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Morbid Mindes


            "Between the World and Me", by Richard Wright, is one of those poems that does not have a clear black and white theme, like most poems. This poem can be about death, fear, or torture, but, the poem is not about cannibalism, as one may think after first skimming over the poem. Therefore, I think the title, connotation, and the shift, prevail in conveying that the poem is about how the link between someone's mind and the outside world can be transformed into a complete merger of the inanimate object and the person's mind. .
             The title of the poem reflects the fact that there is an area "Between the World and Me," and this is the area where the person of the poem is. He is halfway between his mind and the outside world; therefore, he is in the perfect position to evaluate the way the world sees him, and the way he sees the world. Therefore, we are all acting as a link between our mind and the world around us. That is, our senses act as the link between the world around us, and our minds. Now, this links into the connotation, through what is being brought in from the speaker's eyes and ears. The speaker sees "the gin flask passed from mouth to mouth," (l. 37). The speaker hears his "voice drowned in the roar of their voices" (l. 44), and all of this is being felt just by looking at the pile of bones, the cigar, the gin flask, and so on. .
             The connotation of the poem reflects how the person in the poem perceives the world around him, how his brain and his senses have merged with the inanimate object; in this case, it is the pile of bones lying on the ground. This fusion can be seen in the second stanza, where the person describes what he finds with the bones, such as the lipstick, gin flask, cigarettes and the cigars. The fusion aspect of this poem is quite evident in "the dry bones stirred, rattled, lifted, melting themselves/l into my bones." (l. 33-34). This gives the reader the impression that there is a transfusion of sorts between the speaker and the pile of bones and the other inanimate objects lying in the woods.


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