HALF-CASTE Flashcards
‘I’m half-caste’
Matter of fact statement
‘half-caste’
Offensive
Suggests someone is half a person
‘explain yuself’
Direct address
Non-standard english reflects his heritage
Imperative verb mood
‘when picasso, when light an shadow, when tchaikovsky’
Three analogies
Trying to reflect the stupidity of this view
‘red and green… light and shadow’
Antithesis
Shows contrast between white and black race
‘black key… white key’
Antithesis
Picasso and Tchaikovsky
Western cultural icons
Tone?
Angry and confrontational
‘I dream half-a-dream’
Not got much hope
Bitter
Reference to Martin Luther Kings dream speech
‘I half-caste human being cast half a shadow’
Sarcastic tone
‘I close half-a-eye’
Threat
Suggests danger is around
He feels threatened as a mixed race man in England
‘understand… hand’
Rhyme
Shows bitterness
Unusual grammar
Trying to get away from the accepted norms of poetry and create something new
‘wid de whole of yu eye…’
Attacking the target of the direct address as half a person (not mixed race but closed-minded)
Takes the same insult and turns it around
‘the whole of yu… the whole of yu… the whole of yu’
Anaphora
Shows hope of people being openminded
