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Poem analysis - Arrival by Ortiz Cofer

602 Words / ~1½ pages sternsternsternsternstern_0.5 Author Pia M. in Feb. 2011
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Gesamtschule FFO

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2010

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Pia M. ©
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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.

 


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