the teacher points out mistakes such as the student’s thinking, his style of writing the paper and his grammar errors. The teacher said, “there are spots/where your thinking becomes, for me, / alarmingly opaque, and you syntax/seems to jump backwards through unnecessary hoops,” (6-9). This instance shows the error the teacher found in the paper about how the student’s thinking was not straight and would jump backwards and forward throughout the poem. Another error that the teacher finds is when the teacher tells the student that he should have wrote the paper differently or said something else. The teacher said, “I’d have said it differently, / or rather, said something else” (17-18). This instance shows that the teacher is not happy about the way the student has written he paper and tells him that he should have wrote it differently. Another instance where the teacher finds mistake in the paper is when the teacher fixes the students semicolons mistake in the paper. The teacher says, “Please notice how I’ve repaired your/ use of semicolons.”(28).This instance shows that the teacher found a mistake of semicolons, which the student did not use correctly in the paper. However, even after finding all these mistakes the teacher gives A- as an overall grade to the student. This is an example of an irony that shows that the teacher not only gave negative comments to the student, but after giving negative comments
A shift in the poem begins in the last stanza of the poem. It begins in line 43 and runs all the way until the end. The tone of the poem changes and instead of the ‘great’ or ‘black’ horse graciously running through the fields we hear before, we are introduced into the ‘dead’ horse, “hooves iron-shod hurling lightning” (45). It is telling us that the horse is obviously angered now. The stanza before it described the mexicanos that just lowered their heads and did nothing about it which possibly would have been the motive for the change in the poem. Since the horse represents Mexican culture, it shows how their culture has changed and developed into something completely different. After that moment, they were forever changed and obviously Gloria thought it was for the worst.
... truly understand the hidden meanings and undertones, one must acknowledge the importance if these colors. Purple, in any shade, cannot exist without red and blue. That being said, purple plays the major role in representing the complexly joined life, death, and afterlife of Chris and Annie.
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.
The disrespect and irony can be seen when Dee changes her name from a family name to a name that an ancestor could have had while still in Africa. After her Mom finds out she has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo she confronts Miss Wangero about this blatant disrespect, “You know as well as me you were named after your aunt Dicie” (Walker 488). Dee’s name had been her Aunt’s, her Grandmother’s, and her Great Grandmother’s. Dee’s name was a family tradition that could be traced through 4 generations. Dee’s mother went on to say, “I could have carried it back beyond the Civil War through the branches” (488). Dee’s name could had been in the family since before the Civil War. Dee’s only defense for abandoning this family name was that she didn’t want to have a name that was handed down from a slave master. Dee says “ I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.”(488) It’s ironic that Dee would choose to give up the traditional family name in order to pick up a name someone could have had in Africa. It’s ironic to drop a tradition in order to revive one that may or may not have ever been observed by their family. It’s ironic because Dee lost her family’s tradition in order to save one that someone else
These final words sum up her feeling of helplessness and emptiness. Her identity is destroyed in a way due to having children. We assume change is always positive and for the greater good but Harwood’s poem challenges that embedding change is negative as the woman has gained something but lost so much in return.
This poem has earned this title not only because it is a line used within the poem, but this description of how the country Africa a.k.a motherland (which can be embodied by a black women) has suffered physical, metal, and emotional pain, and is rising above it, although not forgetting her past. This relates to a diary entry that can be written by a black women describing how she doesn’t want to forget the horrible events that has happened to her, but rather use them as strength and motivation to rise above it all. This diary entry represents a black women’s
There are numerous works of literature that recount a story- a story from which inspiration flourishes, providing a source of liberating motivation to its audience, or a story that simply aspires to touch the hearts and souls of all of those who read it. One of the most prevalent themes in historical types of these kinds of literature is racism. In America specifically, African Americans endured racism heavily, especially in the South, and did not gain equal rights until the 1960s. In her renowned book The Color Purple, Alice Walker narrates the journey of an African American woman, Celie Johnson (Harris), who experiences racism, sexism, and enduring hardships throughout the course of her life; nonetheless, through the help of friends and family, she is able to overcome her obstacles and grow into a stronger, more self-assured individual. While there are numerous themes transpiring throughout the course of the novel, the symbolism is one of the strongest prospects for instigating the plot. In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, numerous symbols influence and drive the plot of the novel.
...e. Finally at the end of the poem the historical allusion brings the poem to a complete closure, and the theme of starting fresh is put into a more specific context. The "old hates" and "old crimes" are referring to those against African-Americans in the days of slavery. the new beginning for Arkansas is the attempt to reach equality, leaving the past behind.
In the last line of the poem, the speaker uses a word of destruction -- "explode.” The choice of diction does not portray the dream in the usual sense as paradises. The speaker claims the dream that the community experiences will eventually destroy the community of Harlem. The dream only leaves a sense of bitterness and desperation just as the impression the speaker has on Harlem. The form of this destructive line also symbolizes the status of the questions that were previously stated: when Harlem cannot heal its sores and wounds, it will explode all at once through means of riots and protests. Furthermore, the usage of italics in the last line can emphasis the severity of a postponed dream, in this case of the African American community. This final line increases the intensity of the situation.
We want “poem that kill”. Here Baraka is using Synecdoche a figurative form to refer to human (black) “stinking whores” he want the reader to know that poem become a powerful and important object so he can use to teach a lesson to the enemy. Moreover, here he writes about his wish to have “poems that wrestle cops into alleys/ /and take their weapons, leaving them dead with tongues pulled out and sent to Ireland”. Author wishes they could undo the role of power so African- Americans take control over the white and black and those from the other side of the world can return to their country where they belong so we can have some kind of peace right here. If only they can reverse that power, it would be a much easier for us. In addition, it sounds like an imaginary fiction of the African-Americans uprising. Baraka says “Knockoff poems for dope selling wops or slick half white//politicians Airplane poems, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….tuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuh rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr… Setting fire and death to whities ass”. Right there the author is referring to enemy as whities that letting them know black people do care, by using weak syllable follow by a strong syllable that is the way Amiri is using an imaginary gun to kill his enemy. He is also telling the white audience, I dare you to try to comprehend it. He used the words as gun to shoot somebody or the enemy. Well words can be hurtful when you take into
In the preface to ‘the Colour Purple’ Walker identifies her religious development as the inspiration for her novel and labels religion and spirituality as the principle themes in the book. There are a number of principle characters who complete this journey however in many instances the religious element of the novel is overshadowed by other prominent themes such as personal development, female relationships and racial issues. These must be taken into consideration when assessing Walker’s success in delivering her theological message to her readers.
Change in political, social and economic development is most easily influenced by significant historical events. In The United State's history, we can find endless events that created the country and its political beliefs and moral values that its citizens practice today, but two of the most influential events regarding the country's past racial segregation and slavery involvement was the invention of the Cotton Gin and the Missouri Compromise. Both events are referred to as turning points or revolutions in political thinking, social standing, and economic stability in relation to their involvement in the increase of slavery and racial segregation.
Author brings alive plentiful of images “whatever race you be” (10), “black or white” (9), in one world all should be shared and treated equally. Other images describe the beauty and purity of the new dream world: “peace its paths adorn” (4), no more of ‘greed sapping the soul’, and the ‘loving and joyful earth’. By drawing an image the ‘sapping of soul’ and the ‘avarice blighting our day’ author elicits graphic imagery, to bring on the repulsive feelings, as those are characteristic that stain us all, “whatever race you be” (10). Toward the end of poem (line 14) the ugly images are replaced with a simile: a picture of beautiful, ever-present, unbiased joy, compared to the beauty and uniqueness of a “like a pearl” (14). A pearl is something only white, rich people may have had, definitely not the poor black folks, and so it is with the joy, which poor blacks could only dream of. In line 6 author uses the taste imagery, ascribing ‘sweetness’ to the ‘freedom’ , perhaps because everybody would know how sweets taste and make one feel, and because of racism, black people would have no experience, what freedom is like, so the “sweet” is closest that they may
The title of the story represents irony when the true essence of the title is completely different from what the reader might think it to be.