The Irony of the Title of Tatamkhulu Afrika's Poem Nothing's Changed
In this coursework, I am going to write about the irony of the title of Tatamkhulu Afrika's poem Nothing's Changed. I am going to achieve this by going through the poem and picking out important points, like how his familiarity of the place hasn't changed etc, and explain these points and relate them to being ironic to the title.
We assume that the poet has been away from this place for a long time at the beginning of the poem. The poet then informs us that the place was District Six. Even though no board said it was District Six, he recognizes the place. This could be because District Six was like a part oh him. Therefore we can
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From these two lines we can see that the poet is trying to express something.
"No sign says it is
but we know where we belong"
These two lines are actually referring to the whites only inn. The poet is trying to say that even though no sign says it's a whites only inn, but the blacks know they are not permitted. It's the internal feeling in them, which differentiates them. So maybe the place has changed physically, signs may be been taken out, but the blacks and their position of worth in the society has not changed as yet.
In the next stanza, the poet is trying to look inside the cuisine.
"I press my nose to the clear panes" ====================================
This line has two meanings to it. Not only does this show a childlike act and the reminiscence of his youth, but is also shows that he is an outsider. This is ironic as the whites are the actual outsiders and so like before, things still remain the same. The whites still live a better lifestyle, still taking over their land, their comfort and all their financial stability.
In the next stanza, we see a complete contrast to the previous
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So basically, nothing much has changed for the blacks.
In the last and final stanza there is a change in tone from the poet. The tone of the poem so far has been depressing, nostalgic and angry. But now there is a sense of destruction.
The poet begins the stanza with:
"I back from the glass,
boy again"
This shows him backing from reality to how he was before during the Apartheid era. He was an outsider then and still remains as one.
The poet has a desire for weapons, like during Apartheid. He wants to destroy the reign of whites over the blacks so the desire for weapons and hatred towards the whites still do exist in blacks.
He wants to cause pain to the whites as to reflect to what they have caused for the blacks.
The poem then ends with: "Nothing's Changed". This shows us the poet's conclusion. Even though the place has changed physically, apartheid is over, signs are taken out, people are free to go wherever they wish to- there is still segregation, discrimination, hatred and envy between whites and blacks.
In conclusion, his familiarity with the place, segregation between whites and blacks, meanness and envy of a child, desire for
With an evident attempt at objectivity, the syntax of Passage 1 relies almost entirely on sentences of medium length, uses a few long sentences for balance, and concludes with a strong telegraphic sentence. The varying sentence length helps keep the readers engaged, while also ensuring that the writing remains succinct and informative. Like the varying sentence length, the sentence structures vary as complex sentences are offset by a few scattered simple sentences. The complex sentences provide the necessary description, and the simple sentences keep the writing easy to follow. Conversely, Passage 2 contains mostly long, flowing sentences, broken up by a single eight word sentence in the middle. This short sentence, juxtaposed against the length of the preceding and following sentences, provides a needed break in the text, but also bridges the ideas of the two sentences it falls between. The author employs the long sentences to develop his ideas and descriptions to the fullest extent, filling the sentences with literary elements and images. Coupled...
Smith-Shomade, B. E. (2008). Surviving In Living Color with Some White Chicks Whiteness in the Wayans’ (black) minds. In D. Bernardi (Ed.), The Persistence of Whiteness (pp. 344-359). New York, NY: Routledge.
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"The White Man's Brden." International Academy: Login to the Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
In the first two lines we are given the stage in which the dead man’s story is to be told.
out. This contrast is a start for what is continued at the end of the
The second passage, lines 106-114, is further evidence of intertextuality which, like the first section, appears as an ov...
The poem is not said to of been set in a particular place but I
people want to continue to read the poem a few more times. His was of