Carolyn Forch's Poem 'The Colonel'

Carolyn Forché poem “The Colonel” was written about her real-life meeting with a Salvadoran military officers just before the outbreak of the Salvadoran Civil War. She was a 27 year old poet working as a human rights activist and was touring El Salvador when she caught the attention of the military-led government. During this time Forché observed the brutality and oppressiveness of the military and its blatant human rights violation. As a human rights activist and poet, Forché created “The Colonel” to display these atrocities and to show the plight of the Salvadoran people. Carolyn Forché uses a very formal writing style, a narrative prose poem, to set the serious journalistic tone of the poem and to give and eye-witness account of the situation. …show more content…
In observing the Colonel’s house, Forché sees “broken bottles embedded in the walls” of the house. This scene transforms into depictions of torture and violence, as the broken bottles were being used to “scoop the kneecaps from a man’s legs or cut his hands to lace” (Forché 473). This quick transition from a normal house to an interrogation room, catches the reader off guard and exposes him to the suffering of the Salvadoran people. The extent of brutality of the military, represented by the Colonel, is also shown by the fact that this torture isn’t occurring in some secluded prison, it’s happening in his own home. The Colonel is eating right next to room filled with agony and despair. The scene dehumanizes the military and depicts them as monsters without mercy. As the poem continues the Colonel becomes slightly intoxicated from the evening meal, and his angers grows, leading to display his collection of ears from the people he has either killed and or tortured. Seeing the ears, Forché compares them to “dried peach halves” ((Forché 473). This comparison puts a strong image in the mind of the reader. The revolting brown color of the rotting flesh of the ears, and the wrinkles of the dehydrated flesh would be enough to make anyone sick at the thought. This putrid image brings up the question of what kind of person would cut off an ear, let alone keep them in a grocery bag. By …show more content…
The repetition of the word “ears” is used to bring attention to the villianousness actions of the Salvadoran Government. The repetition magnifies the amount of ears, magnifying the amount of people tortured and slaughtered; Forché wants to ensure that the reader is observing the extent of the killing. Forché repeats “the line “some of the ears on the floor” (Forché 473). Some the ears are “pressed to the ground” (Forché 473) and some hear the scrap in the Colonel’s voice (Forché 473). The ears catching the scraps in the Colonel’s voice are the activists like Forché who work to make aware the injustices and attempt to fight against them. The Colonel mocks poems and poetry because he sees poetry as useless, weak, and playing no part in the real world. Yet, this the tone, sent a challenge to activists, it got there attention, so poems like “The Colonel” were written to help the people of El Salvador, to help the victims whose ears were cut off. In the ears catching the tone, Forché shows the power of poetry and its abilities to be a tool of justice. The ears “pressed to the ground” represents those are aware of the affairs in El Salvador. The ears represent the people of El Salvador, who see the atrocities of the governments and fight to correct them. The ears also represents the other nations, such as the U.S.A and the U.N their role in ensuring human rights