http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177827
In my opinion, Nikki-Rosa would have to be my FAVORTIE so far. Giovanni uses the motifs of negative emotion, happiness, and poverty to justify the stereotypical views that were held upon African Americans who tried to move up in the world. In this poem, Giovanni takes moments from her childhood and turn them into biographical images that the reader can visualize in their heads. In lines 5-9 in stanza one, “And if you ever become famous or something...when you got your hot bath”, Giovanni justifies that living and growing up as a black child doesn’t always mean that you have to live in hardship and struggle. The poem seems to somewhat contradict itself. It begins by introducing the poor living conditions of black people for example by stating they had “no inside toilet”. It makes the reader feel very sad and frustrated towards the way the children had to grow up but Giovanni then changes the tone by stating that although this was true, the aspects that outshone this were never mentioned. These aspects were that of enjoying the time with your mother or how although you were poor you still had amazing holidays. I believe the purpose of this poem was to show that if you want to televise that of a “black childhood” to make sure that you get the entire truth and not just pieces of it. In Nikki-Rosa, Giovanni shows the duality between happiness and poverty and proves that there can be a balance and life does not just consist of one or the other.
In my opinion, Nikki-Rosa would have to be my FAVORTIE so far. Giovanni uses the motifs of negative emotion, happiness, and poverty to justify the stereotypical views that were held upon African Americans who tried to move up in the world. In this poem, Giovanni takes moments from her childhood and turn them into biographical images that the reader can visualize in their heads. In lines 5-9 in stanza one, “And if you ever become famous or something...when you got your hot bath”, Giovanni justifies that living and growing up as a black child doesn’t always mean that you have to live in hardship and struggle. The poem seems to somewhat contradict itself. It begins by introducing the poor living conditions of black people for example by stating they had “no inside toilet”. It makes the reader feel very sad and frustrated towards the way the children had to grow up but Giovanni then changes the tone by stating that although this was true, the aspects that outshone this were never mentioned. These aspects were that of enjoying the time with your mother or how although you were poor you still had amazing holidays. I believe the purpose of this poem was to show that if you want to televise that of a “black childhood” to make sure that you get the entire truth and not just pieces of it. In Nikki-Rosa, Giovanni shows the duality between happiness and poverty and proves that there can be a balance and life does not just consist of one or the other.
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