Persimmons By Li-Young Lee Analysis

The speaker in Li-Young Lee’s poem “Persimmons” has been clearly raised in a bi-lingual, bi-cultural atmosphere. His experiences, although not entirely positive, have helped him grow into the man he is today. By using sensory imagery and “precise” diction along with the informal stanza structure, the speaker shows the reader that, despite his bi-cultural past, he now has realized, thanks to his experiences, that some of the most important things are not “visible” and that he is indeed proud of his ethnicity.

Li-Young Lee is a poet who has written numerous amounts of work. He is a writer of Chinese heritage, but he does not classify himself as an Asian American poet. According to an article titled, “Li-Young Lee,” Li-Young Lee refuses to classify himself as an Asian American writer because he strives to be a “global poet.” This statement demonstrates that Li-Young Lee uses poetry as a means of addressing universal concerns. He writes about experiences or lessons that are personal to him; however, these are experiences and lessons that people all around the world can relate to. Li-Young Lee specifically writes about his childhood memories and family. A particular poem that reflects his personal life and poetic writing is, “The Gift.” In “The Gift,” the use of vivid imagery, free verse, and a distinct tone portrays Li-Young Lee’s poetic style.

The following stanza nine, the poet has found two persimmons wrapped in newspaper in the cellar. He takes them and puts them in his windowsill to ripen. Again, the persimmons are an important symbol because in stanza

Poems are built with tradition, but in his case, the speaker wants to end tradition just as he wants to end racism. In line two and three, they both end with the same word which is called symploce. Symploce is a combination of anaphora and epistrophe which implies that these two lines are an important point of the figure of speech. The poem was written by stating a cause and effect. The line beginng with by is the cause and I being the effect. Its an explination of how he will fight social injustice. It also helps readers to use and understand the most effective way to fight social

The poem describes the weather and its effect on cotton flower by pointing out the dying branches and vanishing cotton. The image of insufficiency, struggle and death parallel the oppression of African American race. The beginning of the poem illustrates the struggle and suffering of the cotton flower; which represent the misery of African Americans and also gives an idea that there is no hope for them. But at the end the speaker says “brown eyes that loves without a trace of fear/ Beauty so sudden for that time of year” (lines 13-14). This shows the rise of the African American race, and their fight against racism. The author used mood, tone and

Lee was a vital character in East of Eden as he prompted some of the most meaningful conversations and questions for other characters and readers, themselves. Many critics view Lee as the stereotypical, “inscrutable, wise Oriental man” because of the times when he was robustly Chinese. Although, in Part two of the story, Lee tried to convince himself that he was “American”, but acted Chinese as it was what people expected from him. Lee said to Samuel, “Pidgin they expect, and pidgin they’ll listen to. But English from me they don’t listen to, and so they don’t understand it.” (Steinbeck, 163) Lee thought it was best for him to stick with his status quo, and he did with the way he spoke and the way he looked.

The loss of somebody or someone can lead to PTSD, which can later lead to other effects, and it is said that up to 20% of all adults in America who have experienced some type of loss develops PTSD. (BS-1) Towards the beginning of the novel Under the Persimmon Tree, there is a character named Najmah who loses the ability to speak and loses control of her life, as a result of Mada-jan and Habib’s loss. (BS-2) As an effect of Baba-jan and Nur missing from her life, Najmah changes her mindset and the decisions she makes from then on. (BS-3) Najmah’s relationships with others and voice is altered, this happens once she meets Nusrat and she adjusts due to her losses. (TS) Throughout the novel Under the Persimmon Tree, we see a character named

The third stanza transitions into Lee discussing an intimate moment that he is sharing with a white girl named Donna. This scene seems like the turning point in which Lee recognizes the fading aspects of his Chinese heritage. The fact that Lee makes it evident that the girl he is sleeping with is white really highlights how he is now fully immersed in American Culture. He also talks about trying to teach Donna different words in Chinese, but there are some words that he has forgotten. Lee forgetting these words emphasizes a point in his life where he might have identified more with his American Culture; he does not dwell on the fact that he cannot remember these words and gets right back into telling her how beautiful she is in English. This is an instance where Lee’s cultural identity might have lied been more in line with American values rather than his Chinese values.

Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker expresses prominent themes of language and racial identity. Chang-Rae Lee focuses on the struggles that Asian Americans have to face and endure in American society. He illustrates and shows readers throughout the novel of what it really means to be native of America; that true nativity of a person does not simply entail the fact that they are from a certain place, but rather, the fluency of a language verifies one’s defense of where they are native. What is meant by possessing nativity of America would be one’s citizenship and legality of the country. Native Speaker suggests that if one looks different or has the slightest indication that one should have an accent, they will be viewed not as a native of

(AGG)Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “only in the darkness can you see the stars.” with this, Nusrat relates because the stars shined brighter in the darkness of Faiz’s death. (BS-1)In the book, Under The Persimmon Tree, Nusrats’ loved ones are related to the stars in her mind because she has a basic connection with the stars. (BS-2) Additionally, when Nusrat realizes Faiz is dead, the author uses stars to symbolize her loss of faith. (BS-3)Similarly, the author uses Nusrat’s connection to the stars to symbolize her loss of faith when she accepts Faiz is dead. (TS)Furthermore, at critical moments in Nusrat’s life, the author uses Nusrats’ connection with the stars to highlight how she loses faith.

All three of the poems discussed in this essay relate to the struggles suffered by African Americans in the late 18th century to the early 19th century in many different ways. They had to live under harsh

In Li Young Lee’s Persimmons, the idea of cultural identity is a protruding theme throughout the poem. Lee begins the poem as a student from another country, speaking a different language and is immediately shamed for his language barrier. Lee’s initial interaction with mentioning the stark cultural differences he is presented with is the beginning of his struggle to find his own cultural identity. Lowe discusses the importance of recognizing two cultures and mentions the idea of cultural hybridity to help describe literature surrounding being Asian-American (33). Lee’s poem is exemplifying the notion of this cultural identity and goes along with Lowe’s explanation of cultural hybridity by “refus(ing) static or binary conceptions of ethnicity, replacing notions of identity with multiplicity and shifting the emphasis for ethnic "essence" to cultural hybridity.” (33). Lee takes the reader on a journey of discovering his own cultural identity by recalling moments in which he did not necessarily pertain to one culture or the other. Each memory is essential to the creation of his own cultural identity. Another important factor found throughout the poem is the mention of the persimmon which is found in almost every stanza. I will be dissecting this poem into how the different memories interact with each other to dispute this notion of culture as a binary concept, and how the persimmon acts as a conduit to recognize the differences in the culture but also unifies them through the memory of the persimmon.

(AGG) Many people change due to losses that they go through, they could either suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or just simply learn how to deal with their troubles that they are now faced with. (BS-1) Najmah’s lifestyle changes in many ways after losing her father and brother, she learns to deal with things and becomes a lot more mature knowing shen needs to protect what's left of her family. (BS-2) One Najmah loses her mother, her last loving family member, she begins to lose faith and hope and suffers from PTSD as she travels to the Pakistani border. (BS-3) Nusrat has changed Najmah in many different ways that helped her continue moving forwards and searching for her family, Nusrat even helped her go back to her homeland with her

Despite Mrs. Walkers earlier assertion of her knowledge about persimmons and the speaker’s lack of knowledge, we observe that she does not know whether it is sweet without cutting it and tasting its insides, unlike the speaker, who claims to know. Moreover, his knowledge comes not from observation by sight alone, but as he states, one needs to “sniff the bottoms. /the sweet one will be fragrant.” He asserts how, in order to gain knowledge of something’s (or someone’s) essence, sight alone does not suffice. Furthermore, the paintings done by the speaker’s father illustrate the relationship between the inner and the outer, when the father shares, “I painted them hundreds of times / eyes closed. These I painted blind. / some things never leave a person: / scent of the hair of one you love, / the texture of persimmons, / in your palm, the ripe weight.” The father’s art distinguishes the difference between the inward essence and our colored perception of the outwards. The father is able to paint this fruit sightlessly because he uses his other four senses when he recalls his impression of persimmons. The art he creates attests to the subjectivity of perception: it is colored by emotional undertones, “the scent of the hair of one you love,” similar to how the speaker was biased when he called Donna “beautiful as the moon.” This illustration attest to the unreliability of sight and affirms how, just as we are biased in favor of something, we are also biased in our judgment of other’s difference. Whether we call persimmons by this English word, by the name “Chinese apple” (which, according to dictionary definition, is incorrect) or any other, is insignificant to what the fruit is

(AGG) Many authors use symbolism to show the development of a character, like the author of Under The Persimmon Tree does. (BS-1) In the beginning of the novel, Najmah changes from a childlike girl to an adult-like woman and the author uses the bukri, or baby goat, to symbolize this