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Where There's A Wall Analysis

Decent Essays

Georcia A. Eugenio In “Where there’s a Wall” poem by Joy Kogawa, the author addressed how a person can get through the wall and how a person behaves on the other side of the wall. Just like in real life, people have motivations as to why they act in a certain way. In the poem, the reasons that lead the character to walk away from the wall are the speaker’s fear and self-interest. One reason that was hindering the speaker to try to get through the wall was fear. He listed several ways he could escape but it seemed doubtful and unsafe to him. The lines “there are methods of torture/for extracting clues…there are zepplins/helicopter, rockets, bombs/bettering rams/armies with trumpets/whose all at one blast/shatters the foundations,” shows imagery of violence which …show more content…

His decision to stay was because he fears dying and finding what was on the the other side. For example, when a person decides to have a vacation out of the country. Obviously, that person would not choose to spend his me time in a chaotic place such as Syria. He would take in account his safety as there is an on-going war in the place. Second purpose was the speaker’s personal obligation to care for himself. The lines “where there’s a wall/there are words to whisper...I hear every sound you make/but cannot see you/I incline in the wrong direction/a voice cries faint as in a dream/from the belly of the wall” revealed that his sense of concern was not enough to overpower how he gave importance to himself. He wanted to communicate but he could not do it because the things he thought he could do were only limited, that he could only hear and whisper but he could not see the person. When in fact, he suggested so many ways to get through the wall. Still, he used the barrier as an excuse for not being present and helpful to the person on the other side. The speaker’s priority was

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