Different

The poem ‘Wanda Why Aren’t You Dead’ by Wanda Coleman is aggressive and addresses different societies by insulting ‘wanda’. Reading this poem for the first time, there were some silent giggles and comments made in the class room because of the almost childish tone of the speaker, but reflecting back on our thoughts concerning this poem, I realized that it is almost a call for help from someone that is in desperation. Through the use of diction, speaker/audience and structure, the poem conveys this image of someone that is desperate.

The speaker and the audience are the most important part of the story told because they’re one and the same. Wanda is speaking to this side of herself, hating this part of her that destroys her from the inside out. Certain sentences like ‘wanda what is it like to be black’ seem to be a memory that the speaker has; something that she has been asked before. Whenever these sentences come up which sound like they’re spoken by another person, it sounds like this person is someone that the speaker cares about deeply enough to allow them to hurt her. Only someone close to her could make her that vulnerable to these hurtful words. At other times in the poem, especially when the sentence ‘wanda why are you so angry’ comes up, the speaker is asking herself the question because she despises this part to her personality. She blames her problems on her anger by continuously coming back to this idea of questioning as to why she has anger issues.  The last sentence ‘why ain’t you dead’ is the moment where the speaker gives up on the self-doubt and gives up on herself at the same time.

The diction reveals the different words wanda is associated with. She is accused of being poor, being fat, being angry, having big feet, being black, being crazy and too serious. These images are created through the use of condescending comments the speaker makes, such as ‘you’re joking. Girl, you crazy’ and ‘wanda. That’s a whore’s name’. The constant repetition of the name ‘wanda’ shows that all these words are in the speaker’s mind, like a voice in her head reminding her of all the bad aspects of her life.

The structure points out certain aspects of the poem that define the meaning of it. First of all there is almost no punctuation present, which hint to the fact that the poem could be characterized as a stream of thoughts. There is no capitalization of the name ‘wanda’ and even after a full-stop, no words are capitalized which outlines the meaningless aspect to everything she writes and thinks. Finally there are some words such as ‘what makes you so angry’ that emphasize on the importance of the question. One word ‘ALWAYS’ is completely capitalized which immediately stands out because nothing else is and it portrays the desperation of the speaker.

This poem is a classical situation of low self-esteem and personal struggle. 

Animal

Part 1

If this were my poetry exam, I would…

1)      Read the poem with attention and care, look out for details and potential metaphors

Diction:

2)      Underline all descriptions

a.       Color descriptions (blue mountain, white snow, white body, brown hair)

b.      Quantities/sizes (single clear flat nuthatch, little hemlock, five lakes, biggest little lake, half in shade)

c.       Time descriptions (up through time, after all day)

d.      Other adjectives (slender needle-sprays, ragged rocky skyline, clear flat nuthatch, naked bug)

3)      Underline the verbs in a different color than the descriptions

a.       Call, Scrambling, dives

                                                              i.      Note that there are almost NO VERBS in this poem!!

4)      Identify all the nouns

a.       Mountain, snow gleam, pine bulk, needle-sprays, hemlock, shade, skyline, nuthatch, treetrunks, time, lakes basin, lake, peaks, bug, body, hair, water

b.      I’ll ask myself the question: Do I see any connections? A reoccurring theme? All the nouns have something to do with nature and I see the image of trees in the mountains, a calm atmosphere, birds and insects flying through the air, as well as a large sparkling lake.

5)      Look out for alliterations

a.       Hemlock half, ragged rocky, through time, little lake, after all, treetrunks

       Structure

6)      How many stanzas are there? 2

7)      What is the difference between the two stanzas? The first one is more descriptive than the second one, which is more active.

a.       Interpretation:  Two different animals seem to be portrayed, showing the difference between them. The first stanza reminds me of a bird that is hiding in the trees, looking out for the dangers of the mountains.

All The Right Moves

Threatening dark shadows

Glistening through the trees

Searching for the unknown

Stopping and listening

Waiting for the unknown

Plotting a net of action

Defensively lurking

To catch the unknown

Beating and screaming

To kill the unknown.

Belly Dancer

The poem The Harlem Dancer by Clause McKay is written in Shakespearian style. Through diction, tone and the speaker, the true message of the poem is conveyed.

The diction portrays the speaker’s feelings towards the woman described.  The positive adjectives the speaker uses to describe the prostitute in question make her look graceful and almost pure, even though that defeats the connotation of the word ‘prostitute’. He describes her body as perfect, her dancing as graceful and calm, as well as proud.  The word ‘half-clothed’ gives the prostitute some kind of dignity, by avoiding saying that she doesn’t wear any clothes.

The tone shows the speaker’s jealousy and need to possess the prostitute. The first line if the poem ‘applauding youths laughed with young prostitutes’ has a condescending tone to it. The speaker mocks the fact that young people are fooling around. He also despises the ‘bold-eyed boys’ that devoured her with their ‘eager’ passionate gaze. The tone to his words is jealous and it seems as though the speaker has some connection to this belly dancer.

The speaker plays an important role in this poem because he brings so many attitudes to it. The speaker in this case is an observer of the situation who has a positive attitude and who enjoys the presence of the prostitute. He seems to disregard the others that look at her and he wants her for himself. The last sentence of the poem ‘But, looking at her falsely-smiling face I knew her self was not in that strange place’ shows that the writer sees something more in the woman than just a prostitute.

The dancer and the speaker have a connection that is hinted at through the diction and tone of the poem. The speaker reveals a lot about the situation with a concluding statement that brings a different view to the poem, almost like a melancholic touch. 

Through the trees

« Words have users, but as well, users have words. »

The article Expressive Language (1963) by Amiri Baraka, addresses the importance of speech in society and culture. While I found that some aspects the author talked about were confusing and weirdly worded, it all became clear when talking about others. It is fascinating how one and the same word or sentence can mean something completely different to two people belonging to different social classes. It never occurred to me that the differences in language could be so different when being the same. The article got me thinking that we often don’t have the slightest understanding of the simplest elements of our lives, such as speech which is taught to (hopefully) everyone of us at a young age as a process of fundamental education. Language can be misleading in any case because the speaker can mean something completely else from what the hearer understands, which is how misunderstandings are created. Amiri Baraka mentioned one example that convinced me of his argument, saying how the phrase ‘God don’t never change’ can have opposed meanings when spoken by a rich man or a poor man. The rich man would be saying that God shouldn’t change because he’s got all the money he needs and is economically secured. A poor man would rather be making a general statement about life, such as: ‘Life is as it is’. Who would have thought of that? It baffles me how people, such as me, neglect all the fascinations and complexities that life as a whole entails. Another point that Amiri Baraka addressed were the slaves. Baraka writes that slavery would have been difficult if the foreign people spoke their language, which seems to make sense, even though the skin color was probably the most important factor that made the white people believe that they were superior. 

I understand that in order to get a better understanding of life, one needs to question the simplest things that surround us, such as speech, language and culture, but what If this uncovered knowledge and insecurity clouds our view on life? Sometimes it’s easier to look away when we know that doing the opposite and digging deep would just confuse us, which is why I didn’t enjoy reading Amiri Barak’s article Expressive Language. 

Third Blog Portfolio !!!

Coverage

1.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/whats-my-name.html

2.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/just-give-me-some-candy-before-i-go.html

3.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/these-words-are-my-own.html

4.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/one-and-same.html

5.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/bubbly.html

6.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/02/same-mistake.html

7.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/02/cold-shoulder.html

8.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/02/name-of-game.html

9.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-for-kill.html

Depth

1.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/bubbly.html

Bubbly – This is my first experience on bubbl.us, where I go into depth by exploring different sources of knowledge. I included different beliefs and related my information to other knowledge of mine.

2.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/just-give-me-some-candy-before-i-go.html

Just give me some candy – This blog entry goes into depth by relating to other books. It’s about the article ‘The Hunger Artist’ and represents the development of my stream of thoughts. The book ‘Perfume’  by Patrick Süsskind related well to some aspects of this article.

Interaction

1.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-for-kill.html

In for the kill – I discussed Asim’s ideas.

Discussion

1.      http://akashenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/pastiche.html#comments

I commented on Akash’s blog to help  him develop his pastiche, and I engaged a conversation.

Xenoblogging

1.      http://akashenglish.blogspot.com/2011/02/world-lit-paper-structure.html#comments

I commented on Akash’s blog to help  him develop his ideas and plans for the writing of his very important essay.

Wildcard

1.      http://jorina-hlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/03/oh-babe-babe-its-wild-world.html

In this blog entry I addressed the problems of perception and our senses.

[Oh babe babe , it's a ] Wild World

Taking TOK as an IB class this year, I’ve learned a lot about perception and to what extent we trust our senses to define our truth. Without our senses, we wouldn’t be who we are. Some people believe that we are the sum of our thoughts, or as Aristotle said the sum of our actions. If one believes this to be true, then without thinking or acting, we would not exist. When I think of existence, I think of living actively. This is a little problematic when it comes to a paralyzed person who has been in a coma for three years. Would I say that this person doesn’t exist? No, that would be rude. Then what exactly is existence? Sometimes when I had a bad day, I ask myself why I exist, what my purpose is in life. Talking to friends and class mates, we compared ourselves to ants, and this got me thinking. We might not be all so different from ants. We like to believe that we are individuals and that we all have our own purpose and our own life. (Existentialist belief: We choose our own destiny). If you think about it, we’re all the same. We’re all going to die one day, whether we brought terror to the world (take Hitler for example) or whether we went to church every day to collect money for the poor. And then we die, and it was all for nothing. Now, one could argue that there are no ‘good’ and ‘bad’ ants, therefore we couldn’t possibly be compared them. That someone must have forgotten that one little ant will end up stabbing the queen of the ant folk to death, to then suck out her smell to finally take over the rule and become queen. It only takes one exception to change everything. Our brains judge our world, and what we see and believe, is what millions of neurons interpreted. In Biology I learned that our bodies only react to certain stimuli of the environment, due to the decision-making of the brain. If the brain were to respond to all stimuli received, we’d all look like we just fled out of a zoo. But even in very familiar situations, the brain judges. The best example of brain judgment that spontaneously comes to my mind is the Nackar cube. I never thought about the significance of these two cubes that I saw, one after another, even though the cube clearly wasn’t moving by an inch. It is unbelievable that one wouldn’t question his trust in vision, after seeing two different cubes in the exact same spot. We trust our senses more than anything, and so we often ignore facts that could ruin this trust. But of course, if we didn’t trust our senses, we wouldn’t exist.