Arguments Participation Paper 1 - Assignment Example
They mock at the racial inequality as dust gets settled on both the white and the black. The economic exploitation and indifferent treatment toward the tunnel workers are evident in the lines 9-12.
Muriel has been a social activist taking her poetry to the level of political statements. She has worked for the cause of various political and social issues during her time. In her poem, “George Robinson: Blues�, she depicts the gruesome, inhuman life of the black tunnel workers in the town of Gauley Bridge. The town is characterized as the “Negro town� sarcastically, as it does not own them but disowns them by sending tunnel workers in bulk to the cemetery on top of the hill. George, the speaker presents an insider’s view of the life in the tunnel. White dust settling on the blacks deconstructs the racial coding and makes it difficult for the outsider to identify the ‘white’. The tunnel worker, masked in white dust, proceeds gradually toward the graveyard in the top of the hill left unattended by doctors.
