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Welcome To The Jungle Poem Analysis

Decent Essays

The poem Welcome to the Jungle characterizes how men perceive and treat a black woman; their traits beyond their appearance are often latent to men and sometimes may even be limited to being sexualized. The poem includes a counting of couplets with no punctuation to illustrate an ongoing trend and relation on what a black woman often encounters one after another. Similarly, the content of the couplets reveals a sense of discontent regarding the speaker’s life and interaction with men. It involves a poetic diction of dreaminess where she fancies being a white blonde that just had “fifty parties”, whereas portraying herself as a “fantasy” for men. Likewise, the title “Welcome to the Jungle” considers to be a dreaminess in terms of the poetic diction in a way that “jungle” is more humongous than a “park”, which refers to their opportunities or their “sun”. In the poem, Parker often seems to interact with many White men, although, her expectations from them doesn’t seem to be fulfilling or doesn’t develop any fondness. As she mentions, “With champagne I try expired white ones/ I mean pills I mean men/// All Men Have Been Created Equally/ To Shiver At The Thought Of Me” (44). She seems to emphasize that every man that she had encountered were amazed by her because of her distinctiveness from others. When men “shivers” from the thought of her it sets a clue that she triggers an extreme sensation for pleasure, but also, in contrast, “shivers” can relate to a shudder from horror or disgust. Hence, her constant interaction with men seems to suggest that they attain a sexual desire for her. Whereas the relationship with them is toxic and bears unfulfilling experience as she describes them to be “expired white ones”. This is striking because even though her sense of confidence and fierce is apparent, the power to control men’s view of her still remains to be just an idea. Furthermore, constantly being hypersexualized forms a tension that interferes with her desires, even with her brief requests; it must always be coupled with conditional favors such as her body as an incentive. For example, when the speaker mentions, “too much food every time can someone just/ give it to me when I get home// I know the answer is

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