The Arrivants Literary Elements

The events are presented from a third person objective point of view. The narrator is unnamed.

Since the poem is written as blank verse, it has neither form nor meter.

In the first part, the author talks about the birth of the civilized world and he compares civilization with a great spider spreading itself along the pale glazing bottom of the water. The comparison has the purpose of making the reader understand that while civilization is perceived as being something positive, it can also have negative effects and be portrayed in a dangerous way.

We find alliteration in the line ‘warm dead. warm merchandise’ but no assonance can be found in the poem.

In the second part of the poem, the narrator notes ironically how when humanity discovered God, the dream became murky, almost as if humanity forgot about what they wanted to achieve. Thus, in this context, religion does not offer clarity but rather only serves to make people feel confused about what their purpose in life is.

Free verse poem

The elements described in the poem take place on the African continent and the narrative voice describes events happening from the beginning of time until the present day.

The tone used in the poem makes the reader believe everything is happening at a quick peace. The author presents the events in a hurried way presenting the events happening almost in a tragic manner.

It is hard to determine a protagonist or an antagonist in the poem since it tries to present the way humanity evolved. However, the impression left is that the past, a time when humans were concerned only with getting their necessities is the protagonist while the present, a time when everyone is self-centered and bent on getting as many material things as they can is the antagonist.

The major conflict is between the old and the new, between the primordial way of living and the new consumerism way.

The poem reaches its climax when the poem reaches the present times when everything falls apart.

The presence of Balaam foreshadows the way in which humanity will become even more morally degraded as time passes.

In the third part, the author presents the Hollywood’s depiction of African life, presenting everyone as savages. This is an understatement especially considering how humanity was birthed in the African continent.

In the second part of the poem the author mentioned the ‘foreign cornfields’ ready to be kneaded by the ‘black wife’. Corn was native of Mexico and Europeans and the other continents did not discover corn only after the discovery of America by the Europeans. Through this image, the author alludes the way in which the Europeans will use black slaves to subdue the land and the way they will try to profit from the land as much as they can using ‘black hands’ as workforce.

The term dream is used here in a general way to make reference to all the aspirations and desires people had from the society. It may also refer to the idea of civilization in general.

In the second part of the poem, "white dream wrestle(s) to life’’.

No hyperbole can be found.

The first line of the last part of the poem, "Out of this roar’’.