Poem Analysis Of Persimmons By Li-Young Lee

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness.” George R.R. Martin. The idea of children growing up in a land that’s different from their birthplace is becoming increasingly common nowadays. The children growing up in this society go through life without fully accepting the culture they are being raised in or the culture they were born in. This usually leads to a loss of cultural identity and of their sense of belonging. In the poem Persimmons, Li-Young Lee explores the struggles of children being raised in a bi-cultural atmosphere and illustrates the impact on the identity of these children through symbolism, precise dictation and recollection of memories in no particular

Walker as a symbol of assimilation that the boy experiences when he comes to America. He captures the biased generalization of the society that would automatically assumes that the ‘Asian boy’ wouldn’t know English because he’s not ‘white’. “And made me stand in a corner/ for not knowing the difference/ between Persimmons and Precision” (Persimmons 3-5). Mrs. Walker punishes the speaker, as she did not see anything in common between the two words. The punishment symbolizes the ignorant white teacher who assumes that people struggling with English demonstrates idiocy. The precise description of persimmons by the narrator, “Ripe ones are soft and brown-spotted/ Sniff the bottoms. The sweet one/ will be fragrant” (8-10) shows that Mrs. Walker jumped to conclusions about the speaker as he clearly was connecting the two concepts together. The use of the word ‘brown-spotted’ to illustrate an ugly color further relates to the cultural clash and how it plays a huge role in determining the superiority of the

While their parents might be fluent speakers of their native language, often these kids only know bits and pieces. Learning a new language is never easy, “Fight was what I did when I was frightened/ Fright was what I felt when I was fighting” (Persimmons 32-33). Mrs. Walker, in fact made the process of adjusting to a new culture harder by punishing the boy because he wasn’t as fluent as all the others. This mainly led to the pronounced silence of the speaker. “A Chinese apple. Knowing/ it wasn’t ripe or sweet, I didn’t eat/ but watched the others faces” (43-45). By calling Persimmons a “Chinese Apple” Mrs. Walker linked the sour fruit to the boy resulting in further discrimination against him. The speaker, who clearly seems to be more knowledgeable when it came to Persimmons, did not speak up because he felt overshadowed. He started doubting his capabilities as the culture around him assumed that his opinion would be