Two Scavengers In A Truck Analysis

Some people will say that people live on earth to work and others will say that they work in order to live. In Ana Castillo’s poem, “Napa California” and Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poem, “Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes” these people work to live. The characters don’t have any other choice. The poets use imagery, tone, and symbols to show that the work that the characters take on in both poems is inequitable, unfulfilling, and obliterating them. To begin with, Castillo uses imagery to show that the work pickers are treated unfairly. For example, Castillo states, “We pick/ the bittersweet grapes/ at harvest/ one/ by/ one/ with leather worn hands/ as they pick at our dignity” (l. 1-9). Meaning that their work is so

24-26). She is clearly adding the voices in from the fruit pickers to get a sense of their world. The workers don’t see any happiness in their life. The audience can get a hint of that through what the workers are saying. One worker says, “Well then, what are we going to do Amrioso? Well then, keep going man, keep moving forward” (Castillo). That is deep because the audience can feel that there is nothing for the workers to expect. All they can really do is just keep going and hope for the best. Likewise, Ferlinghetti also uses tone to show the unfulfilling life of the two scavengers. For example, Ferlinghetti says, “And both scavengers gazing down/ as from a great distance/ at the cool couple/ as if they were watching some odorless TV ad/ in which everything is always possible” (l. 26-30). Tone plays a role in this stanza because the audience can feel how the two scavengers felt the same as the two beautiful people in Mercedes while they were at the stoplight. Especially, since Ferlinghetti mentioned that nothing is impossible; the audience can see how the two scavengers are connecting to the people may wishing that one day they both can be equal. Although, at that moment of time, they are only equivalent to each other because they are both stopped by a red light. That one insignificant light that can connect everyone as being equal by obeying street laws. The two scavengers can only visualize their lives being like the two people in the Mercedes. Tone plays a role in

People shouldn’t live their lives around work, but the yard workers did. Castillo writes, “While the end/ of each day only brings/ a tired night/ that waits for the sun/ and the land/ that in turn waits/ for us…” (l. 34-40). While the sun waits for the sun to rise, the land is waiting for the people to be with the earth. When people die they get buried into the ground, so thats what Castillo is referencing to when the land is waiting for the workers to come be one with the land. The way the moon waits for the sun symbolizes how the earth waits for the fruit pickers. Castillo also uses symbolism when she says, “In fields/ so vast/ that our youth seems/ to pass before us/ and we have grown/ very/ very/ old/ by dusk…” (l. 15-23). The audience can see the symbolism used in the term dusk which refers the workers being done for the day with their tasks. Because the sun is getting darker, there is no light for the workers to go on. This is when the workers are able to take a break from work taking over their life. Also the workers getting very very old connects with the word dusk. As each day ends, the workers days go by and their lives are slowly ending each day as