Raised out of poverty and crime-riddled East Harlem, New York, Tupac Shakur overcame many hardships to become perhaps the, some would argue, most influential rapper in history. His poetry often reflects those themes. Shakur, in this poem, "Rose from Concrete", suggests that even though a person could become successful and influential, people are still going to judge them based on their background.
In this poem, Shakur mainly describes a rose that has grown out of concrete. He says here, "When . . . some ghetto kid grow(s) out of the dirtiest circumstance, all you can talk about is my dirty rose . . . ". Even though the rose has grown out of the hardships, people will still be turned off from it, due to its tattered appearance or the way it is. Earlier in the poem though, he states, ". . . even if it had messed up petals . . . you would marvel at just seeing a rose grow through concrete". Shakur says that people will accept the dirty rose, but not a person raised from the streets, even though they are analogous to each other. Someone will marvel at a rose for just growing through concrete, but for a person who grew out of a rough neighborhood it is much different. The last sentence says it all, "You can't even see that I've come up from out of that", Shakur concludes. People can't even look through the prejudgment they placed upon him.
Shakur's rose provides all the symbolism for his statement. The rose here is symbolism, metaphor, and analogies in one, all to destroy the vision of the American Dream. The rose symbolizes the the justice that he should have had. When he states that even though the rose has tattered petals and such, people would marvel at it. But then he contrasts it with a description of a "ghetto" kid, and as such says that people wouldn't marvel at them. The rose is the metaphorical "ghetto" person, but with justice served due to people marveling at them. It is also analogous; the crooked lean is to the rose as the rough neighborhood is to the "ghetto" child. All these devices are used in a way to say that the American Dream is not truly present for people raised in rough circumstances. People can be wealthy and earn "success", like the rose that grew out of concrete, but unlike the rose, though, people won't put their focus on the success; they will put it on the background. The last two sentences establish the tone; his frustration and anger is evident in his word choice, using words like "ghetto", "dirty", and "crooked". Beginning the sentence with, "So why is it . . . " means that it is a rhetorical question, he is in deep questioning of this topic. All these techniques are used to push his argument further.
To convey this message, Shakur uses mainly emotions and descriptions. His poetry in this, the devices, are all meant to evoke a feeling of anger in the reader, a feeling of frustration. The connotation is mainly what carries this feeling. Due to Tupac's influence, there are also some elements of ethos; he is using his status to convey his argument to a larger audience, and more people will listen to him.
Going to school in a lower-income neighborhood has exposed what Tupac is saying to me. The scale of this is not on a local level, though; its expanse is throughout the country. People from these neighborhoods will be successful, but for some, seeing them earning that success isn't enough to change their minds about the individual.
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