Cockroaches Flashcards
- Main Message
- We fear difference instead of embracing it or understanding it. This fear leads to immoral, unjust, and disastrous behaviors.
- Tolerance and understanding are paramount.
Structure
- Mostly free verse and some half rhyme = this emphasises the chaos of the cockroaches and their indifference to us.
- Rhetorical Questions
- Single word lines
Tone
Sad, somber, and melancholic as we become aware of our actions and begin to feel sympathy towards the cockroaches.
The tone of condemnation (disapproval) towards the murders.
Title
Cockroaches are associated with being creatures of the night. They are spoken about in a critical manner: they are despised, feared, vermin, and maligned creatures.
Turn on the light
The poem begins with a harsh command.
Light is a symbol are live, purity, and safety. However when the light is turned on the cockroaches scarry to find safety in a very chaotic and disorderly manner.
and helter-scelter
Assonance is due to the repetition of the short ‘el’ sound which emphasises the how quickly the cockroaches run and seek shelter.
they scuttle
‘scuttle’ = they dash quickly because of their fear of light.
to their dark shelters
‘dark’ is associated with being evil and dangerous, however the cockroaches feel safe and secure in the darkness.
Light and Dark Paradox
(IRONY)
We expect the light to offer a sense of safety and purity and the dark to be feared and dangerous. However, the cockroaches view on dark and light is completely subverted. They find themselves feeling unsafe and scared in the light, but they find safety in the dark as they feel comfortable.
Stanza 1:
Cockroaches are clearly misunderstood and innocent creatures.
Cut them off
from their hideouts
The harsh and sudden action
‘hideouts’ = their place of retreat, refuge, and concealment.
‘their’ = we are othering them by isolation and persecuting them.
block
their many approaches
Block is on its own line which emphasises how to try to restrict and barricade them.
We ambush them and give them no chance to escape.
We block and cut off all their approaches and actions.
in hopeless flurry
and helpless worry.
Hopeless & Helpless emphasises how defensless the cockroaches are which evokes pity in the readers.
Stanza 2:
The determination and ferocity of the creatures is taken away from them, without any feeling or concern about their right to live.
But who ordained
There is a shift in focus
who ordained = no one even gave us permission.
‘ordained’ someone of high power establishes something
the crash-fall
of sandals
The sandals are used as the weapon to murder the cockroaches.
on these
shy creatures?
‘shy’ gives connotations of being quiet and reserved, therefore the cockroaches are just innocent victims.
‘creatures’; cockroaches are not referred to as insects but instead, they are described as creatures, this evokes pity in the readers because it is totally unjust and immoral to simply disregard them and take their lives away without any feeling or concern for their right to life as they too are living creatures just like us.
Rhetorical question in Stanza 3:
This rhetorical question is highly emotive as it asks us to consider why we always view the cockroaches as the enemy and who gave us the permission to murder them.
Or
is it their love
Or is a co-ordination conjunction that joins 2 ideas of equal importance.
of darkness
Cockroaches find safety and security in the dark. However, their love of darkness is seen as abnormal and strange. Cockroaches are just clearly misunderstood. m
holds them suspect?
‘suspect’ gives connotations of being a criminal and threatening. Cockroaches are creatures of the night and we fear and despise them
The rhetorical question in last stanza:
This rhetorical question is highly emotive because it asks us whether it is their love for darkness that seals their fate or do WE seal their fate.
