Compare and contrast the ways in which the poets present injustice in "Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes" and "Nothing's Changed".
Compare and contrast the ways in which the poets present injustice in "Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes" and "Nothing's Changed".
"Nothing's Changed" by Tatamkhulu Afrika is a protest against white authority- and against supremacy over all underprivileged, mistreated, weaker members of society by any power group. The focus of this disapproval is the Apartheid approach which subjugated white South African thinking.
Tatamkhulu Afrika, writer of "Nothing's Changed", lived in Cape Town's District 6, which due to apartheid in the 1960's was unfortunately declared a 'whites only' area. Afrika was forced to evacuate his home land and some many years later, just after the official end of apartheid, Afrika set about writing this poem during a time of hope, in which his poem became an autobiographical verse.
In "Nothing's Changed" Stanza one, Afrika invites the reader to stand in his childhood shoes and observe the on goings during apartheid. Although Afrika is recalling a past experience, through writing in the present tense Afrika incites the reader to relive the occurrence. By doing this he creates a vivid read in which the reader can identify with. As the poem develops it is easy for the reader to imagine that he too is walking, seeing and breathing everything that Afrika also overcame. Afrika continues to make the reader feel as if they are there by imitating the rhythm of a light and quick heart beat through monosyllabic words. He makes the reader feel uncomfortable as they find themselves unwelcome by hard stones to bare feet, and whilst enthralled the reader notices the physicality of each word and the hard 'c' sounds found in 'cuffs', 'cans' and 'crunch' stress the emotions and fear felt within the child.
Stanza two develops a gradual build up of anger consuming a whole being through the use of repetition. The stress on the 'and' emphasises the emotional force and the anger is progressively intensified, Afrika furthers the resentment by also increasing the length of the lines. Afrika draws attention to the body parts mentioned: feet, hands, skin, bones; suggesting that his whole body is aware that District 6 hasn't changed even though there is no sign to say it. The reader recognises and relates to Afrika's past feelings of anger, aggression and injustice;
"And the hot, white, inward turning anger of my eyes"
The reader feels blinded by the anger and is almost consumed by it.
Stanza three creates tension. Afrika begins to describe a symbol of anger but the reader isn't made aware of what it is until the end of the verse:
"Brash with glass,
name flaring like a flag,
it squats
in the grass and weeds,
incipient Port Jackson trees:"
The word "brash" gives the reader an impression of arrogance and ostentation and paints a picture of a loud, cheap and unsightly building. The idea of a name "flaring" suggests that that it is there to attract attention to confirm its status and supremacy. ...
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Stanza three creates tension. Afrika begins to describe a symbol of anger but the reader isn't made aware of what it is until the end of the verse:
"Brash with glass,
name flaring like a flag,
it squats
in the grass and weeds,
incipient Port Jackson trees:"
The word "brash" gives the reader an impression of arrogance and ostentation and paints a picture of a loud, cheap and unsightly building. The idea of a name "flaring" suggests that that it is there to attract attention to confirm its status and supremacy. Again, "squats" furthers the image of an ugly and unpleasantness, signifying that this building doesn't belong their and because of this it becomes dominating and threatening much like the whites in District 6. Finally Afrika informs the reader of what is "brash", "flaring" and "squats":
"guard at the gatepost,
whites only inn."
The use of "guard at the gatepost" is a clear representation that apartheid isn't over at all and that discrimination and prejudice towards people with black skin is very much alive. Moreover, the guard is a barrier between black living and white living for all to look upon, fully aware that nothing has changed. Afrika delays the impact made on the reader by choosing to conceal the object described until the end of the stanza, which creates tension and interest. The two offset sentences create a pivot in the poem in which Afrika is sarcastic when talking about how ironic it is that nothing has altered and that the black people are still conscious of their place in society:
"No sign says it is:
but we know where we belong."
Stanza four describes the elegance of a white mans life and the luxuries that come with being the highest order in society:
"crushed ice white glass,
linen falls,
the single rose."
The rich, Western style of living is a shown in the linen and the civilised, clean existence is represented by the crushed ice white glass. The glass also acts as a barrier; the black child can look but not touch at the imposed culture and yet he seems so close and feels so far away.
However, stanza five portrays the life of a black individual. Afrika educates the reader on how the black working man paid for the white mans lavishness and how the white man illustrates the black man: implying that he has dirty habits reflected in his dirty coloured skin; suggesting that this "lack of appreciation" is bred into the black community furthering an aura of barbarous, inhumane, and uncivilised living shown through the choice of language:
"spit a little on the floor:
it's in the bone."
Whilst reading stanza four and five and observing the layout of these two verses, the reader may notice that the stanza relating to the white society is above the stanza relating to the black society. Afrika may have done this on purpose to show how in all circumstances the white minority rules over the black majority, again reminding the reader of the injustice he had to face living as a child in District 6 with black skin.
The closing stanza consists of one physical image that the reader can almost feel himself based solely on the desire for revenge. The use of 'small' is used to make the child realise that he is insignificant along with his race and is repeated to emphasize his irrelevance. Likewise the word 'mean' is repeated to make the reader understand the deep routed hatred over fundamental human injustice. Afrika then makes it apparent that if the fight for justice can not be achieved through politics than the only other method is through violence;
"Hands burn
for a stone, a bomb,
to shiver down the glass,
Nothing's changed."
Afrika is shows a true bitterness and contempt at the fact that nothing has changed. He is conscious that he will still be categorised and this act of destruction can be seen as a symbolic way to smash the attitudes of the whites and alter the subservient manner by which the black civilians are victims of. Afrika's use of 'hands burn' allows the reader to relate with the heat of the anger felt by Afrika and the intense and passionate emotions felt towards discrimination. Finally the last line in the poem, 'Nothing's changed' portrays that although apartheid has ended there is no difference in the attitudes of the white society, no difference to the position in which the black community is seen and no difference to the opinions of the poet regarding the 'changes to' District 6.
When observing the poem as a whole, the text appears narrow and intense to represent how narrow minded society can be. The poem is in six stanzas each with eight lines which primarily have two or three main stresses. The repetition of sounds and rhythms create a whimsical coordinated piece which Afrika preferably wants to be read aloud.
Similarly, "Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti is about social injustice and the inability to bridge a gap between the affluent and the indigent within a democratic country.
Suggesting how a democracy ought to be in a realistic world through the unification of all categories of people, Ferlinghetti insinuates what is actually valued within society and that this can lead to cultural differences within the same motherland resulting in further social inequality. Ferlinghetti demonstrates society's true values in material possessions through stereotypical characters; two scavengers at one end of the spectrum and two beautiful, successful people at the other held together in a moment of time creating a freeze-frame for the reader to relate with.
In contrast to "Nothing's Changed", the layout of "Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes" appears to be sprawling and separated: imitating the extensive work of the scavengers and the gulf that emerges through social status and the hierarchy of life. Ferlinghetti's reality of a freeze-frame captures democratic living and leads to the absence of punctuation: he is aiming to create an image that lasts only seconds so punctuation is unessential; placing emphasise on the concept of the brief instance, as well as forcing the reader to introduce their own natural pauses and comparisons:
"And the two scavengers up since four a.m.
grungy from their route
on the way home"
Both "Nothing's Changed" and "Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes" are devoid of regular strong images and so rely on writing techniques. Ferlinghetti creates irony through a play on words:
"Two garbagemen in red plastic blazers.........
.....looking down into
an elegant open Mercedes
with an elegant couple in it".
Although Ferlinghetti is simply implying that the scavengers are quite literally 'looking down' into the Mercedes, the reader picks up on the satirical values in this choice of words at their injustice: the way in which the scavengers 'look down' at the beautiful people is sardonic, because stereotypically beautiful, successful individuals 'look down' their noses at destitute, talentless citizens; it is ironic that the beautiful people are placed higher in the social structure of society than the scavengers when morally it should be to the contrary as the scavengers are the back bone of society: providing the services that keep the democratic country running; the scavengers could be looking own in aspiration as although one shares the same appearance as the beautiful person there is a gulf between their two separate lives.
Moreover Ferlinghetti brings into play a pun to create humour:
"And both scavengers gazing down
as from a great distance
at the cool couple
as if they were watching some odourless TV ad
in which everything is always possible"
'Odorless' is a pun on the unhygienic and unsanitary lifestyle that stereotypical scavengers would lead. Furthermore, 'odorless' suggests that although the beautiful people found in these adverts are supposed to be perfect perceptions of the rich, society tends to believe that they put on a fake front; that these aspirations and expectations of middle, working and lower class civilians are only skin deep.
One of the only images Ferlinghetti uses is that of a gargoyle;
"The older of the two with grey iron hair
and hunched back
looking down like some
gargoyle Quasimodo"
The scavenger's likeness to the gargoyle is a strong contrast to the beauty of the Mercedes driver. Likewise, Afrika draws up similar contrasts of dirty and clean in "Nothing's Changed" when describing the condition of the black working man's bar and the elegant white mans restaurant.
The final image that Ferlinghetti portrays is the traffic light that bridges the gulf in the social injustice;
"And the very red light for an instant
holding all four together
as if anything at all were possible
between them"
The traffic light then becomes a central point in the poem which holds the two scavengers and the two beautiful people all together at the same point in the same moment in time all with the same equal chance. Although they have led completely different lives which they have controlled, the traffic light now has bridged the gap. But, within seconds the red light will change to green and the equality is lost as the gap once again furthers between the wealthy and the poor until their paths cross once more.
Although Ferlinghetti's "Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes" deals with social injustice as supposed to racial injustice as found in Afrika's "Nothing's Changed", both poets imply that the inequality is based on false perceptions, ignorance, and naivety.