Although the majority of Yusef Komunyakaa's poem "Untitled Blues" depicts descriptive and vivid scenes of music, dance, and joy, these images are only distractions from the deeper message hidden in the lines of the play Images of “tap dancers [who] hold on / until the last steps” (32-33) as well as people who “jive / on Bourbon. & Conti" (31-32) and "drunkards discussing God / around a honky-tonk piano"" (16-17), come together to act as a mask behind which struggles, crises and Injustice. Komunyakaa highlights the recurring pattern throughout history, in which society hides from pressing problems and instead focuses on the good side of things, thus making the search for solutions almost impossible. problematic through the structure of the poem, which literally imitates the actions of the majority of members of society. Much like society's inability to recognize obvious problems, the poem also fails to address one, namely racism. The poem's strategic arrangement of terms is important, as its structure mimics and symbolizes the very attitudes present in New Orleans throughout the mid-twentieth century. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Komunyakaa grew up in Louisiana during the civil rights movement. At this time, the South was a place of heavy segregation and racial violence. In a Washington Post article published in 2009, Komunyakaa was quoted: “It was impossible not to know and live within the social and political dimensions of skin color” (“The Colors of My Dreams,” 1). The poem opens with a scene illustrating precisely this problem. The speaker looks at a young black boy, who wears a laughing white mask. This type of injustice has been ignored and, in some ways, continues to be ignored today. Komunyakaa points out how easy it is to ignore this kind of mistreatment in lines 8-9 and 18-20. “I could say / everything is copacetic… We could pretend we can't / see the kitchen help / under a cloud of steam.” The speaker's use of the word "could" is significant. It presents the options available to us: either confront the problem in question or hide from it. However, the poem only includes actions that reflect the choice to hide. Nowhere in the poem does the speaker mention an action that opposes the racism we encountered at the beginning of the poem. All actions presented perpetuate the norm of inability to cope with our problems. Conforming to society’s dominant beliefs is easy. Being willfully blind allows us to feel comfort and security, because it allows us to act in a certain way and believe in particular things simply because that is how everyone acts and what everyone world believes. Standing up against numbers is intimidating, and several words throughout "Untitled Blues" suggest this tendency created by our fear of challenging the majority. Komunyakaa uses words and phrases such as "mask" (4), "painted on ” (5), “copacetic” (9), “pretend” (18), “snow work” (21) and “transparent” (23). In this case, they hide the deep roots of racism that was prevalent in the South. The reappearance of these types of words throughout the poem reinforces the message of Komunyakaa. These words do not target or blame any particular group or individual. Instead, it targets the city as a whole. Komunyakaa presents New Orleans as.having both literal and metaphorical connections to hiding from problems. Metaphorically, in lines 22–24, the speaker characterizes the entire city as displaying these tendencies: “night and day, the city / dressed in its transparency / French lace.” The city as a whole wears a transparent mask. Everyone knows the problem is there, we can all see it. As a literal connection, the speaker mentions a place in New Orleans called Storyville, an area whose characteristics were far from reality, where people ran away to get drunk and where prostitution was legal ("1903: Storyville"). Even the name “Storyville” refers to a place where people can go to escape reality and immerse themselves in imaginary stories of happiness, drunkenness, songs and laughter. But denying these places of happiness is not an easy task. Even Komunyakaa acknowledges the struggle that exists in the face of a serious social problem, when the speaker tries to "look into the eyes / of the photo, a black boy / behind a laughing white mask / on which he is painted" (1- 5), an image that clearly represents a fight against race. The young boy in the image is described as being "locked into your camera" (36), stuck there until the racial segregation that holds him back ends, or at least dies away. But for that to happen, the people in the poem who are having fun, dancing, and getting drunk at the local honky-tonks have to come out from behind these masks of happiness. Although this is difficult, it is vital to overcoming the problems that have left stains on our society. Unfortunately, few of us are ready to intervene. Fear causes us to close our eyes and find masks to place over problems, thereby giving us temporary happiness. What's interesting is that the poem that condemns this behavior actually commits the same crime it despises. Although the poem highlights our tendency to choose the cowardly option of "hiding," the speaker of the poem chooses this option as well, forcing the poem to engage in the same ignorance it ridicules. The structure of the poem challenges the very message the poem conveys. The poem begins with the widespread issue of racism. Then the speaker presents us with what appear to be two options. First, we have the ability to distance ourselves and hide from the problem at hand. We could sing, dance, get drunk in honky-tonks or stroll through Bourbon. We could do whatever we want. When reading these “could” options, one expects there to be a “but this is your second option…” statement. However, the "but" statement never appears. Instead, we find ourselves at the end of the poem, after getting drunk and tap dancing, back to square one, with the black boy still "locked in your camera" (36) and the "mommy dolls frozen / in glass cages” (34-35). The speaker never explores the option of speaking out against the racism that has clearly undermined society – and continues to do so. At the end of the poem, we are still faced with the same injustice that we saw in the opening lines of the poem. piece. This provision is directly linked to reality. Using this seemingly deliberate tool, Komunyakaa was able to chart the course of events in a society that turns a blind eye to its worrying weaknesses. Without standing up to racism or any other issue, there will be no results. The poem is painfully suggestive, but has no resolution. Without a solution, the poem ends with the same injustice as at the beginning, proving that choosing the option of hiding from problems leads to repeated patterns of violence, racism, and discrimination, which can flourish from generation to generation. THE.