Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Repetition, Tone and Imagery in "Knock Knock" by Daniel Beatty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eYH0AFx6yI

At the start of the “Knock Knock” by Daniel Beatty the actual words “knock knock” are simple. They are just a child’s game shared between father and son. Later in the poem it becomes the boy and his mother knocking on a door to visit the father, before the boy gets to speak a word his mother pulls him away, all the contact he had was a simple “knock knock.” As the boy grows up without a father he learns to teach himself and be his own role model. The “knock knock” soon means to go forward and teach people that they are not their parents choices. As long as people are free they can change the world. No one and nothing can hold them back. Be proud of who you are and what you have accomplished. “Knock knock” means to go forward and do brilliant things for your people because they didn’t have the chance to. To go forward and teach your children what it is like to be a respected adult. “Knock knock” because we are the future.
The tone of the selection is inspiring, this poem is a message to readers that even though they may have suffered as children that does not account for who they will grow to be. “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.” ( Albus Dumbledore.) Your past does not dictate your future. Daniel Beatty does an excellent job of delivering the message of this poem through the use of tone.
Daniel Beatty’s use of imagery helps create different moods throughout the poem, at first he makes it seem joyful with an early morning “I love you” then later the images of long roads and high rusty gates seem freighting against the innocence of a young boy. In the poem the mood is quite pitiful. It is difficult for the reader to not pity the young boy. Later in the poem this mood changes because we see the young boy grow into an adult and overcomes the adversity he faces as a minority in his town.
Daniel Beatty does a terrific job at inspiring people with his use of repetition, tone, and imagery in the poem “Knock Knock.”



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