Summary:
Analyzes the Yusef Komunyakaa poem about the Vietnam War "Facing It." Provides insight into Komunyakaa's guilt over his part in the war and the conflict between light and dark depicted in the poem. Discusses the use of the first person narrative and it's importance to the poem.
Several years following the Vietnam War, Yusef Komunyakaa being a Vietnam survivor himself, details in his poem "Facing It", his emotions while at the Vietnam Memorial. Yusef allows the reader to experience the conflicts of his feelings, in the perfect example of man versus himself. Komunyakaa's poem incorporates two contrasts, light and dark and the present-day reality and its distant past.
Of the contrasts, the comparison between light and dark commences the poem. This contrast is in turn composed of race and Yusef's environment. His references to skin color leave the reader questioning whether the memories of the war, also stirred reminders of how Yusef's "black face" could have played a role in the way he was treated during his war effort. The speaker alludes to his own reflection in the black granite as "the profile of.....
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. There are 469 words (approx.
2 pages at 300 words per page) in the full essay.
Read the rest of this Essay with our Facing It, An Analysis of the Poem Access Pass.
