Of mice and men
Course Work on "Search for My Tongue" and "Half Caste" Cultural identity, it is a thing which represents you; represents who you are; what you are; it gives you a background; without cultural you are a blank page and it is the thing which you cannot leave... because when you leave it, you leave yourself. Basically my essay is based about two poems that lost their own identity, about two poems where they are searching for themselves and the thing which I will do is just write their unspoken arguments inside them. The poems which I have chosen are "Search for my tongue" and "Half caste". The reason behind choosing them are because both of the poems are in a hunt, hunt for their identity, a search which tells us who they are and what they are looking for. Both of the poems tells us about their arguments and what they fell about their current situation... which they are annoyed of, and after reading both of these poems I guarantee that at leat once, "What does cultural identity means?" will knock your mind. "Search for my tongue" a heart touching poem by Sujata Bhatt, a poem which reveals her frozen tongue. The tongue which she has lost and trying find it back. Sujata is in a situation where she wants to speak her mother tongue... but she can't. In Sujata's interpretation she tells us that her mother tongue is almost dead and rotten in her mouth and I get this information via
Poetry from other cultures.
Theme: Poetry from other cultures. Texts: John Agard and Moniza Alvi. Task: John Agard 'in 'Half Caste' and Moniza Alvi in 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' both deal with the issues of being born of mixed marriages. 'Half Caste' and 'Half English'. Write about the different ways in which the past explore what this means to them. John Agard and Moniza Alvi have two different attitudes in there poetry about there mixed racial backgrounds. John Agard uses a very proud attitude as on the hand Moniza Alvi is very unsure about her personal identity. It is not just there attitude towards there mixed background but there style of there written poetry is also different. Through examining the text and reading the poem it is clear that they are two different people with very different approaches to life. There writing techniques are different as John Agard uses his own rules when he writes, as Moniza Alvi sticks to the correct English grammar and spelling. John Agard's poem is very different to Moniza Alvi's poem, they talk about the same issues concerning race, but they have do not have the same views on there own race. John Agard is very proud of his mixed racial origin, and in the poem says that it is not clever and makes a mockery of people who discriminate him, he is proud to be who he is. He uses a very powerful name for his poem 'Half
Poetry from other cultures
Poetry from other cultures Compare and contrast the notions of culture and identify in 'Half-caste' by John Agard and 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' by Moniza Alvi. The poems I have chosen to analyse are 'Half-Caste' by John Agard and 'Presents from my aunts in Pakistan' by Moniza Alvi. I have decided to focus on these poems because I believe they project strong messages and discuss the issues of identities and mixed race. Furthermore, both poems are autobiographical and the poets are from different cultures to each other. As readers, it is very interesting to understand their different views about mixed race backgrounds as we are from a different culture to them. John Agard is a respected Caribbean poet who has won the Paul Hamlyn Award in 1997. On the other hand, Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and has achieved the Poetry Business Prize in 1991. Both poets confess the difficulties of living in different cultures and not knowing their fixed nationality. John Agard was born on 21 June 1949 in Guyana. His mother was white and Portuguese but his father was a black Englishman, therefore making him half-caste. He began to write poems at the age of sixteen and many were published in the school magazine. In the 1970's he moved to England where he not only progressed to become a literary poet but also moved on to develop into a performing poet. From there, he has
