TJNOTES
TJNOTES
COMPARISON BETWEEN KAMIKAZE AND
CHECKING OUT ME HISTORY
TJNOTES
Both John Agard and Beatrice Garland tackle the struggles of loss of identity but from two different
perspectives. Agard emphasises a personal responsibility to ‘carve out’ his own identity after concluding
that his real identity has been intentionally hidden from him, while Garland explores the complicated
relationship between national identity, familial identity, honour, and life and death.
Agard begins with the use of anaphora in ‘Dem tell me / Dem tell me / Dem tell me’, which emphasises a
TJNOTES
number of key ideas; the first is the establishment of a ‘dem’ and ‘me’ narrative structure which he uses to
criticise his European education and the lack of black history in his schooling; it also reflects the repetitive
manner in which he was taught history which was biased towards the colonialists’ agenda and has the
effect of ridiculing this agenda; another effect is the establishment of rhyme and rhythm which are also
major features of the poem - the rhythmical characteristic appears to reflect the musical nature of the
Caribbean people and forms part of the identity that Agard wishes to recover and ‘carve out’ in this poem.
TJNOTES
In contrast, Garland begins with the juxtaposition of one ambiguous identity against another, apparently
more assured identity; on first reading, it appears as though the speaker is creating a sense of vagueness
and even distance by referring to ‘her father’, yet there is a contrast with the subject of the poem, who
appears to identify himself clearly with his ‘samurai sword… a shaven head’ and a ‘one-way / journey into
history’. As we find out later in the poem, the juxtaposition of the two identities is a method of highlighting
the conflict between these two identities; the ‘samurai sword… a shaven head’ and a ‘one-way / journey
into history’ are all part of the national identity, which is at odds with the domestic identity, represented
by the third person narrative, ‘her father’.
TJNOTES
In terms of language, Checking Out Me History is written in dialectical non-standard English where the poet
has tried to capture the natural sounds and phrases of an unspecified Caribbean dialect. This is important
because one of the major themes of the poem is that of personal identity, of which language and dialect
are crucial components. Every community on earth has words, phrases, accents, and dialects which help
to attach people to a particular place. For Agard this is particularly important since his poem ‘checking out
me history’ relates how the speaker has been taught all about English and European history but not his
own African history and his use of a Caribbean dialect is another way of expressing his individuality and
TJNOTES
cultural heritage.
However, Kamikaze’s language is predominantly expressed in a matter-of-fact tone, particularly in the first
five stanzas, which works together with the third person narrative perspective to establish a sense of
distance and disownment from the subject of the poem, the father. However, the last two stanzas reflect
a complete change in world view for the speaker which is illustrated in the change from a distant third
person to a much more intimate first-person narrative perspective as the speaker begins to explain why
she initially disowned her father; she ‘learned to be silent’, which suggests that society taught children to
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shame men who failed to complete their kamikaze mission.
Agard chooses a free form, lyric style of poetry to express his desire to ‘carve out his identity’; just as he
rejects any standard form of English that he had been taught under colonial rule - as made evident in his
use of anaphora with ‘dem tell me’ and a complete rejection of punctuation -, the poem’s form gives it a
unique identity because it, too, rejects other established forms of poetry, particularly with its dual structure
which ridicules the childish stories of ‘Dick Whittington and he cat’ and contrasts it with black heroes such
TJNOTES
as ‘Toussaint / a slave’. Even the rhythmical structure is unique; instead of conventional styles such as ABAB
or AABB, he uses an AAA structure, a CCDDED structure, an FFFF structure and so on to establish a
celebratory rhythm, but without conforming to any prescribed structures and forms.
TJNOTES
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