John Agard’s, ‘Checking out Me History’ is an intricately written poem pointing out on the observation of the English Curriculum as biased to only white people. In the poem, Agard notes that all the English literature, is written by white people for white people. He reveals that the Curriculum intentionally leaves out, distorts and hides important information about black women and men who similarly deserve to be recognized (Seeto 2009). His analysis portrays the fact that controlling what people learn about their past, controls their thoughts, self- identity, and the present (Seeto 2008).
There are wide varieties of literary styles used including repetitions, which highlight on the control of the white people over history. Agard uses non-standard English to show his own background and culture, which he feels, should be acknowledged in the English Curriculum. The constant use of childish rhyme postulates his feelings and thoughts about the past, a writing style he pairs with myths and characters from nursery rhymes for more emphasis. There is a noted lack of punctuation use indicating a deliberate rejection of punctuation rules, which symbolically represents his rejection of the white history too. At the end of the poem, after a careful comparison of both the black and white history, he is able to hit on the meaning of the title. After a close examination, he realises that there are other significant figures like Nanny de Maroon, Toussaint L’Ouverture and Mary Seacole who help him identify with his own origins and culture.
‘Checking out Me History’ is cleverly and ingeniously constructed to reclaim the identity of the black people. Through the poem, Agard creates awareness that the histories of the English and the British are only a point of view. He uses the opportunity to introduce readers to the history of the blacks, which is as rich and interesting.
The Suspect’ by Ali Alizadeh on the other hand is an expressive poem that engages the reader between the conflicting Western and Eastern cultures. The incidences in the poem are immersing, personal, yet painful at the same time. ‘The Suspect’ is an outstanding poem in the volume of ‘Ashes in the Air’ that depicts a young Muslim man living in Australia and is suspected to be a terrorist. This is majorly because of his upbringing in Tehran and is as a result branded ‘west-smitten’. The poem is an important reminder of the disheartening brutality of outsider politics. It similarly highlights on the violent hatred of outcasts and ostracism.
There is the use of formal techniques in the poem for example, the enjambment between couplets on the western and eastern experiences. The sound techniques evoke a sense of subjection to hatred and disdain. Alizadeh also uses borrowed impactful vernacular from newspaper headlines like the ‘Muslim Rapist’ to create more emphasis and draw the reader to the emotions of ‘the suspect’. The poetry is able to achieve an intellectual, emotional, and intuitive complex.
Personal circumstances provide the base material for the setting of the poem coupled with the outward movement of ideologies and histories. ‘The Suspect’ is essentially a comparison of the young poet in Iran where he was identified as ‘west-smitten,’ or ‘gharb-zadeh,’ with his current identity in ‘Our land’. In his newfound status, he is labeled a ‘Muslim rapist’ or ‘Muslim immigrant’. Since he finds himself suspected in both countries and is not able to perfectly belong, he concludes and decides that the probable place he might be welcomed is in Tehran’s famous Evin Prison, or its West’s equivalent, Guantánamo Bay.
Theoretical Analysis of ‘Checking out Me History’
Both the two poems, ‘Checking out Me History and ‘The Suspect’ illustrate and cover a number of varied significant themes. A careful analysis of the poem reveals concurrent themes of discrimination and oppression. To begin with Agard’s poem, he is synonymous with the native intellectuals according to the book ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ and addresses the concerns of discrimination, resistance and essentialism. He represents the group who have been unapologetically thrown into the western culture (Frantz 1967). They only stop investigating their new family framework when a minimum nucleus of security is crystallized. They are a people who attempt to assimilate into the new culture and be contented with the foreign cultural diversity. Their patience and endurance is however, significantly tested when the nationalist parties begin mobilizing people in the name of independence. In their struggle to spurn the acquisitions, they realize they are in fact strangers in their own land (Frantz 1967).
According to the book, there is an emphasis on the fact that it is easier to proclaim rejection than to reject. The statement casts a strong relationship to Agard who has made the realization in the poem that he is one of the people facing rejection. The poem is about these groups of outcasts. The black people who through culture have managed to filter into the western civilization and become part of the European culture. They have exchanged their culture for another and eventually realizing that the cultural matrix can hardly bear any close comparison with the prestigious power of the authentic civilization of the foreign land (Bonyhady 2002).
Western history of course has in a number of few incidences attempted to evaluate the African past for its own interest. Despite this fact however, the native intellectual is still left with a void difficult to fill when he stands face to face with his current country and clearly observes the objective events he wants to make his own. Agard represents the intellectuals who consequently become terrified of the void, savagery and degradation that they experience (Seeto 2009).
This then probes them to try to get away from the white culture to seek their own substance origins. Failure to find a rich culture with the same scope and grandeur as that of the ruling power often leads to emotional attitude and the development of a psychology dominated by susceptibility and sensitivity. This withdrawal as illustrated by the poem is one of the first signs of begging for a question in the internal behavioural mechanisms of the intellectuals that is a contradiction and reflex of their own character (Frantz 1967).
The phase depicted in the poem signifies consciousness a process for eventual liberation. This need is not racial by any means and is simply an attempt of liberation that requires action before unaccustomed heights are reached (Hutcheon 1991). There should be a diversion from the continuous blind alley that the native intellectuals are being led to (Seeto 2009).
Agard is able to utilize a language and technique distinct to his authentic culture to rid himself of the borrowed style and culture. He is contented with his newfound instruments as he wishes to be national, although it is queerly reminiscent to exoticism. In the end according to the book, these native intellectuals are never able to belong to either of the extreme groups and are left with a bunch of particularism (Sollors 1986). This is because as they attempt to define their new identity and mingle with their un-interfered native culture, they realize they are left out from the traditions and are out-dated (Frantz 1967). Agard therefore has a clever use of dialect that helps to show the central character of the poem. This shows his roots and culture that together with dialect are combined to become a huge part of his identity that eventually helps to distinguish him as an individual. It also portrays a strong message of his unwillingness to change and conform to the society.
His message is reinforced by a number of ingenious styles that heightens the emphasis on the unified message of resistance. Agard does not use punctuation throughout the poem not to symbolize rebellion but the presentation of the importance of blacks. Blacks are represented by the punctuation, their absence rids and denies the wholeness of the society just as a punctuation is important in writings. The use of these many different techniques is effective and successful to help represent the central characters throughout the poem. He similarly uses two types of stanzas to indicate the differences present between the ‘non-official’ and ‘official’ and the fact that without a history individuals fail to realize their identity.There is an equal reliance on both the structural techniques and languages to put across the different ideas and views.
Conclusively, Agard only draws on his experiences to create an attention to the way history is taught. He stresses on the great impact it has on how individuals conceive their identities from learning about their traditions and narratives. Agard had to follow and learn about a history curriculum that was biased towards whites, particularly the British whites. As a result, he relieved the past of the black people, his identity. He therefore challenges this sequence by citing important black figures to create a balance to the objectivity and create a basis for his own culture.
Theoretical Analysis of ‘The Suspect’
‘The Suspect’ poems on the other hand illustrates on issues as marginalization, orientalism, identity, nationalism, belonging and un-belonging. Orientalism is a representation of the relationship between the West and Asia whereby the West exploitation and treatment of diverse culture is condoned (Edward 2000). The ‘Orient’ therefore exist primarily and exclusively as a confirmation and projection of the West (Sneja 1994). In the book ‘Framing marginality’, the authors attempt to coin the concept of representation that is clearly represented in the personal experiences of Ali in his poem. Representation is certainly and particularly the act of representing and reducing others and involves violence to the subject of representation. The book attempts to emphasize on the importance of eliminating these systems of representation that essentially contrast between violence and the very act of representing something which as a calm exterior. These systems carry with them authority that is repressive and do not permit room for interventions on the part of those represented (Sneja 1994).
According to the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, over the last decades, delegates and critics of marginalized and minority groups have attempted to focus on the invincible lineaments of the west including the western material practices and metaphysics (2007). It comprises of and reflects material relationships and transcendent and normative judgments that are temporarily and culturally specific (Azimuth 2008).
The theme of the poem is significant since it interprets and assesses the representation of other societies, cultures and histories and the relationship between knowledge and power and the role of intellect. The Arab-Islamic world is always in a constant relationship with the United States and Europe.
It becomes clear from the discourse and language of the poem that there is a tendency to constrain, rectify, and delineate possibilities that focus on Alizadeh’s struggle.
‘The Suspect’ strongly pushes against everyday understandings of national and nation. Alizadeh’s work can be read as a worldwide Iranian and diaspora literature due to the Iranian-focused content in the poem. The poem is however much of Australian as it is Iranian. It covers not only a reference to place but also a reference to the process of becoming whereby being Australian becomes an ongoing argument of ideologies (Wakefield Press 2008).
The poem is consequently a uniquely structured collection powerfully speaking of a transnational identity and life. It has a global concern, perspective, and setting. Other recurrent themes are migration and travel as its autobiographic content traces his childhood in Tehran as well as a separate life on the Gold Coast. It also traces the poet’s struggles and arguments and struggle with the large forces that shapes his life like orientalism and discrimination in the different cultures he transverses.
’The Suspect’ essentially addresses the plight of minority groups and embodies the significance of irreducible differences. These separate histories are disturbed by rights and doctrine upheavals. The notion that Muslims are non-civilized ought to be critically addressed and assessed (Smith 2008).
Race and ethnicity are therefore significant elements discussed in the two poems. Their relationship is portrayed by the fact that the concept of racial purity is underpinned by the existence of races. The themes of liberation, struggle for post-independence, discrimination, oppression and subjectivism are all tossed back and forth between the two poems. The two poets, John Agard and Ali Alizadeh are all attempting to speak out from their personal experiences and represent the concerns of the minority groups that are constantly on the receiving end of cultural insults and racial discrimination.
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