Imagery in Facing It

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In Yuself Komunyakaa’s “Facing it” , he tells about his visit to a memorial for the veterans of the Vietnam war. Komunyakaa is also a veteran of the Vietnam war however he is a veteran who survived the war. While describing his visit Komunyakaa uses imagery to sympathize with readers on his experience during the war. “My black face fades behind the black granite”, “I touch the name Andrew Johnson, I see the booby traps white flash”, “names shimmer on a woman's blouse but when she walks away the names stay there” are three major quotes in the poem that Komunyakaa uses to gain sympathy from readers about his experience. First of all Komunyakaa starts his poem off by saying “My black face fades behind the black granite”. This quote gives away his ethnicity which is African American, and his location which is a memorial site for the veterans of the Vietnam war. With this being the first line of the poem readers can picture the site of the memorial and a black man observing the memorials. Since he is a veteran as well he most likely has a hat, badge or anything to identify him as a veteran that would help him stand out from the other visitors. The repetition of the word “black” in this quote also dawns on readers. Black represents death and since it is a memorial readers can picture family and friends of the veterans grieving at the memorial for the loss of their loved ones. Furthermore, the poet continues his poem and says “I touch the name Andrew Johnson, i see the booby traps white flash”. In this quote readers can picture Komunyakaa scrolling down the names listed on the granite and touching Andrew Johnson’s name. Out of all the names that were listed, which he stated earlier were 58,022, Andrew Johnson name stood out to him. He also states that he is reminiscing about the booby trap, insinuating that he witnessed Andrew’s murder. After dissecting this quote and

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