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
Rhyme/meter?
Free verse
What is the poems tone?
Angry
Confrontational
Form?
Dramatic monologue
language of half - caste
- interrogative style - ‘excume me’ ‘exaplin yuslef’ - trying to understand why hes being treated unfairly
- semantic field of body parts - he is fully human - repeated - just like the racist person
- rhyming of ‘pass ah/rass - builds momentum - anger
- tricolon - builds momentum at the end to finish on a strong point
summary of half - caste
- starts with speaker explaining his identity
- makes fun of the stupid things te racist person is saying by comparing to famous artist and musician and saying how their mix colours and keys and they arent half caste
- ends with saying to the listener that they should come back tomorrow and fully engage if he is going to tell them about his life that is more than just what he looks like
