The Ways Culture and Identity are Presented in poem Search for My Tongue

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In this essay I am going to compare the poems search for my tongue and half-caste to show how they both relate to culture but are different in the ways they approach the subject. Search for my tongue is about conflict between two cultures, English- we know this because it is written in English and Indian- we know this because of the seven lines of Gujerati used which is an Indian language. It also is about how you have to learn new language when you move to a different culture, and how you almost forget your 'mother tongue' '...your mother tongue would rot, Rot and die until you had to Spit it out' Half-caste also shows conflict between cultures but, it is shown in a different way. The poem is talking directly to you as if you have just made a comment or a snide remark about the fact the poet has a mixed cultural background, and gives you a reply using examples of the different meanings the term half-caste can have. 'You mean when light an shadow Mix in de sky' However having a mixed cultural background could be an advantage because if you lived in one culture, and moved to the other you wouldn't forget parts of the other as quickly as you would then if you only had one culture because you would be used to having two in your life. This is a way in which the poems are linked in with each other because search for my tongue shows that it is easy to forget a part of your culture and half-caste tries to show that having two cultures is not a disadvantage. Another similarity between the two poems is that they are both in the first person and they both are talking to you as if you have asked them a question. In search for my tongue this is emphasized by the first word 'you', but in half-caste it is not seen until the fourth line 'Explain yuselfwha yu mean when yu say half-caste'

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