Half Caste and Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes :: John Agard Lawrence Ferlinghetti Culture Essays

Half Caste and Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a MercedesOf the two poems from the separate cultures booklet, I have decided tocompare Half-caste by John Agard and Two Scavengers in a Truck, TwoBeautiful People in a Mercedes by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. In thisessay I will discuss the meaning of the two poems and what the poet istrying to get the reader to think and / or realise.The poem describes four flock held together for a moment at a redtraffic light. There are two scavengers, garbage men on their wayhome after their round, and two beautiful people, an elegant coupleon the way to his architects office. The garbage mens day destructionswhere the young couples begins. The poet compares the two pairs indetail, and then seems to ask - at the end of the poem - whetherAmerica really is a democracy.The poems structure is fairly free. The poet doesnt use punctuationinstead, he begins a new line when he wants us to kick downstairs in ourreading. This slows the poem down and gives us time to appreciate eachidea. The poem appears very fragmented on the page. This might suggestthe fragmented or broken nature of society? The language used inthis poem is used in different ways to convey his ideas. For examplethe title shows us directly away that the poem will be about thecontrasts between two pairs of people. Scavengers is a belittlingterm for the garbage men because it suggests that they live off the wish-wash of others - a scavenger beetle lives off rotting flesh.However, Beautiful People is a compliment. So, right from the start,we feel the garbage men are at a disadvantage. In line 7 Ferlinghettiwrites the garbage men are looking down into the Mercedes. This isliterally because the garbage truck is taller than the car there is ahidden ironic contentedness too. You might have expected the rich couple tolook down on the garbage men, not the other way round.The descriptions of the four people are very visual, devising it easy toimagine the scen e. Appearances tell us a lot. The rich couple are veryfashionable he has an expensive hip three-piece linen suit (line11) speckle her blond hair is casually coifed (line 13). On the otherhand, the garbage men are grungy (line 17). The younger one hassunglasses & long hair (line 24) just wish the Mercedes driver, whichforces us to compare the two. The poem wants us to seriously considerhow different two people of the same age and race could be so