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Checking Out Me History - Coggle Diagram
Checking Out Me History
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The poem looks through the voice and experiences of the poet at our understanding through history. We look at how history is taught and the conflict between fact and truths which is sometimes obscured by race or gender.
Themes
Racial identity and history are important to the poem and Agard writes with a phonetic style to capture their voice and create tone emphasising his Caribbean origins
Conflict occurs when we see the contrast with what we are taught and what we are not, the nature of the characters and history involved being 'conflict' and the conflict of the victims (those who we remember and don't)
John is also at conflict with 'dem' or with fact and fiction to emphasise the conflict in his own identity
Agard looks, not just at his own ethnicity, but all those groups who are overlooked in favour of the 'white British' contemporaries. This highlights the conflict in these 'false' history
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Short verses
The short verse and irregular rhyme creates an almost drum beat, this can reflect the Caribbean traditions of music and verbal passing on of stories
The stanza also looks at a conflict orientated character indicated by works such as 'battalion','thorn' and 'revolution'.
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The pronoun 'dem', represents a faceless body and a general dislike of authority
About
The narrator is talking about his identity and how it links to his knowledge of history. He was taught about British history but wasn't taught about his Caribbean roots. He lists famous figures from history and questions why he doesn't know about people from other cultures who did great things. He mentions men and women from diverse backgrounds who should be celebrated. At the end, he says he's going to create his own identity based on his heritage.
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Power of humans
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Metaphors of blindness, e.g. "Blind me to me own identity, show how the speaker feels he's been badly treated by those in power
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Memory
Memories often contain specific, personal details which give them a unique power. But power nonetheless
Negative Emotions-Anger
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Agard avoids using standard British grammar to try and distance himself from the society he's criticising
His anger leads him to juxtapose British pantomime and nursery rhyme characters with Caribbean heroes. These comparisons are deliberately ridiculous, emphasising his frustrations with "Dem" in a humorous way