Blog post #4:
Ghost of a Chance
Body Paragraph
linking figurative language to the meaning of the poem:
The use of figurative language in
this poem is effective in displaying how society does not allow other to speak
out and act or think differently. This is shown in the beginning of the poem
when the narrator sees “a man / trying to think” (1-2) and all the narrator
wants to do is say, “keep off! Give him room!” (6), but one can “only watch,
terrified” (7-8). The narrator, like most of society, is trapped and isolated
from speaking out uniquely. These first few lines are then magnified by the use
of figurative language in lines 10-15:
Like
a fish
half-dead
from flopping
and
almost crawling
across
the shingle,
almost
breathing
the
raw, agonizing
air.
The analogy of the man trying to think
and the fish trapped, gasping for air, is synonymous of how our society reflects
negatively upon those who try to be different. The fish represents the
struggles of those who do not fit in with society, and this is displayed
through the simile. The syntax of the these lines make the readers speak with
short breath, feeling trapped and lonely themselves, just how the lone man
trying to think critically feels suffocated by society’s menacing grip. Only
the personification of the “triumphant sea” (18-19) reeling the fish back into
the blind ocean reveals how our society copes with these stragglers, by
silencing them and pulling them back under its tight grasp. The common man is
doomed by conformity, an agent of society’s tyrannical reign over its people.
No comments:
Post a Comment