Arrival by Ortiz Cofer
When we arrived, we were expelled
like fetuses
from the warm belly of an airplane.
Shocked by the cold,
we held hands as we skidded
like new colts on the unfamiliar ice.
We waited winter in a room sealed
by our strangeness.
Watching the shifting tale of the streets,
our urge to fly toward the sun
etched in nailprints like tiny wings
in the grey plaster of the windowsill,
we hoped all the while
that lost in the city's monochrome
there were colors we couldn't
yet see
The poem is about the traumatic
experiences of immigrants arriving in a foreign country. They came with high
expectations, they hoped that everything would be better, but these feelings
quickly changed into fear, loneliness and grief. This is compared to the shock of
birth (from the warm security of the mother's womb into the cold, foreign
world) and to a foal sliding helplessly on icy ground. Their feeling of the
foreignness isolates them first, they live like in a prison it. They want to go
far, far away from this country. In spite of this situation they have not given
up hope for better times yet.
When I read the poem, it somehow made me sad. I guess I always knew that it's
not easy for immigrants to get accustomed to being in a new country. However, I
never knew how much they suffer in their new situation. When I read
the poem, it somehow made me sad. I guess I always knew that it's not easy for
immigrants to get accustomed to being in a new country. However, I never knew
how much they suffer in their new situation. Many of them have to emigrate,
because war broke out for instance. These immigrants just want to live
their lives, but they can't do it. But most migrants are precluded
from establishing a new career in this country from the start.
This poem describes
an atmosphere of fear, loneliness, grief, but also after hope for improvement. They try to give to themselves over
and over again mutually hold in every situation and predicament situation.
However, they feel too weak and do not come against the big mass. They want to
be just free, freely like a bird. And they do not want to be caught in the
loneliness and fear. The
speaker accomplished to reach a level of fear and loneliness by means of
comparisons and metaphors. In lines 1 and 3
(“When we arrived, we were expelled like fetuses from the warm belly of an
airplane.” ) there is a metaphor the speaker uses to illustrate the
experiences of immigrants arriving in a foreign country, especially the rejection they are met with by many native people. One of many comparisons can be found in lines 4 and 6 (“Shocked by the
cold, we held hands as we skidded like new colts on the unfamiliar ice. „) In
the poem the speaker says that Immigrants are very helpless at the first time.
They need the help of others in order to get along in this country, whether
it's with the language or with documents. (They are compared to foals.) Another
comparative construct can be extricated from lines 9 through 12. (“Watching the
shifting tale of the streets, our urge to fly toward the sun etched in
nailprints like tiny wings in the grey plaster of the windowsill, “)Here the
speaker says that migrants would like to be free and not feel like they are in
a prison. They want to experience good times rather than bad ones.
I don´t have a problem with immigrants.
After all, they are normal people just like you and me so nobody should reject
them, but instead welcome them with open arms.