Every poem is unique in the way it portrays emotions and experiences that have already been reported in the literature. For instance, it may employ different tropes to create a lasting impression. The narrator’s personality, their perspective, is another important tool that allows conveying the message of the poet. This essay will discuss the poem “Race” by Karen Gershon, exploring the main ideas of this work and how they are communicated.
Understanding a poem’s narrator – persona – is essential for analyzing it. It is possible to infer that “Race” is written from the perspective of a person of Jewish origin who flew from Germany before the Holocaust and returns years later (the words “in every German face” suggest that it is Germany and not any other country occupied by Nazis during the war) (Gershon 161). This bears a resemblance to the biography of Gershon herself, who left Germany in 1938 (Huppert para. 3). The fact that gas chambers are mentioned also supports the idea that the poem’s historical context is connected to the Holocaust. The poem’s persona refers to themselves as a Jew (“as every living Jew”) and describes their experience of walking the streets of their “home town” where everybody “knew [their] story by [their] face” (Gershon 161). Here the persona alludes to the fact that due to the distinctive features they carry, they are instantly recognizable as a Jew, making them “a symbol of [their] race” (Gershon 161). Therefore, their background is the central conflict of the poem.
There are several literary tropes that the author employs to better convey the poem’s persona’s experiences. For instance, “the gas chamber” and “the mass-grave” are the symbols of sufferings Jews had to endure during the Holocaust, and, as mentioned above, the persona themselves becomes “a symbol of [their] race” (Gershon 161). There is also an example of a metaphor in the poem – “it was as if the people caught an echo of me everywhere” (Gershon 161). A person cannot produce an echo, so, in their hometown in Germany, the narrator is not seen as just a person, but as a representative of all Jews. There is also personification in how the poet suggests that their face tells their story (Gershon 161). Moreover, Gershon employs simile, stating that after the Holocaust, many Jews saw “a mark of Cain” (a Biblical figure who kills his brother) in every German (Gershon 161). It makes the reader understand the pain and alienation the narrator experiences upon returning to the town of their childhood.
The main idea of the poem is, however, not to emphasize animosity and distrust. On the contrary, though the largest part of the work is devoted to the description of Jews suffering, which echoes in the character because they are of the same background (“as every Jew, I have in imagination seen…”), the concluding passage changes the impression conveying the real message of the poet (Gershon 161). The persona states, “I will not make their thoughts my own by hating people for their race.” (Gershon 161). It shows that, although there are Jews who experience severe animosity to Germans after what their people have gone through, the narrator does not want to support the formation of new biases and the proliferation of a new wave of hatred. The persona does not want to treat Germans the way Jews were treated because they understand that hatred begets only hatred, and there is no need to contribute to that. Not all the Germans participated in oppressions, and judging them by their race would be unfair.
In the poem, Gershon emphasizes the feelings of pain a Jew experiences imagining the sufferings of people of their race. Many Holocaust poems explore similar themes inviting readers to empathize with the experiences of Jews (De Vooght para. 18). However, in the end, the poet resolves the tension by emphasizing that the character can move past these grievances. Therefore, the poem has a beautiful message of acceptance, forgiveness, and the ability to move on without forgetting and sacrificing respect towards the pain of people who had to endure oppression.
Works Cited
Gershon, Karen. “Race.” Holocaust Poetry, edited by Hilda Schiff, St. Martin’s Griffin, 1995, p. 161.
De Vooght, Marian. “Holocaust poetry and the reclamation of many identities”, The Conversation, 2020, Web.
Huppert, Shmuel. “Karen Gershon.” Jewish Women Archive, 2009, Web.