The poem “Facing It”, by Vietnam soldier Yusef Komunyakaa, tells a story of himself visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The impact the memories and the memorial have on him are evident when he describes his emotional experience first seeing the 58,022 names. This is shown through the meaning behind his writing, figurative language, and the structure of the poem.
The meaning in this poem is to show the impact the Vietnam War had on the soldiers and the family and friends of the soldiers. Komunyakaa describes himself looking into the memorial and seeing his face “Hiding inside the black granite” (2). He then continues looking at the memorial and is nearly brought to tears. “I said I wouldn’t/ dammit; No tears/ I’m stone, I’m flesh” (3-5). His choice of using the word …show more content…
Komunyakaa is comparing himself to the memorial by saying he is stone – he is set in stone, he is strong, he is not vulnerable. But, he is also reminding himself that he is human and he has emotions and feeling that cannot be oppressed. However, he also is allowed to want to forget this memory. Komunyakaa describes looking into the memorial and seeing what he thinks is someone erasing the names. He sees in “the black mirror/a woman is trying to erase names./No, she’s brushing a boys hair” (29-31) . The significance behind this line has deeper meaning than Komunyakaa’s confusion. The soldier in the Vietnam War were all men, and the significance behind the woman brushing a boys hair is showing how them men lost in the war were all robbed of their lives and the people are not nearly as affected by the war as Komunyakaa is. It shows how this boy doesn’t have to deal with the terrible memories accompanied by the war that the other young men had to. Also the fact that he believed that the woman was erasing names shows how he wants someone to erase the memory. His
The meaning in this poem is to show the impact the Vietnam War had on the soldiers and the family and friends of the soldiers. Komunyakaa describes himself looking into the memorial and seeing his face “Hiding inside the black granite” (2). He then continues looking at the memorial and is nearly brought to tears. “I said I wouldn’t/ dammit; No tears/ I’m stone, I’m flesh” (3-5). His choice of using the word …show more content…
Komunyakaa is comparing himself to the memorial by saying he is stone – he is set in stone, he is strong, he is not vulnerable. But, he is also reminding himself that he is human and he has emotions and feeling that cannot be oppressed. However, he also is allowed to want to forget this memory. Komunyakaa describes looking into the memorial and seeing what he thinks is someone erasing the names. He sees in “the black mirror/a woman is trying to erase names./No, she’s brushing a boys hair” (29-31) . The significance behind this line has deeper meaning than Komunyakaa’s confusion. The soldier in the Vietnam War were all men, and the significance behind the woman brushing a boys hair is showing how them men lost in the war were all robbed of their lives and the people are not nearly as affected by the war as Komunyakaa is. It shows how this boy doesn’t have to deal with the terrible memories accompanied by the war that the other young men had to. Also the fact that he believed that the woman was erasing names shows how he wants someone to erase the memory. His