Half Caste and Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes :: John Agard Lawrence Ferlinghetti Culture Essays

Half Caste and Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two splendid People in a MercedesOf the two poetrys from the separate cultures booklet, I develop decided tocomp atomic number 18 Half-caste by John Agard and Two Scavengers in a Truck, TwoBeautiful People in a Mercedes by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. In thisessay I will discuss the meaning of the two songs and what the poet is onerous to get the reader to think and / or realise.The poem describes four pack held together for a mowork forcet at a red occupation light. There are two scavengers, garbage men on their wayhome later their round, and two beautiful people, an elegant coupleon the way to his architects office. The garbage mens day endswhere the young couples begins. The poet compares the two pairs indetail, and then seems to crave - at the end of the poem - whetherAmerica really is a democracy.The poems organize is fairly free. The poet doesnt use punctuationinstead, he begins a new business enterprise when he wants us to pause in ourreading. This slows the poem reduce and gives us time to appreciate eachidea. The poem appears very fragmented on the page. This might suggestthe fragmented or broken nature of society? The phrase used inthis poem is used in different shipway to convey his ideas. For examplethe title shows us straight away that the poem will be about thecontrasts between two pairs of people. Scavengers is a aspersionterm for the garbage men because it suggests that they live off therubbish of others - a scavenger beetle lives off rotting flesh.However, Beautiful People is a compliment. So, right from the start,we feel the garbage men are at a disadvantage. In line 7 Ferlinghettiwrites the garbage men are looking down into the Mercedes. This isliterally because the garbage truck is taller than the car there is ahidden wry message too. You might have expected the rich couple tolook down on the garbage men, not the other way round.The descriptions of the four people are very visual, making it easy toimagine the scene. Appearances tell us a lot. The rich couple are veryfashionable he has an high-priced hip three-piece linen suit (line11) while her blond hair is casually coifed (line 13). On the otherhand, the garbage men are grungy (line 17). The younger one hasshades & long hair (line 24) just like the Mercedes driver, whichforces us to compare the two. The poem wants us to seriously considerhow different two people of the same age and race could be so