Never Have I Ever Land Analysis
In her poem “Never Have I Ever Land”, Amulya Yerrapotu examines the social injustices faced by women in our current society, society’s necessity for women to grow mature more quickly, and the issues of sexuality. Through her use of imagery, diction, and structure, she is able to compare a fairytale and a fantasy land to the real world in which discrimination and bias is quite evident. Yerrapotu uses interesting diction in order to spread her message of social justice across. For example, she states that women are “deprived of pixie dust we were older than Peter Pan’s crew ever could be” (8). The phrase “deprived of pixie dust” shows the loss of innocence and childhood, as well as losing what is really important, the personality within.
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Lines such as “chewed up lollipop sticks covered in lipstick stains” (4) and “little pieces of make-believe plundered from gym lockers” (4) bring the reader into this fantasy world. These lines alone pull me into the poem, into this fantasy world they call “Neverland”. Of course, this is the ideal society, not the one we are in. The poem also depicts the discrimination and hidden rules that teenagers and women have to get used to. Like Yerrapotu states, “pirate ships become fraternity houses, pirate songs become racist chants, pirate hooks become date rape drugs” (7). The reader now sees the transformation from the perfect society of exuberant youth to a world in which females are targeted by sexism and bias created by institutions dating far back in history. The pirate’s land manifests into a hostile land in which females are given enormous pressure to mature and provide obedience to society’s standards. Finally, the author of the poem is able to relate Neverland to our first-world society in a descriptive way. She writes that “they’ll put on a brave face with a makeup brush and a mascara wand” (2), allowing the reader to see the ways in which girls and women, even in a place such as Neverland, look down upon themselves and the usage of makeup to cover their imperfections. They can also contrast the perfect world of
Lines such as “chewed up lollipop sticks covered in lipstick stains” (4) and “little pieces of make-believe plundered from gym lockers” (4) bring the reader into this fantasy world. These lines alone pull me into the poem, into this fantasy world they call “Neverland”. Of course, this is the ideal society, not the one we are in. The poem also depicts the discrimination and hidden rules that teenagers and women have to get used to. Like Yerrapotu states, “pirate ships become fraternity houses, pirate songs become racist chants, pirate hooks become date rape drugs” (7). The reader now sees the transformation from the perfect society of exuberant youth to a world in which females are targeted by sexism and bias created by institutions dating far back in history. The pirate’s land manifests into a hostile land in which females are given enormous pressure to mature and provide obedience to society’s standards. Finally, the author of the poem is able to relate Neverland to our first-world society in a descriptive way. She writes that “they’ll put on a brave face with a makeup brush and a mascara wand” (2), allowing the reader to see the ways in which girls and women, even in a place such as Neverland, look down upon themselves and the usage of makeup to cover their imperfections. They can also contrast the perfect world of