Letter to Monica Alexandra Jimenez
Hello Monica, My name is Thaneshwar Ezhilan, and I am a senior at Troy High School. In my AP Lit class, we had to do an essay and a presentational project on a poem. And I chose to do your poem “Theft” as the poem’s rich and descriptive language caught my eye. This poem confused me at first because of the metaphorical use of ocean jargon and the sudden transition into a call to action against a very real issue. I realized that this poem was not just about someone complaining about themselves but using this as a means of representing the voices of people who may have undergone oppression by something. I came to the conclusion that this poem was about vocalizing the voice of people that were erased due to colonialism. The metaphorical description of the ocean worked really well when it was used to actually illustrate how their voices and events of oppression have been covered or suppressed, like the waves of an ocean. The ocean is also synonymous when referring to a deep, dark area...