Comparison of Unrelated Incidents and Half-Caste

Comparison of Unrelated Incidents and Half-Caste

The poems 'Unrelated Incidents' and 'Half-Caste' are both explicit

pieces of cultural identity and how these people are looked upon by

society.

In Unrelated Incidentsthe poet draws attention to the way in which

television newsreaders normally speak and how the way that we speak

affects people's attitudes towards us. In Half-Caste the poet also

uses dialect to mock people that use the term 'half-caste'.

The theme in Unrelated Incidents is of the correct way of speaking,

and an acceptable way of speaking without being judged. The theme is

also suggesting whether it is justified to look down on people who do

not speak in Standard English. The theme in Half-Caste is similar. It

is of whether being of mixed parentage can make so-called 'half-caste'

people feel that they have to make excuses for themselves.

In Unrelated Incidents, the speaker appears to be a BBC announcer who

presents the news in Glaswegian rather than in 'accent less' Standard

English. The poem seems to very personal because the poet, Tom Leonard

is actually Glaswegian himself so it may be almost auto biographical.

We can tell the poem is in a conversational tone because the words

'talk' and 'said' emulate this idea.

The tone is almost bitter in its anger, because Tom Leonard is angry.

This is because the announcer not only despises the non Standard

English speakers' ability to express the truth, he doesn't even want

to give them the opportunity to say anything.

Half-Cast is also in the first-person and in a conversational tone. We

can tell it is in the first-person because he uses the words 'I'm

Half-Caste' on line three. The poet is supposed to be talking to the

announcer or prejudice people.

The first three lines of the poem, written in Standard English, seem

to belong to one speaker. This is because the way it is written makes

it seem as if the second part is by a second speaker. In the rest of

the poem, the spelling has been adapted to give the impression of a