JH@Quelpr

May 1, 2020 7 min

CSEC English B: West

Indies, U.S.A. Analysis
Updated: Jun 8, 2021

West Indies, U.S.A.

Stewart Brown

 Cruising at thirty thousand feet above the endless

green
 the islands seem like dice tossed on a casino’s
baize,
 some come up lucky, others not. Puerto Rico takes
the pot,
 the Dallas of the West Indies, silver linings on the
clouds
 as we descend are hall-marked, San Juan glitters
 like a maverick’s gold ring.
  All across the Caribbean
 we’d collected terminals – airports are like calling
cards,
 cultural fingermarks; the hand-written signs at Port-
 au-Prince, Piarco’s sleazy tourist art, the lethargic
 contempt of the baggage boys at ‘Vere Bird’ in St.
Johns...
 And now for plush San Juan.
  But the pilot’s bland,
 you’re safe in my hands drawl crackles as we land,
 “US regulations demand all passengers not
disembarking
 at San Juan stay on the plane, I repeat, stay on the
plane.”
 Subtle Uncle Sam, afraid too many desperate
blacks
 might re-enslave this Island of the free,
 might jump the barbed
  electric fence around ‘America’s
 back yard’ and claim that vaunted sanctuary... ‘Give
me your poor...’
 Through toughened, tinted glass the contrasts
tantalise;
 US patrol cars glide across the shimmering tarmac,
 
 containered baggage trucks unload with fierce
efficiency.
 So soon we’re climbing,
  low above the pulsing city streets;
 galvanised shanties overseen by condominiums
 polished Cadillacs shimmying past Rastas with
pushcarts
 and as we climb, San Juan’s fool’s glitter calls to
mind
 the shattered innards of a TV set that’s fallen
 off the back of a lorry, all painted valves and circuits
 the roads like twisted wires,
  the bright cars, micro-chips
 It’s sharp and jagged and dangerous, and belonged
to someone else.

Summary
A man in an airplane on a stopover flight stops
momentarily in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The man
remarks about Puerto Rico being different from the
other countries of the Caribbean he'd stopped in. He
also laments the fear the US has of the poorer
people of the Caribbean stowing away illegally in the
country. As the plane climbs above the streets of
San Juan, he recognizes the stark contrasts in the
city: between shanties and condominiums, poverty
and affluence. He, in so doing, exposes the the 'dual
reality' and economical segregation within Puerto
Rico itself and in the Caribbean as a whole. He
makes note of the plush appearance of Puerto Rico
being 'fools-glitter,' showing that although the
country appears wonderful, it has serious underlying
issues nonetheless. Brown ends the poem with the
powerful remark that Puerto Rico's dangerous clash
of cultures and dualistic reality only belongs to the
USA. The mood of the poem is sarcastic. The tone
seems to be bitter or resenting, and the themes
include oppression, discrimination

Analysis

" Cruising at thirty thousand feet above the

endless green"
The persona is in an airplane above the lush
greenery and foliage of the country below. This
provides us with some visual imagery.

"the islands seem like dice tossed on a

casino’s baize, some come up lucky, others
not. Puerto Rico takes the pot,"
The poet uses a simile "islands seem like dice
tossed on a casino’s baize," to compare the islands
to dice tossed on a baize (this is the soft velvet
fabric used on pool tables and card tables). This is
used to show not only the small and insignificant
size the islands seem to have when looking down
from that height, but also the way in which the
prosperity of each Caribbean island seems to be up
to chance.
Puerto Rico has seemingly won this game of
chance. The poet says that "Puerto Rico takes the
pot," showing that, like in poker, where the winner
takes all of the money wagered, Puerto Rico won in
terms of prosperity.

"the Dallas of the West Indies, silver linings on

the clouds"
In an allusion comparing Puerto Rico to Dallas, a city
in the oil rich state of Texas, the poet reinforces the
idea of Puerto Rico being an incredibly prosperous
and affluent standout from the other Caribbean
islands. The poet also seems to making a
connection between the USA's acquisition of Puerto
Rico in 1898 and the USA's annexing of Texas from
Mexico in 1845. He therefore establishes a relation
between the prosperity of both the state and the
island.
The poet also alludes to the cliché of 'every cloud
has a silver lining' to again make the point that the
island is wealthy, and a place of great economic
opportunity (unlike some of its fellow Caribbean
islands).

"San Juan glitters like a maverick’s gold ring."

The poet compares San Juan to a maverick's gold
ring using simile. The word maverick suggests an
outsider, or non-conformist. In this way, Puerto Rico
is shown to be completely different from the other
islands in the region. San Juan, Puerto Rico is in the
Caribbean but is not the same as the other islands-
it belongs to the USA.

"All across the Caribbean we’d collected

terminals – airports are like calling cards,
cultural fingermarks; the hand-written signs at
Port-au-Prince, Piarco’s sleazy tourist art, the
lethargic contempt of the baggage boys at
‘Vere Bird’ in St. Johns... And now for plush
San Juan."
The persona states that they'd 'collected terminals'
across the Caribbean as they travelled. He
compares airports to calling cards (using a simile),
implying that the airport of each country, like a
calling card, gave them information of the country
overall. The quality of the airport would depict in a
compact way the socioeconomic state of the rest of
the country. The poet also calls the airports 'cultural
fingermarks,' as they all have unique aspects to
them that relate the wider cultural landscape of the
island. He lists that the signs were hand-written
rather than printed in Haiti, that the art was
produced solely for tourist consumption in Trinidad,
and that the baggage handlers in Antigua were slow,
filled with contempt and reluctant in doing their jobs.
All of this contrasts starkly with the plush San Juan.

"But the pilot’s bland, you’re safe in my hands

drawl crackles as we land, 'US regulations
demand all passengers not disembarking at
San Juan stay on the plane, I repeat, stay on
the plane.' Subtle Uncle Sam, afraid too many
desperate blacks might re-enslave this I sland
of the free, might jump the barbed electric
fence around ‘America’s back yard’ and claim
that vaunted sanctuary... 'give me your
poor...'"
As they descend, the pilot (likely southern American
based on the word 'drawl') states that everyone not
coming off in San Juan should remain on the plane
instead of being able to explore the airport. The
speaker takes on sarcasm now, stating how 'subtle'
Uncle Sam (metonym
metonym for the United States)
attempts to be by trying to disguise their
discrimination with regulation. This regulation is
basically saying that you may not even step foot
onto Puerto Rican soil if it is not your intended port
of disembarkment. The persona is disgusted with
the Americans for being so prejudicial.
He states his belief that the US is only fearful that an
influx of 'desperate blacks,' i.e. the people of the
Caribbean in search of economic opportunities will
undermine the prosperity of the island.
The poet also uses a pun here with 'island of the
free.' 'Land of the free and home of the brave' is a
line from the national anthem of the USA. The poet
utilizes a play on words here to again reinforce the
idea that Puerto Rico belongs to America. This could
also be seen as an instance of irony, since it is
ironic that the poet refers to Puerto Rico as an
'island of the free' while subtly insinuating that it is
not truly free and is property of the US. His use of
'free' also brings up the idea that Puerto Rico is free
in comparison to the other Caribbean islands simply
because of its affluence.
The persona states that the US fears too many
desperate blacks might jump the fence around
America's backyard and 'claim that vaunted
sanctuary.' This line alludes to a term used in former
US president Ronald Reagan's speech on anti-
American regimes in the Caribbean and Latin
America in the 1980's. He said that the US
government would not tolerate the establishment of
such governments in America’s backyard.
The final part of the line seems to be said with some
bitterness or disgust by the persona. The phrase
"give me your poor" is a quote from the poem New
Colossus by Emma Lazarus placed on the Statue of
Liberty. The full line states "Give me your tired, your
poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free." The poem highlights a humanitarian vision of
the US, one that welcomes the disenfranchised of
the world, like how the early immigrants were
welcomed. But in Puerto Rico, the immigrants now
are barred from even touching the soil- showing that
these 'American ideals' are not realized there.

" Through toughened, tinted glass the

contrasts tantalise; US patrol cars glide
across the shimmering tarmac, containered
baggage trucks unload with fierce efficiency.
So soon we’re climbing,"
As the persona looks through the toughened
windows of the airplane, he realizes the contrasts
between Puerto Rico and the other islands. The
patrol cars and baggage trucks move with 'fierce
efficiency' showing that the workers are working
with military-like severity and precision (unlike the
lethargic St. Johns baggage boys). They are back in
the air quickly, so their efficiency seems to be a way
to get them out of their country as quickly as
possible.

"low above the pulsing city streets; galvanised

shanties overseen by condominiums, polished
Cadillacs shimmying past Rastas with
pushcarts"
The persona, now in the plane which is still low
above the streets is able to see the contrast between
his first impressions based on appearance and the
reality that would have gone unnoticed at a higher
altitude. He can now see the disparity between
prosperity and penury within San Juan- the shanties
in small towns being overlooked by lush
condominiums, the pristine Cadillacs 'shimmying'
past Rastas with pushcarts (this suggests a skittish
avoidance of the Rastas because of their poverty).
The Rastas are juxtaposed with the owners of
expensive Cadillacs and condominiums who are at
the top of the economic food chain and can flaunt
their material opulence.

"and as we climb, San Juan’s fool’s glitter

calls to mind the shattered innards of a TV set
that’s fallen off the back of a lorry, all painted
valves and circuits the roads like twisted
wires, the bright cars, micro-chips."
This lucid, perspicuous realization that the glittering
golden maverick ring of Puerto Rico is only fool's
gold, that the reality is far different from the
appearance, reminds the persona of a shattered TV
'that’s fallen off the back of a lorry.' This is similar to
the idiomatic expression 'to fall off the back of a
lorry,' which means to come into someone's
possession by illegal or dubious means, usually
stealing. The visual imagery created by the broken
television comparison shows a sort of confusing
tangle of roads and streets as seen in the simile 'the
roads like twisted wires.'

"It’s sharp and jagged and dangerous, and

belonged to someone else."
Here, the persona makes his final remarks about the
island. He refers to the tangle of American culture
and Puerto Rican culture; and the juxtaposition of
prosperity and penury to be dangerous. From a
distance, or even an altitude, Puerto Rico looks like
a prosperous modern country, but upon closer
scrutiny, the island is not so desirable after all.
Puerto Rico is reduced to a shattered television set;
it is broken and whoever possesses it, is in receipt of
stolen property.

English B Poetry

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