Compare the brief encounters between two 'culture clashes' in 'An Old Woman' by Arun Kolatkur and 'Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes' by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

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Joshua Blake                                                                                                    13/02/07

Compare the brief encounters between two ‘culture clashes’ in ‘An Old Woman’ by Arun Kolatkur and ‘Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes’ by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

     Though similar in subject matter: both poets relating a brief encounter exposing a clash of cultures they are executed in different ways.

    The first few lines of the poem ‘An old Woman’ introduce us to an anecdotal tone and narrative concept, in order to create a sense of story telling the style draws us in and is very personal. In writing by refering in the second person; ‘she grabs hold of your sleeve’, ‘she tightens her grip’, ‘she won’t let you go’ intensifies the subject and makes the encounter very personal and urgent.  By stereotyping ‘you know how old women are’ Arun Kolatkur invites us into his confidence having identified himself with the reader he shares with us his journey through the poem, drawing us with him to share the same final conclusion.

     In Ferlinghetti’s poem, focused on exposing the gulf between the lifestyles within Americas ‘shiny’ democracy, stereotyping is also used, but the style is impersonal by taking an almost ariel overview. The setting for his poem ‘Downtown San Francisco’. The garbagemen are ‘looking down into a elegant open Mercedes’, the elder ‘looking down like some gargoyle Quasimodo’ at ‘the young blonde’ with ‘a short skirt and colored stockings’.  The poet retains a separation between his characters  ‘both scavengers gazing down as from a great distance’ and by making reference to the brevity of the meeting:  ‘And the very red light for an instant holding all four close together’, highlights this brief snap-shot encounter and in fact accentuates the ‘gulf’ between the two parties.  The use of the simile: ‘gargoyle Quasimodo’ emphasises the position of the social outcast in extreme opposite terms to that of the man in the Mercedes wearing ‘a hip three piece linen suit’ ‘on the way to his architect’s office’ representing the epitome of the all American success story.

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     Ferlingetti also utilises colour to reflect on the specific scene of action all held on the changing of a traffic light: ‘yellow truck’, ‘red plastic blazers’ perhaps suggesting that the bin men’s lives have stopped-there is no chance of a better future, no further destination for them.

In stark comparison Kolatkar’s old woman is not surrounded by any colour, all is drab, the scene is set in parched ‘wretched hills’.  Arun Kolatkur scene setting is more subtle and instead makes reference to a ‘horseshoe shrine’ and ‘fifty paise coin’ to be interpreted as being ...

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