Protest Poetry Essay

Compare how and why poets depicts an idea or an event to protest against prejudice.
The purpose of protest poetry is to promote for positive change. Prejudice is making preconceived assumptions of a person or a community based on limited understanding, being prejudiced moves you below others, even societies. Prejudice is belittling because people whom encourage prejudice don’t see you as a person, they see you by your colour, they see you through stereotypes, see you as a character, and they don’t see you as equals in their society. In this essay I will comparing ‘Caged Bird’ by Maya Angelou and ‘refugee’ by Jane Belfield. Prominent themes such as prejudice, discrimination and racism are ideas that both poets to convey to us.
‘Caged Bird’ tackles the issue of racism due to prejudice against African Americans. It is the preconceived stereotypes held by the majority that is white society has placed African Americans as subordinates. They are subjected to inequality as they are often paid lower, given a low amount of
Similarly, preconceived stereotypes are often revolved around identity, because they are refugees, they are placed as subordinates below the white society, just like the African Americans.
This poem specially tackle on discrimination, actual acts against the refugee, ‘They put a dead dog on my doorstep, with a note. Illiterate obscenities…’ This quote states how they are being treated, the sender obviously wanted the refugee to die. Also the refugee is a ¬target of bullying as shown in these quotes ‘All day I hear voices, full of hate.’ Irony was used in the quote ‘To be target of this racist wit?’ ‘They call me slope’ Now in the minds of the unjust people racist wits are considered funny, but it is not humorous at all. Contrast was used, ‘slope… mate’ This could be read like this, slope being the racist term differs the refugee to the rest being called