The Melting Pot was written by Adrienne Rich in 1968. She was an American poet. Taken from poets.org, she wrote poetry collection like The Diamond Cutters (Harper & Brothers, 1955), Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law (Harper & Row, 1963), Leaflets (W. W. Norton, 1969), and the others more. In that 1960s poetry, the content of her poem explores about women’s role in society, racism, and the Vietnam War. One of that is The Melting Pot (1968), its content is about racism. On each stanza, this poem tells the story about racism and discrimination to a group of people, related to the history of America at the time until 1968.
The Melting Pot related to the American History, which is about African-American civil rights movement. Began with Abraham Lincoln’s …show more content…
“Johann and Jan and Jean and Juan, Giovanni and Ivan” (Rich, 928), is European Name. Johann name came from German. Jan used in Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Czech, Polish, Slovene, German, Catalan, and English. The name Jean from German, English, and Scottish. Juan came from Spanish, Giovanni from Italian, and Ivan from Russian. They are European people, they came to America and allowed to become an American. “All freshly christened John” (Rich, 928) means that they born again as an American, the European accepted as American people. It marked with the name John that has come from America's …show more content…
Every time, Sam was tried to enter that pot, which means to accepted to be an American. As Sam tried, the White people, who are European, always rejected him. It shows by the first and second line, “and every time Sam tried that pot, they threw him out again” (Rich, 928). The European reaction shows by the third and fourth line, “Keep out. This is our private pot. We don’t want your black stain” (Rich, 928). They think they have to keep Sam out of America because that is their own pot. They don’t want Sam’s black stain. Black stain is the metaphor of the black people. This line finally clarifies that Sam is a black, an African-American people. Sam used as a representative to mention an African-American
The Melting Pot related to the American History, which is about African-American civil rights movement. Began with Abraham Lincoln’s …show more content…
“Johann and Jan and Jean and Juan, Giovanni and Ivan” (Rich, 928), is European Name. Johann name came from German. Jan used in Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Czech, Polish, Slovene, German, Catalan, and English. The name Jean from German, English, and Scottish. Juan came from Spanish, Giovanni from Italian, and Ivan from Russian. They are European people, they came to America and allowed to become an American. “All freshly christened John” (Rich, 928) means that they born again as an American, the European accepted as American people. It marked with the name John that has come from America's …show more content…
Every time, Sam was tried to enter that pot, which means to accepted to be an American. As Sam tried, the White people, who are European, always rejected him. It shows by the first and second line, “and every time Sam tried that pot, they threw him out again” (Rich, 928). The European reaction shows by the third and fourth line, “Keep out. This is our private pot. We don’t want your black stain” (Rich, 928). They think they have to keep Sam out of America because that is their own pot. They don’t want Sam’s black stain. Black stain is the metaphor of the black people. This line finally clarifies that Sam is a black, an African-American people. Sam used as a representative to mention an African-American