The book Dien Can Dau by Yusef Komunyakaa is compiled of a number of poems written about the Vietnam War. Most of the poems talk about what soldiers went through in the Vietnam War and after, but a few also talk about the racism that was going on in Vietnam.
One of the poems that I really noticed a lot of racism is was Tu Do Street on page 29 is a great example of what it meant to be a black soldier in the Vietnam War. In the poem we see a black soldier going into the bar and tries to order a beer but the bartenders pretends to not understand him, but she understands all of the white soldiers in the bar, but only has a problem with the black one. The only thing that brought blacks and whites together was the fighting. They helped one another survive. The last part of the poem, “there’s more than a nation….to the underworld” (29) shows that the soldiers, white and black, were closer than they really thought. Both races were committing a sin by treating each other wrong, and according to this poem they would all end up in the “underworld”, in other words hell.
The other poem that I found to be pretty interesting was Losses on page 61. This poem was a great description of what happened to soldiers when they came back home from the war. Each verse descries something that they were faced with back home, whether it was PTSD or their girlfriends and wives leaving them because they had changed too much, and were a totally different person. The first verse “After Nam he lost himself, not trusting his hands with loved ones” showed that when soldiers came back they were scared about anything that happened. They weren’t the same confident people that went into the way, they were scared of trusting anyone or letting anyone trust them because they were afraid of letting anyone down. When soldiers return, they have lost so much that they have just lost themselves.
The third poem I found to be interesting was 2517th Birthday of the Buddha. This poem, I thought, was pretty interesting because it shows how people in Vietnam were so anti-war, that they took great measures to show that they don’t agree. One person lighted himself on fire in the middle of the street. Even today, that’s a symbol that people remember of how much people were against the war. According to the poem, the person who burned himself didn’t feel any pain.
The book Dien Can Dau by Yusef Komunyakaa is compiled of a number of poems written about the Vietnam War. Most of the poems talk about what soldiers went through in the Vietnam War and after, but a few also talk about the racism that was going on in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteOne of the poems that I really noticed a lot of racism is was Tu Do Street on page 29 is a great example of what it meant to be a black soldier in the Vietnam War. In the poem we see a black soldier going into the bar and tries to order a beer but the bartenders pretends to not understand him, but she understands all of the white soldiers in the bar, but only has a problem with the black one. The only thing that brought blacks and whites together was the fighting. They helped one another survive. The last part of the poem, “there’s more than a nation….to the underworld” (29) shows that the soldiers, white and black, were closer than they really thought. Both races were committing a sin by treating each other wrong, and according to this poem they would all end up in the “underworld”, in other words hell.
The other poem that I found to be pretty interesting was Losses on page 61. This poem was a great description of what happened to soldiers when they came back home from the war. Each verse describes something that they were faced with back home, whether it was PTSD or their girlfriends and wives leaving them because they had changed too much, and were a totally different person. The first verse “After Nam he lost himself, / not trusting his hands / with loved ones” showed that when soldiers came back they were scared about anything that happened. They weren’t the same confident people who went into the war—they had become scared of trusting anyone or letting anyone trust them because they were afraid of letting anyone down. When soldiers return, they have lost so much that they have just lost themselves.
The third poem I found to be interesting was 2517th Birthday of the Buddha. This poem, I thought, was pretty interesting because it shows how people in Vietnam were so anti-war, that they took great measures to show that they don’t agree. One monk lighted himself on fire in the middle of the street. Even today, the image of the monk burning is remembered as a sign of disapproval o the war. According to the poem, the person who burned himself didn’t feel any pain. His heart, however, didn’t burn. People tried to light his heart on fire, but it wouldn’t burn.