Question

what role did perjudice , discrimination , racism and envy play in ththe poem 'The Cold Within'? . write in 300-500 words(10 marks)​

Answer 1

Answer:

'The Cold Within' by James Patrick Kinney

Explanation:

'Six humans trapped by happenstance

In bleak and bitter cold.

Each one possessed a stick of wood

Or so the story’s told.'

They were ‘trapped by happenstance’ implying no escape from a situation created by chance. The adjectives ‘dark’ and ‘bitter’ describing the cold add to the ominous feeling.

'Their dying fire in need of logs

The first man held his back.'

In the heart of winter keeping warm is critical to survival. The fire offers a chance for salvation if each person would use their respective logs to feed it. The dying fire is a silent appeal to the group to help themselves by helping each other.

'For of the faces round the fire

He noticed one was black.'

We find that the first person with held his log from the fire only because it would benefit a black person. This is actually called racism. Here comes the discrimination because of a person’s race. The man will not even warm himself if someone he looks down upon.

'Their logs held tight in death’s still hands

Was proof of human sin.

They didn’t die from the cold without

They died from the cold within.'

We witness the grim aftermath of the group’s rigidity of spirit. Death comes and it is personified here with stilled hands. Each individual became their own agent of death. The fact that each of them still possessed their firewood when they died suggests the twisted motives in retaining their firewood, proof enough of sin. The final lines abound with Irony. We realize it was not the cold weather outside that really killed the group after all, it was the cold in their hearts, the lack of warm human spirits, the cold within.