– 3 Poems From Other Cultures Essay, Research Paper
`Night of the
Scorpion Family Life: · Mother
important as the night when she was stung sticks vividly in Ezekiel?s mind. · Father
desperate for mother to survive, as he, a sceptic, tries everything. · Mother
cares for kids, as she is pleased she was bitten and not the children. · All
families in community are concerned about each other, as everybody goes to
Ezekiel?s house and takes part in the rituals as if all this is part of normal
family life.Learning from Parents: · Learns
about scorpion stings, and rites involved with them in the community. · Importance
of thinking of others first, like in the last verse. · The
belief that the rites will work, and the sting will go away.Reference to Culture: · Scorpion
stings are expected where they live, because they all know what to do · They
live in a very close-knit community, as everybody comes round. · They
believe in God and also the devil, so they are religious. · Religion
different from ours as the rites are known to us to be useless. · We
place emphasis on medicine – they prefer religion · Many
different beliefs are associated with the scorpion, e.g. it moving moves the
poison in the woman?s blood etc.Limbo Family Life: · No
family life references in this poem as the poet, Brathwaite may well have been
taken from them to be a slave, and either doesn?t remember them, or doesn?t
want to, i.e. thinks of home too much and this is sad for him.Learning from Parents: · There
is no reference to this either because being taken away may mean that he
doesn?t remember anything, or he may consider any of this knowledge useless as
he has no hope of escaping to the culture that he knows.Reference to Culture: · The
culture here is very different.? Two
ideas are interwoven, limbo dance to keep the slaves happy, and the idea of
neither heaven or hell · The
first one is derived from whence they came, a dance they brought with them · Obviously
they are beaten and hate going below deck because he talks about the stick
being like this, and the sounds of the torturous culture that the slaves know · They
are not happy with their lives and find them dark (see ex. book notes) and the
only culture they know is brought with them · They
do, however, intermingle cultures as they are brought to one where they are
slaves.Poem at 39 Family Life: · It
is obviously tough for her as her father was a slave descendant.? She had to live with knowing she was from
slaves · Father
eager for it not to happen again, as he tells her how to get through it: · Not
through violence, but by abiding by rules, and being seen as respectedLearning from Parents: · Father
influential on her, as she does everything like he told her to.Reference to Culture: · Her
cultural upbringing is one of discrimination, (see notes on poets), but she
wants to break away from that · Father
was eager to show her that she was different, but not different, as she was
different, but shouldn?t be. · They
had some good things, as they had good food, possibly from their own culture,
showing that it is important and just as good, but different. · To
be generous, to everyone, presumably whites who she will forgive and forget. · She
sees no cultural differences.Overall · Clear
thing in all 3 is the fact that they are discriminated against and want equal
rights · They
will fight for them, as they know how hard it can be · They
show faith in things, medicines of theirs, the breaking out with paper and the
music saving them.? This shows
determination.Favourite · My
faavourite poem was Limbo as it had
two different things in it · It
is also the most moving as it is graphical · It
shows light at the end of the tunnel throught their own faaith and the limbo
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