Compare the ways in which the poets show how important personal
identity is in Half-Caste and one other poem from the Poems from
Different Cultures.
Compare
 the feelings about identity in the poems
 how the poets show the importance of being who you are
 how the poets use language to show feelings and ideas about who
you are and how important that is.
Tips for success
Remember you are meant to be comparing the two poems. Writing two
separate parts in an essay without noting any differences or similarities
will lose you a lot of marks. In the following essay, where I start to
explain some comparison italics are used.
You must try to show you understand the ideas and feelings the poems
are dealing with and you must express this very clearly.
You must make some comments upon the use of language that the two
poets make.
Sample Essay:
In the poem Half-Caste, John Agard is concerned about the way in
which people use labels for people without thinking through what
they really mean or whether they might hurt the people they label.
He tries to be polite and sensitive to his readers however – if he were
too confrontational they might not listen to his message. The poem is
a mixture of friendliness and firmness. He starts by saying:
Excuse me,
standing on one leg
I’m half-caste
This sounds polite as if he’s trying to be friendly with the reader. The
next line is very different. He says to the reader:
Explain yuself
This command is repeated several times throughout the poem. This
makes it have much more emphasis and effect. Agard feels that the
label half-caste implies that he is only half a human being. His sense
of personal identity is under attack by other people’s use of the
phrase.
A similar thing is true in the poem Search For My Tongue. Here the
poet’s sense of identity is not under attack by how she is labelled by
others, but by the fact that she feels she is losing her language. She
calls her original language her “mother tongue” which implies that it
is very important to her life. We owe who we are to our mothers – in
the same way, we owe something of ourselves to the language we
speak. It is a very important part of who we are.
Just like Agard, Bhatt feels under attack. She uses the image of having
two tongues in her mouth to get across the confusion that she feels.
Here there is a play on words with the word ‘tongue’. It can mean
both a language and the real tongue which is in your mouth. Having
two real tongues would be very awkward. No wonder she feels that
her mother tongue would “rot and die” in her mouth.
Both poets use language effectively to get across their ideas and
feelings. Bhatt uses her own language – Gujerati – in the poem, while
Agard uses spellings which reflect his accent. Bhatt uses her own
language for two reasons: first she want to show that her own mother
tongue is growing back. Secondly, she wants to get us to realize what
it is like to speak a foreign tongue. Trying to read the Gujerati
section makes you feel confused and unsure. We can understand
what Bhatt goes through. Agard uses his own language for similar
reasons: in order to show how important his language is to him. If the
poem were in ‘ordinary’ English, we would have little sense of what
kind of language Agard feels comfortable with. Both poets, then,
think language is very important to who they are.
Both writers use strange images or ideas to get their ideas across to the
reader. Agard uses a lot of ridiculous ideas to show how ridiculous
the label half-caste is. He says that no one would call a symphony a
“half-caste symphony” just because it is written with black and white
notes. Again, no one would say that Picasso is painting a half-caste
canvas if he were to mix his paints together. Why should John Agard
be called half-cast if he is of mixed race?
Bhatt uses the strange imagery of having two tongues and also the
idea of a tongue blossoming in her mouth. This new tongue “pushes
the other tongue aside”. Although the picture in the reader’s mind is
a bit strange, it is effective because the idea that her mother tongue is
like a flower is very positive and shows how important she thinks it
is.
Comments on the above essay
It is very comparative.
It uses plenty of quotations from the poem in order to give examples and
to show understanding of the poems.
It is clear and in well organised paragraphs.
It makes some points about both writers’ use of language.
It’s probably about the right length. It is clear and shows understanding of
the poems and is comparative so it would probably get a good C in the
exam.