Identity and language
In the poem entitled "Which Language should I Speak?’’, the narrator tries to reason which language should he use to be accepted. The narrator is torn between two separate sides, his family and the rest of society. The narrator’s family is extremely traditional and thus would like the narrator to obey their traditions while the narrator’s teacher would like him t speak in a manner which would transmit the idea he is not a traditional person. In this sense, language has a deep connection with one’s identity and the connection is so powerful that the two sides try to do everything they can to convince the narrator to join them and to do as they want.
The life of the poor
In the poem entitled "The Life we Live’’, the narrator presents two sides, the rich and the poor. He identifies himself as being a poor person who struggles with the rest of his community to survive. The narrator mentions the lack of money the community has to deal with and how they have to endure being kicked just to get a piece of bread. He also mentions how they can’t find dignity in death either since their bodies are treated disrespectfully by the rich and just thrown somewhere no one can see them.
The hypocrisy of the rich
Also in the poem "The Life we Live’’ the narrator mentions the life the rich have and how different such an existence is from the life of the poor. The narrator is not so distraught by the money they have but rather by the way in which the rich used to treat the poor. The narrator mentions how the rich would look down on the poor as if they were dirt and treat them as garbage. The narrator mentions how many rich people would be burn on sandalwood when they died, an extremely expensive type of wood, but how they refused to acknowledge the problems the poor had to face on an every day basis.
