Trevor Ross
Stephen Morrow
English 151
September 7th 2011
SF Blog # 1 “America”
The Poem “America” written by Tony Hoagland has a literal meaning that America is materialistic. The subtext is frustration and even regret.
The literal meaning of the poem is that America is materialistic. A student tells his teacher that “America is a maximum security prison with the walls covered in different franchises and when he watches MTV he cannot even distinguish the difference between the actual show and the commercials simply because everything is an advertisement.”
The teacher of this student then remembers a dream he had where he stabs his father and hundred dollar bills come pouring out of him the father replies “thank god-those Ben Franklins were clogging up my heart-and so I perish happily” (19-22). The line that really gave me the idea that America is materialistic is the line that says “each day you watch rivers of bright merchandise run past you and you are floating in your pleasure boat upon this river” (34-35). Therefore, everywhere you turn whether it’s walking outside or if you are just simply watching television you see different franchises trying to sell their product to you. Furthermore, you have so many products marketed to you from the commercials and from the television shows you become confused which is which.
The subtext is frustration and even regret. The teacher admits that he’s “asleep in America too, and doesn’t know how to wake himself either” (27-28). He also says that “even though you see people drowning underneath you that you choose to ignore it and it seems to be you who turns up the volume with your own hand” (38-39). The teacher is frustrated that he is also involved in this materialistic America and he hasn’t even realized it before and doesn’t know how to get out of it. In fact, he believes that even though everyone sees the effect of it, they don’t care. They just continue to do it and this in turn continues to feed the monster of materialism.
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