Oxford Don and Half Caste Essay Example for Free

Oxford Don and Half Caste Essay The poems, Listen Mr. Oxford Don and Half Caste were both written by John Agard, and in both of these poems, Agard challenges the status quo. In Listen Mr. Oxford Don, he challenges the use of language and in Half Caste, he challenges views of ethnicity. In the poem Listen Mr. Oxford Don, Agard characterizes Mr. Oxford Don as the Guardian of English, and the idea of a person who uses the correct form of English. In this poem, Agard challenges the view that Standard English is the correct form of English, and other forms of English are of a lesser status. In the poem Half Caste, Agard challenges the reader prejudices towards people of mixed ethnicity. In Listen Mr. Oxford Don, Agard uses repetition of particular words and imagery to help him convey his ideas. He uses the phrase, is a dangerous one twice in the poem. He also uses sentence like, I ent have no gun to create the image of violence. Words such as, bashing and slashing are also used by Agard which suggest him being very threatening. The reason that Agard creates all these violent images is because he wants us to know that hes a peaceful man, but he can be very dangerous if people think that English has to be spoken in a particular way. Unlike Listen Mr. Oxford Don, in Half Caste Agard concentrates more on using imagery to make his point. An example of imagery used by Agard, when yu say half-caste yu mean tchaikovsky mix a black key wid a white key? Here, Agard is saying to the reader that Tchaikovsky uses both white and black notes, but no one calls him half caste because hes respected by others. Agard is asking the reader that if you can mix a black and white key, then why cant you be of mixed race? As the poem goes on, Agard carries on using examples to make his point, but this time it relates to his body. He says, why I offer yu half-a-hand an when I sleep at night I close half-a-eye. Hes saying this in a way that he can only have half a hand and half an eye because hes half caste or half made. When people call him half caste, hes offended because its like saying that hes not a complete human being, hes only half made. He wants these people to review the term half caste, and think about it before using as its the wrong term to use. Agard uses non-standard English in Listen Mr. Oxford Don. He uses a lot of double negatives for example, Me not no Oxford Don. Many of his spellings also comes from the Caribbean dialect: de, dont, ent, etc. Both double negatives and Caribbean dialect spellings are informal and non-standard. The purpose of him using these words is to show that hes against the academics because he knows that the academics would never write in a non-standard way like this. Agard also uses colloquial language, Im not a violent man Mr. Oxford Don. This type of language is used to speak not to write so its informal and non-standard. Agard uses non-standard English throughout the poem; this shows that hes unashamed to use it, and shows that hes challenging Standard English which is the accepted form of English. Alternatively, in Half Caste, non-standard English is used for different reasons. In this poem, Agard also uses words from the Caribbean dialect, for example, dem, yu, etc, but the effect of this is to show that hes not fully English and hes of a mixed race. Agard also uses the direct address; he refers to himself as I and refers to the reader as you as shown in this quotation, but yu must come back tomorrow wid de whole of yu eye an I will tell yu de other half of my story. Agard makes the reader feel as though the point is being made directly to them, and makes them feel more challenged that if they want to hear another half of his story, they need to be more open minded. Most importantly, they must not judge people because of their race. In Listen Mr. Oxford Don, theres no clear structure to the poem. There is not the same number of lines in each stanza, and theres no fixed number of syllables in each line like there would be in a Standard English poem. He also doesnt use any form of punctuation, and he even adds a slash in the middle of the line: to split/ up yu syntax. This makes it even more non-standard because slash breaks the rhythm of the poem. All of these things shows the fact that he doesnt believe Standard English is the only form of English; there are other forms of English which are equally legitimate. In Half Caste, the lines throughout the poem are generally quite short, the effect of this is to make the poem go faster, and make us receive short quick messages. Agard also uses many commands, for example, Explain yuself wha yu mean when yu say half-caste. The effect of this is to grab peoples attention, but its also asking the reader what do we mean when we say half caste. Do we say it because we feel prejudiced towards people of mixed ethnicity? In Listen Mr. Oxford Don, the tone starts off lightly; this is when hes talking about who he is and where hes from. As the poem goes on, he begins to talk about violence, I ent have no gun, I ent have no knife. This is when his tone starts to become quite aggressive and threatening. After this he says, I dont need no hammer to mash up your grammar, his tone becomes even more threatening because he says that he will speak whatever he wants. The word mash up implies violence, Agard is threatening to destroy the English language. Unlike Listen Mr. Oxford Don, the tone of Half Caste is lighthearted, only towards the end of the poem that the tone starts to get serious. This is when he says that we need to give people full respect if we want to understand them completely as human beings. If were categorizing them into groups, were not giving them respect. In both of the poems, Agard uses clever humor to grab our attention, but at the same to provoke our preconceptions. Both of these poems are very political, and have a social impact. In Listen Mr. Oxford Don, Agard is challenging the traditional institutions to say that theres no such thing as the correct form of English anymore. Society has moved on, and now we need to embrace other forms of English language as well because we all have different dialects, but each dialect is as valid as the other. The traditional form of English doesnt mean its more superior or more acceptable in society. In Half Caste, Agard not only wants to address the reader, hes challenging the reader into questioning their own preconceptions and prejudices. Hes also getting them to think about the implications of the words they use, because most people do not know the full meaning of it, and do not realize the weight of what theyre saying. For example, the word half caste can seriously offend the people who are of mixed ethnicity.