Compare 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' by Moniza Alvi and 'Nothings Changed' by Tatamkhulu Afrika - Comment on the conflict between two cultures in the poem and the way the poets express this.

Compare 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' by Moniza Alvi and 'Nothings Changed' by Tatamkhulu Afrika. Comment on the conflict between two cultures in the poem and the way the poets express this. In 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' the speaker is a girl who has one English parent and one parent from Pakistan. As a result she feels torn between the two very different cultures. She does not feel at home in either England or Pakistan. She shows this by saying "I longed for denim and corduroy" When trying on the Saris and Salwar Kameezes. She feels English in Pakistan and Pakistani in England "I could not rise out of its fire half-English" This quote means that she can rise up out of the Pakistani clothes because she is not fully Pakistani or English. Another quote that shows this is "I tried on each satin-silken top- was alien in the sitting room" This means that wearing the Pakistani clothes made her feel out of place in the English sitting room. She feels similar to Tatankhulu Afrika in 'Nothings Changed' because he is also stuck between two cultures the 'blacks' and 'whites'. This is shown by "Whites only inn" This quote demonstrates the metaphorical barrier between the two cultures. The speaker in 'Nothings Changed' is a black man who returns to district six. In this poem the conflict between the two cultures is caused by the decades of apartheid government

  • Word count: 2085
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Tatamkhulu Afrika - Nothing's Changed

From the reading of English writing what have you learned so far? Use three poems as examples. This cluster of poems contains a vast array of different poems from different cultures from all around the world. They give us an insight into the way other people live, think and conduct their everyday life. They are all highly meaningful and something can be found for everybody in every single one of them. Tatamkhulu Afrika - Nothing's Changed This poem depicts a society where rich and poor are divided. In the apartheid era of racial segregation in South Africa, where the poem is set, laws, enforced by the police, kept apart black and white people. The poet looks at attempts to change this system, and shows how they are ineffective, making no real difference. District six is the name of a poor area of Cape Town This area was bulldozed as a slum in 1966, but never properly rebuilt. Although there is no sign there, the poet can feel that this is where he is: "...my feet know/and my hands." Similarly the up-market inn, brash with glass and the bright sign ,"flaring like a flag", which shows its name, is meant for white customers only. There is no sign to show this as there would have been under apartheid, but black and coloured people, being poor, will not be allowed past the "guard at the gatepost". The "whites only inn" is elegant, with linen tablecloths and a "single rose"

  • Word count: 1307
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Life under Apartheid deteriorated for most Africans from 1950 to 1970 as the amount of money spent on law and order increased and

Many Africans lives got worse between the 1950s and the 1970s because of white supremacy, for example, the pass laws. Which meant blacks having to carry pass books around all the time. This is just one of the "Apartheid Laws" which I will be exploring and introducing in the 1950s in my first paragraph. Africans lives didn't only get worse because of white supremacy but also by "Separate (but equal) Development", for example the Bantustans Act, where the different tribes were split into small groups around South Africa. I will be explaining the setting up of this, and what it was like to live there in the 1970s and that in the 1970s Africans still continued to live in terrible conditions, for an example of their poor living conditions. Africans had only 13% of the land where as the whites had 87% meaning it was very crowded for black Africans. In the 1950s, many Apartheid laws were introduced the most important one being The Group Areas Act" Which was when South Africa was divided into different areas where different race groups could live. This meant that 84% of the land was given to the whites, even though they were only given 15% of the total population. Blacks were only given 14% of the land, even thought they made up over 80% of the population. This changed lives of black Africans because they had small areas to live in meaning it would be very overcrowded. This was like

  • Word count: 1005
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Scavengers and Nothing's Changed. Two very different poems, written by two very different poets, both of whom write with regards to their own cultures, backgrounds and places of origin

SCAVENGERS and NOTHING'S CHANGED A short essay by Tom McInnes Scavengers and Nothing's Changed. Two very different poems, written by two very different poets, both of whom write with regards to their own cultures, backgrounds and places of origin - all of which are very different. What could these two poems have in common. Ostensibly, nothing. Scavengers is simply about the social divide between the upper and working classes, whilst Nothing's Changed tells of a young man's anger at being discriminated because of his colour. But after even the most shallow disection it is easy to see the connection between these two poems. Nothing's Changed's angry young man is obviously a victim of other peoples racial prejudice, but the two bin men of Scavengers are also victims of prejudice, looked down upon by the middle and upper classes because of their job, their financial situation, their parents. There's your first shared theme. Then you got the second: hypocrisy. The hypocrisy theme runs strong in both poems. In Nothing's Changed it's that this poem takes place after a law had been passed against racial discrimination. Laws change. Attitudes don't. There may not be a sign on the door denying the young boy entry, for it is an unwritten law that he is rebelling against. He is rebelling against the attitudes of the people inside the resturant. With Scavengers it is the entire

  • Word count: 915
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Choose a poem by Edwin Morgan in which the poet creates a picture of a heroic or a corrupt figure

Choose a poem by Edwin Morgan in which the poet creates a picture of a heroic or a corrupt figure. Discuss the means by which the personality is clearly depicted. `Glasgow 5 March 1971' is a poem by Edwin Morgan which creates a picture of a corrupt figure, but in a way the corrupt figure can be seen as a hero if we look at the poem in the corrupt figures point of view, but generally no one would classify the corrupt figures of being heroes. The poem `Glasgow 5 March 1971' is an instamatic poem, where the poet approaches to give an insight into the violent reality of the inner city life. From the title we see that it is informal and conveys the image of a headline report, to give a prosaic note of time and place. But not only has the headline given us this feeling, as it seems like a written report of the incident the way the poet has not involved himself in the poem, but conveys the idea of someone standing back watching the incident or someone that knows the young couple, besides that the present tense is used to give immediacy. The poem can be split into three parts, as there are three couples involved. The beginning of the poem shows us the young couple are passing by maybe looking at diamond engagement rings, when suddenly they are used as human bricks by two young attackers, and fall backwards into the shop window, suffering the start to bad pain and

  • Word count: 1402
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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How do the poets create a sense of place in 'Limbo' and 'Nothing's changed'?

How do the poets create a sense of place in 'Limbo' and 'Nothing's changed' Limbo I feel as though Brathwaite is trying to create an atmosphere or 'sense of place' by merging rhythm with short-syllable words, along with repetitive stanzas, creating hypnotic chants that give a sense of movement and events. The first stanza starts off 'And limbo stick is the silence in front of me, limbo'. Again this gives off a sense of movement, and the fact that Brathwaite uses short syllable words, means that it is going at a certain pace. Usually, if someone were to describe his or her thoughts and feelings that he or she experienced at a carnival or festival, to truly make the person understand and 'feel' what the experience could have been like, the best way to put it across would be to show 'movement'. If what Brathwaite was trying to describe was at a slow, laborious tempo, a stanza like that of four, 'stick hit sound, and the dark still steady' would be, for instance, written as ' there was the sound of the stick hitting...' and vice versa. If it was at a quick pace, where the order of events were shorter, the simplest way to portray this would be to write short syllables (or most commonly 'monosyllabic' words) and rhythmically patterned stanzas. It is made clear in stanza four and seven that he is onboard a ship, '...and the ship like it ready' or ' long dark deck and the water

  • Word count: 1801
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare the ways in which the poets present people in two of these poems

Compare the ways in which the poets present people in two of these poems In 'Nothing's Changed' and 'Two Scavengers' the poets, Tatamkhulu Afrika and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, present people successfully in these two poems. Both poets use the same techniques, such as the theme and setting, language, structure and the feeling expressed in the poems. By using these devices, the reader is able to gain an insight to how the poets present people to show the importance of different cultures. Firstly, in these two poems, the poets use the theme of inequality, but in different ways. In 'Nothing's Changed', the theme is about racial inequality. The poet, Afrika, goes back to District Six in Cape Town after the end of racial segregation in South Africa, known as the Apartheid, but only to realize that the area which is supposed to be a mixed-race area again, still seems to be a 'whites only' area. Whilst, in 'Two Scavengers', the theme is about social inequality, in which the poet captures a particular time in San Francisco in America, and notices how two pairs of people live completely different lives in the same city. One of the ways in which the poets present people is by using language. Both poets use comparison language effectively to contrast between the lives of the people. In 'Nothing's Changed', Afrika compares the lives of white and black people by using the description of the

  • Word count: 819
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Half Cast and Nothing's changed essay

Poetry from other cultures essay. How is theme of racism explored in the two poems that you have studied? In this essay I will be exploring, comparing and analysing two poems that explore the theme of racism. The poems that I have been studying are "Half-Caste" by John Agard and "Nothing's Changed" by Tatamkhulu Afrika. John Agard was born on 21 June 1949 in British Guiana (now Guyana). He moved to England in 1977 where he became a touring lecturer for the Commonwealth Institute. Now he is a famous poet and playwright. Also he is the author of many children's books. Tatamkhulu Afrika was born in Egypt in 1920 and moved to South Africa as a young child. He published his first novel at the age of 17 and many more after that. He died on the 23rd of December 2002 at the age of 82. My comparison and analysation of the two poems will be portrayed in the paragraphs below. "Half-Caste" is a poem about racism towards mixed race people. The correct terminology of "Half-Caste" is mixed race. The poet is trying to provoke a response through emotion, from racists by directly attacking them in this poem. In the poem "Half-Caste" a mixed race person is directly attacking a racist through words. He is establishing sentiment in order to awaken a reaction from the racist in order to make them understand that having two cultures is better than one. On the other hand "Nothing's Changed" is a

  • Word count: 1669
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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How Do The Two Poets Show You Something Important About The Cultures They Write About.

How Do The Two Poets Show You Something Important About The Cultures They Write About The poem Blessing by Imtiaz Dhaker is set in India just outside the bustling city of Bombay. The poem is set in the dry season in India and shows the suffering from the lack of water as well as the blessing of water. Imtiaz Dhaker focuses on sound and visuals in this eye-opening poem. Here is how Imtiaz Dhaker shows the important aspects of life within the Indian culture. The poem starts with a simple bold statement, 'the skin cracks like a pond. There is never enough water'. The simile shows the reader how dry it actually is. The next verse starts with the word 'Imagine', this magnifies the paragraph and makes the reader think and picture the poet's words more. Imtiaz Dhaker shows the beauty and how amazing the water is by making the reader imagine the sound of the water. 'Imagine the drip of it, the small splash, echo in a tin mug, the voice of a kindly God'. The poet shows how wonderful the sound of water is by describing it as 'the voice of a kindly God'. Imtiaz Dhaker speeds up the tone of the poem in the next verse. By doing this it shows the hurry of the water-starved people in the dry season to get a drop of water. This also makes the reader picture the water rushing out and through the pipes. 'The sudden rush of fortune. The municipal pipe bursts'. 'Silver crashing to

  • Word count: 972
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Analyzing Longfellow - The Sound of the SeaBy Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Analyzing Longfellow The Sound of the Sea By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In the poem, The Sound of the Sea, by Longfellow, the speaker uses an allusion of the sea to show a comparison between the "rushing of the sea-tides" and the process of the human soul being inspired. The speaker is enchanted by the ways that occasions and situations are revealed to the soul through "inspirations" in a method of almost "foreshadowing" what is to come in the future. These "inspirations" come as sporadically to humans beings as the tide's rushing in along the beaches. This allusion is presented through the poem with a regular rhyme scheme (abbaabba, cdecdec) in a single stanza format. Longfellow uses the poem as a metaphor to symbolize how strong and powerful visions suddenly come to humans, and seem to speak to our "souls." The soul is first motivated suddenly towards something, as illustrated when the speaker hears "the first wave of the rising tide." This is a sudden epiphany illuminating the speaker's mind, "a voice out of the silence of the deep," reverberating in the speaker's whole body until it is like the "roar of the winds," making a strong, clear vision to the soul which will inspire it. Longfellow uses a simile (Line 7) for a direct comparison of how suddenly the soul is affected by an inspiration as it springs up "as of a cataract from the mountain's side." The "mountain's

  • Word count: 708
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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