How are anger and frustration presented in 'Nothing's Changed' and 'Half-Caste'?

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Lee Humphreys

How are anger and frustration presented in ‘Nothing’s Changed’ and ‘Half-Caste’?

In this essay I am going to talk about how anger and frustration is linked between two poems. The two poems are called ‘Nothing’s Changed’ and ‘Half-Caste’. I am going to explain four topics about each poem. These are: language, discrimination, culture and racism. Each one I will explain how they link with the poems. For example racism shares a main part in both poems because they are both about inequality and difference. Both Poems are autobiographical so both authors have had their own experience meaning that the anger shown is very descriptive.

The first topic I am going to talk about is the racism that is linked between the two poems. First I will look at the poem ‘Half-caste’ then ‘Nothing’s changed’. I would say that ‘Half-Caste’ is quite an angry poem because the poem John Agard has written is about difference. It is about difference because it mentions the word ‘half-caste’ and the word is used to describe people born of parents of a different colour. This word can be used as an insult against a different race, which shows racism. Here is an example that shows how racism is shown “Yu mean when Picasso mix red and green”. He talks about the colours and how they combine together to produce a new whole, which is different. But the whole he talks about is precious and unique. People call him half-caste because he is different from other people and lacks equality because he is different from the rest, this is racist. John Agard shows anger because he doesn’t want people to insult him. I can tell this by the tone of the poem because he asks the same question over and over again. “Wha yu mean when yu say half-caste”. I would say this seems like he is annoyed.

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In Nothing’s Changed the racism is the same as In Half Caste. The poem is about Tatamkhulu Afrika and about his life in Cape Town’s District 6. I find this poem racist because it says about the new, up-market a whites only inn. There’s a lot about the up-market that is racial

and the first thing I notice is when it says white’s only inn. Maybe this is linked with half caste and saying that T.A is a half-caste and is different. Another racial expression I found about the up-market is about the glass. “I press my nose to ...

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This essay has many good points. It is very clearly and logically structured and uses topic sentences to refer to the question. The essay clearly compares the two poems and looks at the similarities rather than any differences in the two poems. The writer makes insightful comments which are discussed in detail. More quotes are needed in places. There is too much repetition of key words and phrases and ideas and points are sometimes repeated too often. *** 3 stars.