Nothings Changed and Limbo comparison

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Compare Nothing’s Changed with one other poem in Cluster 1, in relation to the theme of injustice.

I have decided to compare Limbo with Nothing’s Changed, about the theme of injustice. Both Tatamkhulu Afrika and Edward Kamau Braithwaite have shown in Nothing’s Changed and Limbo, that even through the unjust world that is described in the poems, there is still hope which prevails through the misery and despair. In Limbo, the repetition of “Limbo, Limbo like me”, shows that even through the loneliness they are put through, there remains still a ‘pulse’, the constant beat of those two lines shows that the slaves’ dance and music, still prevails through what is slavery. The effect created is that through the bad times, there is still happiness which surpasses suffering, and this line still is repeated to the end of the poem, where we know is the end of the bad events, through the saying, “sun coming up” on line 40. This effect is a main part of the poem, as the suffering at the start of the poem, is juxtaposed with the pulse and limbo dance through the slaves lives through the poem.

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In Nothing’s Changed, similar repetition techniques have shown injustice in the world. As Nothing’s Changed was based on the post apartheid times in South Africa, the poet writes how although it would be illegal to discriminate, and how there no longer are signs promoting this, it still happens, and is through the antithesis of District Six, and the “new, up-market” town, mentioned in line 22. The repetition of “and” in lines 12-15 is using the poetic technique of caesura, which means through repeating the words it causes more of an effect. As the poet describes his growing anger at ...

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