Analysis Of The Poem Hand-Me-Downs By Sarah Kay
In the poem, “Hand-Me-Downs” by Sarah Kay, the poet uses conflict and figurative language to show that anger is passed down from generation to generation. This is a problem because when a person “wears” anger, they do not ask themselves if the anger is worth it, and if it is having the affect it is supposed to have.
The author uses conflict to show that the individual could not solve what he is trying to solve. In this poem, the character “wears” this anger, which had been passed down from generations, dating back to his early ancestors. But, near the end of the story the poet shows that his “grandfather suffered just as many broken windows, broken hearts, broken bones?” (Kay 42-44). This shows that the main character’s anger is from his ancestors, …show more content…
It shows that no one thinks that the anger "fits" the character. The character had “taken to wearing around your father’s hand-me-down anger. I wish that you wouldn’t. It’s a few sizes too big and everyone can see it doesn’t fit you, hangs loose in all the wrong places, even if it does match your skin colour.” (Kay 1-5). This shows that no one thinks that the anger "fits" the character, even though it matches his skin colour. This (the skin colour) ties into the conflict as it is the reason to why the character and his ancestors wore the anger in the first place: racial dispute. Furthermore, the fact that “everyone can see it doesn’t fit” the character shows that what he is doing is not necessarily having the effect that he wants it to have: like a person wearing their pants low- they want it to look cool but it just looks silly. In this case, the character wears anger to make others fearful of him, but instead it just looks out of place. Also, in this stanza, the author uses figurative language to show that the anger that the main character shows is something that has been happening in his family for generations, hence is called a “hand-me-down” as he inherited it from his father. And the fact that the conflict that they are wearing this anger for has not been solved yet, even after all these generations, proves that the
The author uses conflict to show that the individual could not solve what he is trying to solve. In this poem, the character “wears” this anger, which had been passed down from generations, dating back to his early ancestors. But, near the end of the story the poet shows that his “grandfather suffered just as many broken windows, broken hearts, broken bones?” (Kay 42-44). This shows that the main character’s anger is from his ancestors, …show more content…
It shows that no one thinks that the anger "fits" the character. The character had “taken to wearing around your father’s hand-me-down anger. I wish that you wouldn’t. It’s a few sizes too big and everyone can see it doesn’t fit you, hangs loose in all the wrong places, even if it does match your skin colour.” (Kay 1-5). This shows that no one thinks that the anger "fits" the character, even though it matches his skin colour. This (the skin colour) ties into the conflict as it is the reason to why the character and his ancestors wore the anger in the first place: racial dispute. Furthermore, the fact that “everyone can see it doesn’t fit” the character shows that what he is doing is not necessarily having the effect that he wants it to have: like a person wearing their pants low- they want it to look cool but it just looks silly. In this case, the character wears anger to make others fearful of him, but instead it just looks out of place. Also, in this stanza, the author uses figurative language to show that the anger that the main character shows is something that has been happening in his family for generations, hence is called a “hand-me-down” as he inherited it from his father. And the fact that the conflict that they are wearing this anger for has not been solved yet, even after all these generations, proves that the