Injustice is defined as the unjust/unfair action or treatment of others. Many issues can lead to injustice. In the poem, "The Colonel,” the beginning of a civil war is bringing about the dangers and realities of unfair qualities in the El Salvadoran government and economy. The poem shows the reality and turmoil families in El Salvador are going through and how Americans are unaware of it all. The author writes using the colonel of the family to show how people in that country are essentially becoming paranoid and falling apart because of the injustice being shown. In the poem, “The Colonel” by Carolyn Forché, the colonel seems composed and dominant; however, in reality, his life is crumbling around him because of the stress and injustice the war is imparting. …show more content…
In the beginning, the author describes how the wife waits on her guests, the daughter pampers herself, and the son is out somewhere. They seem similar to a stereotypical American family; however, when the author turns to the man of the house, she specifically states there was a “pistol on the cushion beside him" (1155). Most normal fathers/husbands do not have a gun simply lying beside them unless there is something to be afraid of. For further protection, there are “broken bottles embedded in in the walls around the house,” (1155). Those shards enable families in El Salvador to stay safe from robbers, murderers, and others who are trying to hurt them. With civil war coming, that fact causes more fear and stress to the already tense situation. The colonel is compelled to lose his temper at the end because of an influence that is pushing him to be on the edge. With war knocking on their door, the father breaks and uses drastic options to show the author how their lives truly
Justice is among the most significant moral and political concepts. The word originates from the Latin jus, meaning “right or law”. All throughout history, injustice has been an issue each individual has experienced during his or her daily life. Even today we are still experiencing riots and protests from African-Americans in order to attain justice. In Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith, readers see an example of injustice through the Rodney King case and the shooting of Latasha Harlins. Rodney-King and Latasha Harlins experienced racial injustice, which can be described as the denial of rights based on an individual’s race or racial background. Both two victims were mistreated for the color of their skin and were stripped
Currently in the United States, many of us are afraid of the future. There have been many recent events that have stirred up fear in this country, especially tensions regarding human rights. In Carolyn Forché’s “The Colonel,” the speaker tells us her story of when she had to deal with the mistreatment of others. The speaker is telling us her story of meeting the colonel to show us the horrible things that have happened in the fight for justice and to encourage us to speak up. She tells us this story because she does not want others to end up the way that the ears did. The speaker wants us to stay strong and fight for justice when we begin to live in a state of constant fear.
This is the poem that Jim Northrup wrote about war. I am going to Explicate the poem and
In the brief introduction of the story, Wolff mentions, “Helping out with the dishes was a way of showing how considerate he was,” (1356) which shows the initial nature of the couple’s relationship—caring. The caring nature of the couple’s relationship is show again when the wife cuts her hand and the husband, “ran upstairs to the bathroom and rummaged in the medicine chest” (1357). These two instances provide the reader with the notion that the couple, especially the husband in this instance, cares for one other deeply. Though this statement seems to be true, the domestic details serve an alternative purpose as well—symbols. When the conversation begins to become more heated, Wolff demonstrates how, “she was piling dishes on the drainboard at a terrific rate, just wiping them with a cloth” (1356). Wolff’s attention to this detail shows how the frustration of the wife is building up and ultimately leads to her stabbing her finger. The water of the sink, “flat and gray” (1357) symbolizes the essence of their conversation—gloomy and going nowhere. Towards the end of the story, the husband cleans the house as it was when they first moved in which symbolizes how their relationship is reverting back to the beginning when they were
Poetry Analysis Essay The purpose of visual imagery in poetry is to help get the poet’s message across in a language that is strong, vivid and very visual. Visual imagery evokes the emotions of the reader by appealing to their senses and through this helps enhance the mood of the poem. The mood implied in “Daddy”, by Sylvia Plath, is that of aggressive, anger, irritable from one that has a childlike devotion to one of severing due to abandonment. In “The Colonel”, by Carolyn Forche, is one of controlled terror, intimidation, torture, and literal dismemberment. In “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, by Randall Jarrell, the story sets the mood of melancholy at the hands of the state.
The Colonel by Carolyn Forché is about her experience when she goes to El Salvador and meets this honored officer. She was let into his house where she experienced something she will never forget, an experience that she put into a beautiful words to make readers feel what she felt that day. Thats what Carolyn does; she takes her experiences in her life and puts them into words, words that help her readers feel the way she felt, and help’s them see what she saw.
Carolyn Forche’s “The Colonel” discusses the lack of value towards human life by totalitarian government and the United States’ stake in investigating these powers and challenging them. The speaker in this poem recounts his experience meeting the colonel to show the audience both the amount of presence of the United States in this foreign setting and the Colonel’s lack of regard toward human rights. Figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, and symbols, as well as the speaker’s first-person point of view descriptions reveal her experiences in El Salvador with a cruel military government. These elements in Forche’s poem successfully convey themes of oppression and cruelty, as well as heavy
This darkly satiric poem is about cultural imperialism. Dawe uses an extended metaphor: the mother is America and the child represents a younger, developing nation, which is slowly being imbued with American value systems. The figure of a mother becomes synonymous with the United States. Even this most basic of human relationships has been perverted by the consumer culture. The poem begins with the seemingly positive statement of fact 'She loves him ...’. The punctuation however creates a feeling of unease, that all is not as it seems, that there is a subtext that qualifies this apparently natural emotional attachment. From the outset it is established that the child has no real choice, that he must accept the 'beneficence of that motherhood', that the nature of relationships will always be one where the more powerful figure exerts control over the less developed, weaker being. The verb 'beamed' suggests powerful sunlight, the emotional power of the dominant person: the mother. The stanza concludes with a rhetorical question, as if undeniably the child must accept the mother's gift of love. Dawe then moves on to examine the nature of that form of maternal love. The second stanza deals with the way that the mother comforts the child, 'Shoosh ... shoosh ... whenever a vague passing spasm of loss troubles him'. The alliterative description of her 'fat friendly features' suggests comfort and warmth. In this world pain is repressed, real emotion pacified, in order to maintain the illusion that the world is perfect. One must not question the wisdom of the omnipotent mother figure. The phrase 'She loves him...' is repeated. This action of loving is seen as protecting, insulating the child. In much the same way our consumer cultur...
People in the top 10% of the world are completely oblivious to what the rest of the world experiences. In countries like America, people take their possessions for granted and only observe what the rest of the world experiences through art such as poems. A poem entitled "The Colonel" may seem to be about another sadistic tyrant, but, instead, acknowledges the contradictions between normal, mundane aspects of upper class life and the harsh reality of what the rest of the world experiences. Forche's poem starts out with a simple statement: "What you heard is true. "
For my recitation I chose the poem, “Monstrance Man," by Ricardo Pau-Llosa. I selected this poem from the Poetry Out Loud archive because I liked the way it was structured and written. As I first skimmed the poem my understanding of it was shallow, but as I began to practice it I gained a deeper knowledge of its story and meaning. I realized the depth of the protagonist and how greatly I empathized with him. Specifically, I learned the definition of the term “Monstrance” and that
‘The Falling Soldier’ is one of many poems by Duffy which deals with the subject of human mortality. Duffy expresses what could have been over a harsh reality; this is characteristic of her as also seen in ‘Last Post’ and ‘Passing Bells’ which both seem to be largely influenced by poet peer Wilfred Owen’s personal experiences of war. In the ‘The Falling Soldier’ Duffy paradoxically captures the essence of Robert Capa’s famous photograph of a man falling after being shot during the Spanish Civil War (1936). She employs the form of an impersonal narrative voice, using second person to question the possibilities, to explore the tragic and cyclical nature of war. The futile reality of war contrasts to her central theme in ‘The Bees’ anthology of bees symbolising the grace left in humanity.
Sylvia Plath’s jarring poem ‘Daddy’, is not only the exploration of her bitter and tumultuous relationship with her father, husband and perhaps the male species in general but is also a strong expression of resentment against the oppression of women by men and the violence and tyranny men can and have been held accountable for. Within the piece, the speaker creates a figurative image of her father by using metaphors to describe her relationship with him: “Not God but a Swastika” , he is a “… brute” , even likening him to leader of the Nazi Party; Adolf Hitler: “A man in black with a Meinkampf look .” Overall, the text is a telling recount of her hatred towards her father and her husband of “Seven years” and the tolling affect it has had on
“Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man....To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent: that nothing can be unjust. The notion of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have...
In a state of martial law one individual does not have much to say. This statement holds true in the novel, No One Writes to the Colonel, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The author discusses the political climate of one man, the Colonel, who after fighting to create the government in power is being controlled by the bureaucracy. A corrupt government can ruin a man, sap his will, and drive him mindless with hunger; although times are hard the Colonel keeps his dignity and pride.
Poetry expresses a state of mind, point of view, or draws a picture for the audience. Poetry describes situations, a person, a place or a thing. Poetry can interpret, create emotion, have hidden, indifferent, or symbolic meanings. A rhythmic pattern is typical in poetry. Poetry is part of literature and a form of language across cultures. Poetry can be dark and mysterious, or evoke wonderment and love. It can also explain the author’s frustration of a circumstance which cannot be changed, as the Sherman Alexis poem, “On an Amtrak from Boston to New York”. Sherman Alexie, a Native American activist and author, exemplifies his poem as his point of view. The speaker’s state of mind depicts resentment, prejudice and muted aggressiveness.