preview

Beyond Katrina Poem Analysis

Good Essays

It is pretty poignant, yet honest to say that the hurricane Katrina has long derived an almost obsessional attention from Natasha writer. In “Beyond Katrina: A meditation of the Mississippi Gulf Coast”, Tretheway has purposely pictured the devastation scenario from witnesses’ narratives; hence her story could speak for many stories of people who are less visible, whom we cannot see struggling against the aftermath - the stories we may not know about how tenacious the return of Gulf Coast communities was from those tremendous sufferings they miserably faced up to. From a personal, yet natural perspective, Tretheway chose to form the portrait of the Gulfport district over the years by mixing poets, prose, handwritten letters and a few childhood photographs. Without a doubt, poems, coupe with prose, have successfully flesh out this tragic anecdote, though requiring individual interpretations and a deep understanding of the author’s perception. In this sense, my own analysis allows me to pick three poems, which altogether hold an ultimately general theme: the powerful return of Gulf Coast society – through memorization, reflection and above all, recovery. It is pretty strange when Tretheway has not been ridden out the storm at that time, yet her ability to extend that empathy to the local residents is undeniable. Thetheway refacts all the deaths and “bodies washed away” (65) through the lens of witnesses – her family and the whole community – with emotional depth and

Get Access