“I Explain Some Things” - PowerPoint Presentation

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“I Explain Some Things”

Imran McGrath, Ricky Dua, Alyssa Gatan, Jeremy Bradford, Divya RajasekharSlide2

Historical Context- Spanish Civil War 1936-1939

Military revolt against Spain’s

Republican

Government

Failed coup devolved into bloody war

Considered “the first battle of WWII”

Francisco Franco led

rebels/

Nationalists

under Spain’s Fascist party

Nationalists

won, Franco’s dictatorship--->1975

Notable for its brutality, over a million lives lostSlide3

Spanish Civil War- cont.

Elected

Republican Government

(supported by Soviet Union) vs

Nationalist

Rebels (supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany)Republican side: Urban workers, agricultural laborers, educated middle classNationalist side: Landowners, Military elite, businessmenCan you guess which side Neruda was on? Slide4

Spanish Civil War: Bombing of Guernica

One of the first raids on a defenseless civilian population

German + Italian Air ForceSlide5

Spanish Civil War: Siege of Madrid

"I will destroy Madrid rather than leave it to the Marxists"- Franco

German air force assisting

Nationalist

forces.

Death toll around 2000

Intended to terrify civilians into surrender

Criticized internationally for bombing civilians

Unprecedented, this was pre-WWIISlide6

Historical Context- Neruda

Chilean consul in Madrid (1933-1937)

Caught in the civil war (1936-1939) he documented his experiences in

Espana en el corazon (Spain in the Heart)

Recalled from Spain in 1937 due to his views

Moved to Paris, became consul for Spanish emigrants in FranceAided refugees from Spain->French Camps->ChileSlide7

Historical Context- Neruda

“I explain some things”

Published 1937 in

Spain in the Heart

, printed by

Republican troops in Spain on the front linesWritten to express sympathy to the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War- writes specifically about the Madrid BombingsStart of the shift in his poetry from personal topics to political activismSlide8

“And one morning everything was burning and one morning the fires were shooting out of the earth devouring beings... Bandits with airplanes and with the Moors…kept coming from the sky to kill children and through the streets the blood of the children.”Slide9
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Dominant Effect

Pablo Neruda uses vivid blood and violence imagery to display a lamenting tone for the casual treatment of the tremendous loss of life during the Spanish Civil War and to explain his concern for social and political justice. Slide11

From Personal to Political

“You will ask: And where are the lilacs?/ And the metaphysics laced with poppies?” (1-2)

Before they became political, Neruda’s poems used to be very personal and concerned with metaphysical issues such as

such as the question of existence in the current, chaotic world

After his experiences in Spain at the beginning of the Civil War, his poetry took a different turn.

“I’ll tell you everything that’s happening with me…” (6)“I Explain Some Things” is his explanation of why he became more concerned with social and political justice. Slide12

Rhetorical Questions

m

“And where are the lilacs? / And the metaphysics laced with poppies? And the rain that often beat his words filling them with holes and birds?” (1-5)

“Raúl, do you remember? Do you remember, Rafael?” (18-19)

The use of rhetorical questions in the beginning of the poem criticize what’s expected of a poem

Neruda questions the use of poetry and pushes for poetry to be used for social and political commentarySlide13

“House of Flowers” Allusion

“the house of flowers, because in every cranny / geraniums burst” (13-14).

“on which the light of June drowned flowers in your mouth” (19)

By alluding flowers to Madrid and his house, Neruda is emphasizing the physical beauty of the city, and the sorrow that comes with the destruction of a beautiful place.Slide14

Flower Imagery

“My house was called the house of flowers because everywhere geraniums were exploding:” (13-15)

“yet instead of flowers, from every dead house burning metal flows” (64-65)

“do you remember my house with balconies on which the light of June drowned flowers in your mouth” (22-23)

Neruda uses the flowers to represent life and its destruction during the Spanish Civil War

Neruda uses shifts in imagery to show the change in atmosphereLife vs. DeathSlide15

Life vs. Death

“

a deep throbbing

of feet and hands filled the streets,

meters, liters, the hard

essence of life…” (31-34)

“Traitor generals:

behold my dead house,

behold Spain destroyed:

yet instead of flowers, from every dead house

burning metal flows…” (60-65) Slide16

Innocence

“from every dead child comes a rifle with eyes…”

Neruda uses children as a literal representation of innocent people who can’t defend themselves

This is heavily juxtaposed with the “rifle with eyes”

Neruda comments that since the children and the innocent were killed in cold blood, they transformed into something dark and sinister Slide17

The Bad Guys

Neruda calls the Nationalists a variety of undesirable names throughout the poem:

“bandits” (47)

“traitor generals” (60-61)

“Jackals” (53)

“vipers” (55)This shows the motif of hatred and animosity Neruda has towards them Slide18

Theme of Blood

“

in the streets the blood of the children/ ran simply, like children’s blood.” (51-52)

Statement on how innocent children and women were treated during the war

Shows how they were simply killed without mercy even though they could not defend themselves and posed no threats.

People being suppressed by the warSlide19

Theme of Blood (ctd.)

Come and see the

blood

in the streets,

come and see

the blood in the streets,

come and see the

blood

in the streets! (75-80)

repetition emphasizes the severity of the violence and gore overall

representative of how the Nationalists gunned down the poor men, women, and children as they tried to run awaySlide20

Creative Interpretation

Improv skit:

5 ask fors: 3 things that make you happy, and 2 things that make you sad

each one of us will create a character based on that ask for and create a story that will help you understand the poem and how Pablo Neruda was feeling as he wrote this poem.