Comparison Of Nikky Finney's Head Off And Split

Nikky Finney, the author of this book, was born in South Carolina and she grew up during the Civil Rights Movement, Black Arts Movement, and Black Power Movement. She is the only daughter, out of three children, to her parents Frances Davenport Finney and Ernest A. Finney, Jr. Her mother was an elementary school teacher and her father was a Civil Rights attorney and retired Chief Justice of South Carolina.Head Off & Split is her fourth book of poetry. Nikky Finney's book Head Off & Split combines both historical elements and personal elements. She weaves together the history of the time and her own memories. Forcing the reader to see part of our history that is often glossed and skimmed over in conventional textbooks. The poems in

Social conflict among African Americans and white society are extremely present in this poem. For example, the relationship between the women and the fishmonger and the relationship between the fishmonger and the “ three-dollar-an-hour, head-off-and -split-boys” shows the oppression of African Americans. For the relationship between the fishmonger and the women he belittles her and tries to put her down and persuade her to let him “Head Off & Split” the fish. The poem backs up this by saying that “ He laughed out loud, warning her about the painstaking work the toothy boy fish will require. With his hairy hands around his own neck, he imitates choking on an overlooked bone. Nobody waiting in the fish market laughs, He is boastful, imprecise”. For the relationship between the fishmonger and the three African American boys, it can be inferred that they are underpaid and oppressed. Proof of this can come from their description of “ his backup chorus: three-dollar-an-hour, head-off-and -split-boys”. They are described as boys which are a term white men use to lower the African American man and makes him seem like less than the white