Poetry Coursework:Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes (Lawrence Ferlinghetti) and Nothing's Changed (Tatamkhulu Afrika)

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Poetry Coursework:

Two Scavengers in a Truck,

Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes (Lawrence Ferlinghetti) and Nothing’s Changed (Tatamkhulu Afrika)

The American Constitution clearly states that all men are created equally and should have the same opportunities as each other. However, Ferlinghetti believes this is not true. In his observation he sees the garbagemen or ‘scavengers’ tired and weary from their route, working hard but still in unavoidable poverty. Also using a word like scavengers he compares the garbagemen to rodents scrounging a living at the bottom of society. He then sees the ‘elegant’ couple in an ‘elegant’ Mercedes, loving their life, not a care in the world, both wealthy and smart. The woman ‘so casually coifed’ and the man in ‘a hip three piece suit’ who, have both benefited from the inequality of the American Constitution, taking it easy in their heavenly life. Ferlinghetti understands the unfairness of the Constitution but knows deep down that it cannot change and will never change.

In the poem Ferlinghetti makes many contrasts between the scavengers and the elegant couple. The title shows us straight away that the poem will be about the contrasts between two pairs of people. ‘Scavengers’ is a derogatory term for the garbagemen because it suggests that they live off the rubbish of others - a scavenger beetle lives off rotting flesh. However, ‘Beautiful People’ is a compliment. So, right from the start, we feel the garbagemen are at a disadvantage. Ferlinghetti also chose these words to describe their different classes, as they are strong indications of who they are and what they do for a living. Scavenger implies that they are an unimportant and insignificant part of society. Beautiful people suggest that they are high status, highly paid and doing well in life. The second contrast in the title is ‘Truck’ and ‘Mercedes’. This enlightens us further on the social status of the garbagemen and the elegant couple as a garbage truck is associated with waste and rubbish, but a Mercedes implies rich, powerful and stylish. This is an important comparison as the garbagemen and the garbage truck are dirty and smelly, however, the elegant couple are, like the Mercedes sleek, stylish and powerful. Ferlinghetti then continues by saying what the four are wearing, the garbagemen in red plastic blazers, but the elegant couple, dressed to perfection. The man in a ‘hip three pieced suit’ and sunglasses, sat next to him is the woman so ‘casually coifed’ in a ‘short skirt’ and ‘coloured stockings’. Using words like ‘hip’ and ‘casually coifed’; Ferlinghetti tells us that the beautiful people really are beautiful. He then writes about their appearance using strong words like ‘gargoyle Quasimodo’ and ‘grungy’ for the garbagemen but for the beautiful people ‘elegant’ and ‘cool’ are the words he has chosen to best describe them. The phrase ‘gargoyle Quasimodo’ suggests an ugly disfigured man as a gargoyle is a beast carved in stone whereas Quasimodo meaning almost finished or half made, was the disfigured bell ringer at Notre Dame Cathedral. This said Ferlingetti tells us of a striking resemblance between one of the garbagemen and the driver of the Mercedes. They both have shoulder-length blond hair and both have sunglasses and are both roughly the same age. Ferlinghetti is trying to say that the garbageman could just be as successful as the man in the Mercedes.

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Ferlinghetti uses clever imagery in the final 12 lines comparing the situation of the garbagemen to an ‘odourless TV ad in which everything is always possible’. This shows that Ferlinghetti knows that the garbagemen want a better life and want to be a success but, like TV commercials, the whole idea of digging themselves out of poverty is make-believe. Words like ‘as if’ emphasise the hopelessness of the garbagemen’s situation, ‘as if anything at all were possible between them’. The closing lines of the poem involve a metaphor about the sea. If America is the high seas, the distance ...

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