Oral Notes

– 3 Poems From Other Cultures Essay, Research Paper

`Night of the

Scorpion Family Life: · Mother

important as the night when she was stung sticks vividly in Ezekiel?s mind. · Father

desperate for mother to survive, as he, a sceptic, tries everything. · Mother

cares for kids, as she is pleased she was bitten and not the children. · All

families in community are concerned about each other, as everybody goes to

Ezekiel?s house and takes part in the rituals as if all this is part of normal

family life.Learning from Parents: · Learns

about scorpion stings, and rites involved with them in the community. · Importance

of thinking of others first, like in the last verse. · The

belief that the rites will work, and the sting will go away.Reference to Culture: · Scorpion

stings are expected where they live, because they all know what to do · They

live in a very close-knit community, as everybody comes round. · They

believe in God and also the devil, so they are religious. · Religion

different from ours as the rites are known to us to be useless. · We

place emphasis on medicine – they prefer religion · Many

different beliefs are associated with the scorpion, e.g. it moving moves the

poison in the woman?s blood etc.Limbo Family Life: · No

family life references in this poem as the poet, Brathwaite may well have been

taken from them to be a slave, and either doesn?t remember them, or doesn?t

want to, i.e. thinks of home too much and this is sad for him.Learning from Parents: · There

is no reference to this either because being taken away may mean that he

doesn?t remember anything, or he may consider any of this knowledge useless as

he has no hope of escaping to the culture that he knows.Reference to Culture: · The

culture here is very different.? Two

ideas are interwoven, limbo dance to keep the slaves happy, and the idea of

neither heaven or hell · The

first one is derived from whence they came, a dance they brought with them · Obviously

they are beaten and hate going below deck because he talks about the stick

being like this, and the sounds of the torturous culture that the slaves know · They

are not happy with their lives and find them dark (see ex. book notes) and the

only culture they know is brought with them · They

do, however, intermingle cultures as they are brought to one where they are

slaves.Poem at 39 Family Life: · It

is obviously tough for her as her father was a slave descendant.? She had to live with knowing she was from

slaves · Father

eager for it not to happen again, as he tells her how to get through it: · Not

through violence, but by abiding by rules, and being seen as respectedLearning from Parents: · Father

influential on her, as she does everything like he told her to.Reference to Culture: · Her

cultural upbringing is one of discrimination, (see notes on poets), but she

wants to break away from that · Father

was eager to show her that she was different, but not different, as she was

different, but shouldn?t be. · They

had some good things, as they had good food, possibly from their own culture,

showing that it is important and just as good, but different. · To

be generous, to everyone, presumably whites who she will forgive and forget. · She

sees no cultural differences.Overall · Clear

thing in all 3 is the fact that they are discriminated against and want equal

rights · They

will fight for them, as they know how hard it can be · They

show faith in things, medicines of theirs, the breaking out with paper and the

music saving them.? This shows

determination.Favourite · My

faavourite poem was Limbo as it had

two different things in it · It

is also the most moving as it is graphical · It

shows light at the end of the tunnel throught their own faaith and the limbo

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