The poems 'Unrelated Incidents' and 'Half-Caste' are both explicit pieces of cultural identity and how these people are looked upon by society

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Comparison of ‘Unrelated Incidents’ and ‘Half-Caste’

The poems ‘Unrelated Incidents’ and ‘Half-Caste’ are both explicit pieces of cultural identity and how these people are looked upon by society.

In Unrelated Incidents the poet draws attention to the way in which television newsreaders normally speak and how the way that we speak affects people's attitudes towards us. In Half-Caste the poet also uses dialect to mock people that use the term 'half-caste'.

The theme in Unrelated Incidents is of the correct way of speaking, and an acceptable way of speaking without being judged. The theme is also suggesting whether it is justified to look down on people who do not speak in Standard English. The theme in Half-Caste is similar. It is of whether being of mixed parentage can make so-called ‘half-caste’ people feel that they have to make excuses for themselves.

In Unrelated Incidents, the speaker appears to be a BBC announcer who presents the news in Glaswegian rather than in 'accent less' Standard English. The poem seems to very personal because the poet, Tom Leonard is actually Glaswegian himself so it may be almost auto biographical. We can tell the poem is in a conversational tone because the words ‘talk’ and ‘said’ emulate this idea.

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The tone is almost bitter in its anger, because Tom Leonard is angry. This is because the announcer not only despises the non Standard English speakers' ability to express the truth, he doesn't even want to give them the opportunity to say anything.

Half-Cast is also in the first-person and in a conversational tone. We can tell it is in the first-person because he uses the words ‘I’m Half-Caste’ on line three. The poet is supposed to be talking to the announcer or prejudice people.  

The first three lines of the poem, written in Standard English, seem to ...

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