Two Scavengers in a Truck....

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Two Scavengers in a Truck....
Two Scavengers in a Truck....

• Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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Learning Intentions

• Key Teaching Points
• To read the poem
• To examine the way the poem presents contrasts
• To make some comparisons with Island Man
• Key Terms
• Contrast
• Participle
• Static
• Ironic

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti

• Born in New York in 1919, he has lived most of
  his life in San Francisco, a city both racially
  and culturally mixed. It has been a centre for
  artists and musicians and from the 1960s was the
  centre of the hippy/ flower power movement.
• He said When I was named first poet laureate of
  this left-coast city in 1998 I expressed my
  outrage at how San Francisco was fast becoming a
  playground for the rich and witless a
  Disneyfied Mall for the S.U.V. (sports utility
  vehicle) drivers and cellphone addicts.
• And in his Whole Earth speech in 1999, as poet
  laureate he also said, all that made this city
  so unique in the first place seems to be going
  down the tube at an alarming rate. The gap
  between the rich and the poor in San Francisco
  increased more than 40 in just two years
  recently. Now its becoming almost impossible for
  a lot of people who have made this a world-class
  city people who have been the heart and soul of
  the city for decades from the fishers and
  pasta-makers and blue-collar workers to the jazz
  musicians to the beat poets to the punks and so
  many others to exist here any more. And when
  youve lost that part of the city, youve lost
  San Francisco.

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Ferlinghettis concerns

• He is concerned with the contrasts between
  different ways of life and the way they affect
  each other.
• We will later be comparing this to Island Man.

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Now read the poem

• In pairs list the descriptive words and phrases
  used for the two garbagemen and the elegant
  couple.
• When you have finished with your partner I want
  you to look at the effect of these phrases.

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The Two Garbagemen
Descriptive phrases Effect
Bright yellow garbage truck
Red plastic blazers
Grungy
Grey iron hair
Gargoyle Quasimodo
Also with sun glasses and long hair
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The Elegant Couple
Descriptive phrases Effect
Elegant
Shoulder-length blonde hair
Linen suit
Short skirt
Coloured stockings
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Structure and Language

• The poem is written in a series of freeze
  frames. Time is stopped for an instant by the
  red traffic light.
• Now, working in pairs, try to decide where one
  freeze frame ends and the next begins. You have
  five minutes!
• What do you notice about the way the poem uses
  verbs?
• There are no main verbs here only present
  participles. Why is this?
• To emphasisie the static nature of the
  descriptions?
• What can you see about the way the lines are
  arranged?
• They interrupt the flow of the description and
  slow the pace of the poem. This also contributes
  to the static effect.

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The Writers Attitude

• Now re-read lines 26 30
• What criticism of the elegant couple is made by
  comparing them to a T.V. ad?
• They seem unreal, they are created images.
• Now re-read lines 31 36
• What do you make of the words as if?
• The writer is being IRONIC
• It is not possible for there to be any
  relationship between these two groups of
  characters. The words as if show that this is
  an illusion. The use of the word democracy is
  ironic. The phrase high seas carries
  connotations of lawlessness another criticism
  of American democracy.

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Comparing Island Man and Two Scavengers

• You now have to write a few paragraphs comparing
  the two poems.
• Title Compare the ways in which Island Man and
  Two Scavengers in a Truck. . . both explore
  contrasts between two different ways of life.
• Compare
• People (appearance/ thoughts/ feelings)
• The most important features of how the poems are
  written
• The endings of the poems and the main impressions
  the reader is left with
• The writers tone and attitude to the people or
  situation described.

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Examples of Comparison

• Grace Nichols writes about a man who . . . . On
  the other hand, Ferlinghettis characters . . . .
• Grace Nichols uses contrasting images of . . . .
  for example . . . . Ferlinghettis methods of
  creating contrasts are different. He . . . .
• The ending of Island Man emphasises . . . .
  Whereas the ending of Two Scavengers suggests .
  . . .
• The two writers have different attitudes to the
  people they describe . . . .
• The two writers have different ideas they want to
  convey to us. For example . . . .