The aim of this essay is to present you with an analysis and comparison of two poems. The poems which have been chosen are the ‘Turtle Soup’ written by Marilyn Chin (1957- ) in 1994 and the ‘Coca-Cola and Coco Frio’ written by Martin Espade (1957-) in 1993.
The essay will focus on the thematic core of both poems, the presentation in short of their meaning, the use of imagery in each one of them on behalf of each poet and their comparison in terms of putting across their message to their readers. The essay will highlight their difference in approaching their common thematic core and will reflect on their power to talk to the hearts of their readers.
‘Turtle Soup’
Marilyn Chin, a poet born in Hong Kong and raised in Portland, America, is widely acknowledged within the literary community as a poet whose poems appeal to people and put across messages on both cultures which are part of her own identity. As one can read in her biography as retrieved from the Academy of American Poets, her poems ‘have become Asian American classics and are taught in classrooms internationally’.
The ‘Turtle Soup’ is a poem of five stanzas. There are three main figures appearing in the poem’s stanzas. There is the narrator who enters home to see his mother cooking for him a turtle soup, the mother who is cooking and insists on him not just tasting but eating her cooked soup and there is the figure of the turtle, who although already dead since it has been just boiled in a soup, is very alive to the narrator affecting him greatly.
The narrator addresses the readers in second singular person which gives the poem a sense of familiarity and directness. He tells the reader that one evening he goes home and he sees his mother boiling for him a turtle soup. ‘You go home one evening tired from work, / and your mother boils you turtle soup. /’ (Turtle Soup, verses 1-2)
The image of the mother waiting for her child to come back from work and cook fresh homemade food for him, is a common family scene. This is an image covering the poem in an air of caring and love, yet the narrator sounds even from the very beginning as if he wishes to express an underlying discomfort which he feels upon what he sees ‘twelve hours hunched over the hearth / (who knows what else is in that cauldron)’ (Turtle Soup, verses 3-4).
This discomfort becomes more vivid in the opening of the second stanza where the narrator addresses his mother and indirectly criticizes her for having just boiled a turtle ‘Ma, you’ve poached the symbol of long life’ (verse 5).
Their dialogue reveals to the reader why this turtle has been boiled and why it has to be eaten by the narrator. The narrator feels that his mother ‘boils the life out of him’ (Turtle Soup, verse 10) referring to the long life that the turtle represents but his mother tells him ‘All our ancestors have been fools. / Eat, Child, / its liver will make you strong.’ (‘Turtle Soup’, verses 11, 14, 15).
Their dialogue goes on, through which his mother rationalizes even more her belief on doing well to have boiled the turtle and the narrator leaves the readers with the unanswered question hanging over their heads ‘Is there nothing left but the shell / and humanity’s strange inscriptions, / the songs, the rites, the oracles?’.(‘Turtle Soup, verses 23, 24, 25).
Both the mother and the narrator are the living figures of the poem, messengers of the poet’s main idea. But it seems that the more dominating figure of the poem is the turtle itself who has lost its life in boiled water. Only the shell of the turtle has remained unchanged, standing there as a symbol of the turtle’s domination in the discussion of both persons.
What does the turtle stand for? The turtle is the symbol of long life like the narrator says. It is though behind these words that the real meaning of long life is revealed. Long life is the life preceding our present. This is the idea which lies behind these words, behind the image of the turtle. The long life existing before one’s present. What is this long life? It is the life of one’s self, it is his / her past, it is his/ her ancestors. The turtle is one’s tradition. The tradition one carries within his genes, the ashes of his / her ancestors, the genes of his preceding generation.
So, if the turtle soup is eaten then the turtle is not dead for nothing. Like the mother says one may at some point in his life be the life and other times he may be the sacrifice. So the turtle is now sacrificed. The turtle’s long life is sacrificed so that it gives long life to the narrator. If the turtle is the symbol of tradition then the narrator will get in his soul and mind his tradition. He will be provided upon the turtle’s death the power of his tradition.
‘Turtle Soup’ is a poem on tradition, on how tradition can give life to people and it indirectly expresses how tradition can be the compass for one in nowadays’ life demands.
‘Coca-Cola and Coco Frio’
Martin Espade known as the Latino poet of his generation was born and brought up in Brooklyn in 1957. As one learns from the poet’s personal site his work has been ‘widely translated and acknowledged’.
Tradition is the thematic core of the poem ‘Coca Cola and Coco Frio’ as well. Only that in this poem the image carrying tradition is the one of a local, traditional soft drink. Coco Frio is a handmade soft drink of Porto Rico, the place the narrator of the poem visits, which has nothing in common with Coca Cola, the soft drink which is actually something like the status quo of drinks in America.
The narrator visits his place of origins, Puerto Rico and his enthusiasm on visiting his origins for the first time floods the verses of the poem as well as its readers. The poem is written on a third person which gives the poem a more neutral nature like the one of a document.
The reader feels that what he reads is something real which he ought to keep in mind as an incident since these kind of things and incidents are unfortunately common in people’s lives.
‘On his first visit to Puerto Rico, / island of family folklore, / the fat boy wandered / from table to table / with his mouth open.’ are the first verses of the poem. So the narrator wanders around. This is a very vivid image representing the one of the traveler, of the eternal human who keeps on traveling and trying to draw his own unique path in life.
His mouth is open, since the traveler wants to learn new things, to get new experiences, to become richer in taste, in experiences, in knowledge. Yet he is greatly disappointed.
The new things he is about to learn, the independent, unique tradition of the place he has reached, the traditions and the culture of the country of his choice to visit seems to have disappeared under the dominance of a unique, boring, commonly shared habit.
The habit of drinking Coca Cola has put all other cultural, independent, unique habits and traditions aside. As a result Coca Cola has become number one choice in people’s habits and tastes regardless of their cultural identities, their original needs and tastes.
‘For years afterward, the boy marveled at an island / where the people drank Coca-Cola / and sang jingles from World War II / in a language they did not speak, / while so many coconuts in the trees / sagged heavy with milk, swollen / and unsuckled.’ (Coca-Cola and Coco Frio, last stanza).
The boy who is the main hero of the poem grows up to see tradition be left aside, be left in the darkness and people seem totally lost in their cultural ignorance caused by their incapability to see and value their true origins.
Regardless of whether or not the poem of Espade lies any underlying concepts of thoughts on globalization, its effects and its dangers, it is certain that Espade wishes to highlight how people condemn their own origins and how this leads to them becoming totally ignorant of their identities, of their routes in life, of their lives.
Tradition once more is the thematic core of this poem. The main difference though is that tradition here appears to have been neglected in contrast to the ‘Turtle Soup’ in which it seems to be evaluated for what its real significance really is.
Works cited
Chin, Marilyn, (1994), ‘Turtle Soup’
Chin, Marilyn, Biography retrieved from http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/90
Espade, Martin (1994), ‘Coca-Cola and Coco Frio’
Espade, Martin, Biography retrieved from http://www.martinespada.net/
