Analysis Of Patricia Smith s Poem The Undertaker

Use of Social Commentary in Patricia Smith’s Poem â€Å"The Undertaker† In Patricia Smith’s poem â€Å"The Undertaker,† she makes use of social commentary by using imagery and other literary devices to appeal to the reader. This poem was created to help society realize that there is a much needed change with young men who lives are constantly ending due to gang violence. The poem focuses on an undertaker who specializes in recreating the natural state of dead bodies, ones that have been mutilated. The undertaker specializes in this recreation for a specific group of young men, â€Å"gang members†. The poem opens up explaining how when a gunshot enters the brain, the head explodes. The poem starts off catching the reader’s attention, because as a reader that is something no human wants to ever imagine happening to anybody or their selves. Smith states in lines 2-4, â€Å"I can think of no softer warning for the mothers who sit doubled before the desk, knotting their smooth brown hands, and begging, fix my bo x, fix my boy†(Smith 292).(what is the warning he is referring to?). Reiterating that there is nothing that could be done or said to help these mothers. The mother in this poem is begging â€Å"fix my boy†, wanting the undertaker to make a miracle. She shows the undertaker a picture, but it’s not the same person the undertaker sees laying inside the body bag. Patricia is illustrating a problem, young men being shot, grieving mothers,