Where There's A Wall By Joy Kogawa

The poem “Where There’s a Wall” by Joy Kogawa describes the historical event of internment or concentration camps using a wall as a metaphor. The author does not outright identify and describe this unfortunate historical event but readers can use the imagery and symbols along with their historical knowledge to be able to determine that the author could be writing about a person in an internment or concentration camp. The poem is universal in the fact that it may not be interpreted in a historical way by one that does not have as much knowledge about history. These type of readers may interpret it as the wall being an obstacle in the way of a goal. This aspect of the poem makes it very interesting because it can be interpreted in many unique ways to different readers.
For example, the lines “there are zepplins helicopters, rockets, bombs bettering rams armies with trumpets whose all at once blast shatters the foundations” give strong mental images of war, destruction and death. This also is another large detail that may signal the reader to realize that this poem is taking place during a war. Internment and concentration camps occurred historically during major wars. Also, “wailing prayers to utter special codes to tap birds to carry messages taped to their feet” gives images of people praying and of a bird with a paper message tied to its feet. This is another historical clue as during the war as this was a way of communicating. The lines “a voice cries faint as in a dream from the belly of the wall” gives the mental picture of being in a kind of dream-like state where you can hear a faint voice but can’t see anything