This poem is very distinguishing of Alice Walker's flair and subject matter. This poem deals with a transformation of some sort from bondage to freedom.
In the first 2 sections, there is a reference to Walker's experience as a child. For example, as a result of a BB gun accident, her eye was harshly injured. The verses linger their explanation of how the personality substantially looked and the result it had on her viewpoint in life. This unappealing description is paired with the appearance of a individual in slavery in section two. The character relates how she is "holding their babies / cooking their meals / sweeping their yards / washing their clothes" with complete and complete disgust. I believe that she connects this time in her life with the physical hatred she describes as appearing in the first stanza. She ends the second stanza by highlighting her difficulty in life as "dark and rotting / and wounded, wounded" in order to put forward precisely how horrifying the dilemma of the African American can be.
However, the manner of the poem changes radically after these two beginning verses and becomes more positive about life. One of the repeated stanzas now enters and becomes the central focus of the poem. In stanza three: "I would give/ to the human race / only hope, " the persona proclaims that she is no longer going to allow racial persecution to rule who she really is. She doesn't want to forget what has happened in her past life, but she strives to present all African Americans with the gift of hope. This gift alone creates the person that is introduced in stanzas four and five.
In these lines, hope has allowed this woman to re-form her self-image, making it more optimistic. She now proudly declares that all the badness that once over-shadowed her life as a child has turned into a gift. She can know hear and understand the cries of the African American people. Her sicknesses that she once saw as incapacitating are in turn stepping stones that she has overcome and finds them to be beautiful in their own distinct way. Then again we see the message in stanza six that she only wants to give hope to the human race. This repetition serves to make the central message one that is loudly echoed and felt by the reader. Therefore, justice and hope become the roots of who this woman was and what she eventually had the chance to become.
I see this poem as a gift that Walker is giving to anyone who is willing to stand against the injustices of society. She uses her own personal afflictions in order to better create a stronger, individualized woman after the acquisition of hope. She uses her story; she enlists the help of the reader to put justice and hope back into society. Therefore, "Let us begin."
In the first 2 sections, there is a reference to Walker's experience as a child. For example, as a result of a BB gun accident, her eye was harshly injured. The verses linger their explanation of how the personality substantially looked and the result it had on her viewpoint in life. This unappealing description is paired with the appearance of a individual in slavery in section two. The character relates how she is "holding their babies / cooking their meals / sweeping their yards / washing their clothes" with complete and complete disgust. I believe that she connects this time in her life with the physical hatred she describes as appearing in the first stanza. She ends the second stanza by highlighting her difficulty in life as "dark and rotting / and wounded, wounded" in order to put forward precisely how horrifying the dilemma of the African American can be.
However, the manner of the poem changes radically after these two beginning verses and becomes more positive about life. One of the repeated stanzas now enters and becomes the central focus of the poem. In stanza three: "I would give/ to the human race / only hope, " the persona proclaims that she is no longer going to allow racial persecution to rule who she really is. She doesn't want to forget what has happened in her past life, but she strives to present all African Americans with the gift of hope. This gift alone creates the person that is introduced in stanzas four and five.
In these lines, hope has allowed this woman to re-form her self-image, making it more optimistic. She now proudly declares that all the badness that once over-shadowed her life as a child has turned into a gift. She can know hear and understand the cries of the African American people. Her sicknesses that she once saw as incapacitating are in turn stepping stones that she has overcome and finds them to be beautiful in their own distinct way. Then again we see the message in stanza six that she only wants to give hope to the human race. This repetition serves to make the central message one that is loudly echoed and felt by the reader. Therefore, justice and hope become the roots of who this woman was and what she eventually had the chance to become.
I see this poem as a gift that Walker is giving to anyone who is willing to stand against the injustices of society. She uses her own personal afflictions in order to better create a stronger, individualized woman after the acquisition of hope. She uses her story; she enlists the help of the reader to put justice and hope back into society. Therefore, "Let us begin."