Grace Nichols uses language features for a particular purpose in her poem “Thoughts drifting through the fat black woman’s head while having a full bubble bath”. The purpose is to challenge the social prejudice against black women and to help fat black women to be more positive about their bodies. Juxtaposition and repetition help the readers to recognize the beauty of fat black women, sound techniques show that Nichols is resisting society telling her only thin is beautiful, and personification shows she wants to fight against the racial prejudice against her people. The purpose is important to think about, as nowadays the beauty of fat black women is undervalued and this hurts those people’s confidence in themselves.
Through the use of juxtaposition …show more content…
She wants her people to also challenge the prejudice bravely and be very positive about her bodies. Nichols writes “Oh how I long to place my foot on the head of anthropology” to tell the readers how she challenges the authority who thinks black women are inferior to others. Readers’ attention and imagination are therefore attracted to the line due to the unusual imagery. The abstract noun “anthropology” is compared to a person who defines black and brown aborigines including Nichol’s race as inferior and subhuman races. It helps the readers to see she puts her lowest part (feet) on the highest part of anthropology (head), so they know Nichols does not care what negative things anthropology say about her people and she disrespects it. Therefore they may be influenced to do the same, thereby achieving her purpose. Similarly, Grace Nichols uses personification in “to swig my breasts in the face of history” to illustrate her disrespect to the history that made her people seem less advanced than the rest of the world. Nichols wants to convince the viewers that if history insults their people, they will not respect history as well. Moreover, her purpose is caused by the history of her people being insulted. In the 1800s, Sarah Baartman was famous for her large buttocks and known as “Hottentot Venus”. “Hottentot” describes her race and is recognized as an offensive word today as it disrespects the Khoikhoi people who dislike this name. She was forced to exhibit her body shape in English museum against her will like a slave when she was alive, and she was dissected after she passed away to be used in scientific research. This is an example of the racist prejudice against black women, and it encourages Nichols to use personification to challenge anthropology and history, for the purpose of opposing the social prejudice and encouraging her people
Through the use of juxtaposition …show more content…
She wants her people to also challenge the prejudice bravely and be very positive about her bodies. Nichols writes “Oh how I long to place my foot on the head of anthropology” to tell the readers how she challenges the authority who thinks black women are inferior to others. Readers’ attention and imagination are therefore attracted to the line due to the unusual imagery. The abstract noun “anthropology” is compared to a person who defines black and brown aborigines including Nichol’s race as inferior and subhuman races. It helps the readers to see she puts her lowest part (feet) on the highest part of anthropology (head), so they know Nichols does not care what negative things anthropology say about her people and she disrespects it. Therefore they may be influenced to do the same, thereby achieving her purpose. Similarly, Grace Nichols uses personification in “to swig my breasts in the face of history” to illustrate her disrespect to the history that made her people seem less advanced than the rest of the world. Nichols wants to convince the viewers that if history insults their people, they will not respect history as well. Moreover, her purpose is caused by the history of her people being insulted. In the 1800s, Sarah Baartman was famous for her large buttocks and known as “Hottentot Venus”. “Hottentot” describes her race and is recognized as an offensive word today as it disrespects the Khoikhoi people who dislike this name. She was forced to exhibit her body shape in English museum against her will like a slave when she was alive, and she was dissected after she passed away to be used in scientific research. This is an example of the racist prejudice against black women, and it encourages Nichols to use personification to challenge anthropology and history, for the purpose of opposing the social prejudice and encouraging her people