Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
First-person narration from the perspective of an unnamed speaker.
Form and Meter
The poem is written in free verse and has no regular rhyme scheme.
Metaphors and Similes
The speaker uses the metaphor of table setting to refer to the language the government uses to offer an apology while denying full capability for past mistakes. In the poem, table, cloth plates, and saltshakers indicate the style that words such as ‘whereas’ are utilized as formalities to creep around historical atrocities.
Alliteration and Assonance
Examples of alliteration in the first line:
“Whereas a string-bean blue-eyed man leans back into a swig of beer work-weary lips”
Irony
The speaker is sarcastic in his delivery to mock the government's approach in writing documents and apologies towards the wronged masses. The use of ‘whereas’ points out the irony in the American government offering an apology yet is not truly repentant or sincere in taking responsibility for the transgressions.
Genre
Satire, Prose poetry
Setting
The novel is set in modern America.
Tone
Sarcastic, Disappointed, Angry
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the Native Americans and the antagonist is the United States government.
Major Conflict
The speaker deliberates on the insincere language used in official documents to extend an apology to the Native tribes. As such, the text describes the social encounters that are by-products of this attitude that is held by a government that obscures the reality with formalities.
Climax
The climax occurs when the speaker realizes that the woman narrating to her the news program subtly admits she never knew that indigenous people could feel.
Foreshadowing
The initial interaction at the beginning foreshadows the complex relationship and dealings between the speaker and non-indigenous people.
Understatement
In describing the history of Native Americans and the culture, the speaker narrates in an understated manner to mimic how the government and ill-informed masses perceive it.
Allusions
The poem references the congressional apology S.J. Res 14—signed by President Obama in 2009—that featured the term ‘whereas’ several times.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
The speaker personifies the fireflies that ‘wink’ across the grass at nightfall.
Hyperbole
“Whereas I pictured it happening in cinematic slow-motion delightful”
The statement uses hyperbolic imagery to describe the action of sweeping the man off his chair.
Onomatopoeia
“Hiccuping” is an example of onomatopoeia.
