Poetry from other cultures Essay

Task: John Agard ‘in ‘Half Caste’ and Moniza Alvi in ‘Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan’ both deal with the issues of being born of mixed marriages. ‘Half Caste’ and ‘Half English’. Write about the different ways in which the past explore what this means to them. John Agard and Moniza Alvi have two different attitudes in there poetry about there mixed racial backgrounds. John Agard uses a very proud attitude as on the hand Moniza Alvi is very unsure about her personal identity. It is not just there attitude towards there mixed background but there style of there written poetry is also different. Through examining the text and reading the poem it is clear that they are two different people with very different approaches to life. There writing techniques are different as John Agard uses his own rules when he writes, as Moniza Alvi sticks to the correct English grammar and spelling. John Agard’s poem is very different to Moniza Alvi’s poem, they talk about the same issues concerning race, but they have do not have the same views on there own race. John Agard is very proud of his mixed racial origin, and in the poem says that it is not clever and makes a mockery of people who discriminate him, he is proud to be who he is. He uses a very powerful name for his poem ‘Half caste’ half caste is an offensive term, which John Agard uses a lot in his poem this makes it very powerful by using this word it suggests purity and inferior, Agard attacks this idea of beig ure blood . In ‘half caste’ John Agard also repeats the term â€Å"explain yuself† this repeat of this word is very effective and strengthens the argument. John Agard starts with a loud apologetic start, â€Å"Excuse me†. By this apologetic start it has strong meaning, he is saying what people expect of him because he is ‘half caste, people expect him to apologise for being who he is. He says also ‘standing on one leg I’m half caste’ which says that as he is of mixed origin he is not right; he is only half a real person, when that is not true. The strong start gets you into the swing of the poem and you know how strong it is going to be. Being racist towards him, for being ‘half caste’, stupid as if you look at every thing in the world, everything is nearly ‘half caste’, â€Å"yu mean Tchaikovsky sit down at dah piano an mix a black key wid a white is a half caste symphony† by using examples of famous people who are one of the best in the world but then because it is halfe caste it is not good and it is in inferior and should Tchaikovsky be seen as bad because he mixed a white key with a black key. It also uses the example â€Å"Yu mean when light an shadow mix in de sky is a half caste weather/ well in dat case England weather nearly always half caste†. These examples are trying to prove that if you are prejudice against John for being half caste it is stupid because nearly everything is ‘half caste’. It also shows how proud John Agard is of his mixed racial background and how he would stand up for his race. Throughout the poem â€Å"Explain yuself† is repeated this repetitiveness is very effective in getting the audience interested and it is also very original. The ending of the poem is a lot more serious it stops the humour to get the message across. It talks about ‘purity’ and how someone is only half a person because they are half caste, Agard attacks this idea of purity. John Agard use comic use of absurd analogies such as ‘half caste weather/half, ‘de other half of me story’. These Examples that he uses it is challenging for himself provocative responding to annoyance, he proves that he is as good or better then Tchaikovsky or Picasso. John Agard uses lower case letters to show common humanity, he also uses his own spelling and punctuation this show he is very proud of him self. John Agard is very proud of whom he is and makes a direct mockery of people who say that he is not ‘pure’ so he is not as good as other people. John Agard attacks there theory and he also ‘hits home’ an important message. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE John Agard: Half-Caste section.