When I was reading the poem by Jamaal May, I was quickly
intrigued by the boy that he writes about. Although we had not discussed this
in class, does anyone think that he tried to bring himself into this poem? I
believe that when Jamaal was describing the boy from Detroit, he was picturing
himself. I am beginning to think that he thought back to his own childhood when
talking about the normal smile the boy had and the beautiful city that the boy
was raised in. Obviously, as everyone should, Jamaal takes offense when people
talk rudely about his city and because of this, he felt an obligation to
describe his own upbringing in his poem. What are everyone else’s thoughts?
This is an interesting idea, I hadn't considered Jamaal to be within the poem until you brought it up! I feel like it's very possible he was speaking of himself, and while that does make the poem immensely more personal, I'm not sure it makes a difference in terms of what the poem is commenting on. When I was reading the poem I saw the boy at a big party, surrounded by friends, blowing out birthday candles with confetti everywhere. It's an interesting train of thought to think about the different stories we build from Jamaal's words. It makes me think who's interpretation matters more, that of the reader or the writer? Or can the two interpretations not even be compared?
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting to look back to this poem this far into the semester. Like Skylar, I had not considered Jamaal to be part of the poem itself until you said so. I think that it might not be him exactly, but maybe a version of himself.
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