Analyzing "Middle Passage"


 

Allusion:
In the poem Sanchez refers to the slavery going through the middle passage to America. Sanchez states “watch as I take you through the middle passage”.

Tone:
The tone of the poem seemed sarcastic to us. We found that she presented the poem 7 years after the 9/11. She feels that America think the terrorism they’re going through is painful, but America is unaware that African-American ancestors went through as much pain. African-American ancestors went through the Middle Passage and still were able to unite when they arrived to America. 

Figurative Language:
A hyperbole was used when Sanchez states in the poem that "the coming to America was bad". Sanchez also uses a onamatopia in the poem when she was describing, a woman being raped.

Theme:
The theme of the poem is being united through struggles. The poem was cited 7 years after 9/11, which our nation many struggles against. Even though we had struggles we stayed united such as her ancestors that came from Africa who united with many other race, countries, and sexualities, to become what we are today.

Final Interpretation:
In the beginning of the poem, Sanchez puts the thought in the listeners head saying “what does it mean to be human". She went on to tell her story of how the middle passage passengers and race were brought to American to unite with humanity, through struggles. Sanchez was stating that all the things that the passengers have went through on slave ships to America is the struggle to be united, struggles are how we reunite. Sanchez states Lesbians, gays, and Jews in her poem to show that we aren’t the only one that went through or go through struggles to be unite today to feel human.

Chris: I do not like this poem out of all the poems we analyzed because her message wasn't clarified to me, and her laugh and moans were irritating.

Danyelle: I did not like this poem because she did too much. I think that she made it lengthy for no reason at all. Even though she was emphasizing some things with the use of repitition, she just added entirely too much.