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Where The Sidewalk Ends And Abbigole's Our Corrupt Society

Decent Essays

According to Oxford’s dictionary, a utopia is an imaginary place or state in which everything is perfect. But in today’s world everything does not work out, so there is a lasting feeling to conjure that everyone lives perfectly to block out the current state of affairs. Throughout Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends and Abbigole’s Our Corrupt Society, there is a direct link to the theme of the illusion and reality of something that relates to the ultimate impact of societies today using poetic devices and literary terms.
The positive connotation of “the grass grows soft and white” (Silverstein 3) reflects on this place being something magical and illusionist, as grass realistically does not grow white. This connotation invokes the …show more content…

The metaphor from Where The Sidewalk Ends, where it compares the air to peppermint (6), it gives the understanding of the pleasant and sweet utopia that is constantly dreamt of. Peppermint is a sweet, sentimental feeling that is coined with the reunion of families over the winter holidays, and it holds a significant meaning to the perfect world as an enticing aroma. With the natural scents and sights tuned perfectly, including the sun burning “crimson bright” (4) solidifies the quintessential environment that everyone desires. This gives a comparison between a renowned smell with a flawless place, showing infinite ideal factors in the conceived utopia.
In the poem Our Corrupt Society, it strikes back the thought of atrocious things that happen currently, with enjambment used after the line, “Who are the real killers now?” (27). This suddenly triggers the burning ideas of lack of forgiveness and the will to take revenge on others for past actions. Using the poetic device here pauses the reader for a moment and has them reflect on wars of hatred among races to friends breaking up after a conflict, events that happened because one side felt they were cheated, and the other side felt the same thing. People all deserve “love” (21) and “compassion” (6), but the current society doesn’t understand how much these words are necessary to divert away from dystopia.

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