Somewhere In America Analysis

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Poetry by Heart Poetry Analysis In the poem, “Somewhere in America”, written by an anonymous poet associated with the Get Lit Project, brings up the truth about issues America has faced from generation to generation. Belissa Escobedo, Rhiannon McGavin, and Zariya Allen, are the three performers that help shed light on the world we live in today and how little it’s changed. The issues that the girls cover include the hypocrisy of society and the hidden truths that people have the right to know about. More specifically, these issues are very important to the nation, yet not discussed in school. “Somewhere in America” shows its two most dominant literary devices through allusion and symbolism. The theme of the poem is that the greatest …show more content…
The poet uses this device to assist in the conveyance of the central theme of the poem. With the use of allusion, it really helps the reader connect to the realities of society and its unrealistic values including different historically crucial events help dramaticize the theme as well. “Now somewhere in America, there is a child holding a copy of ‘Catcher in the Rye’” (Get Lit). A line in the poem alludes to the censorship of the novel, Catcher in the Rye” where the phrase “fuck you” appears more than once. Another line alludes to central issues from less than 60 years ago. It states that “the homepage of the KKK's website, and that's open to the public But that child will never have read "To Kill a Mockingbird" because the school has banned it for it's use of the "N" word”. This example alludes to the Klu Klux Klan’s hatred for anyone who is not of white supremacy to be inferior; their distasteful words and philosophy is open to the public for everyone to see. Yet when it comes to reading a book like “To Kill a Mockingbird”, it’s banned for its use of the “N” word which alludes to the word Negro referencing African Americans. In order to dramatize the theme, the girls stress the lack of empathy to various topics and how they are seen as vulgar and a shame to society. Unfortunately, there are things much worse that go uncensored. Allusion overall helps connect the real world examples to the truth among universal problems faced today where it is left unspoken

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