Mayra S.

Jimenez Martinez

Ms. White

Ap Literature and Composition

19 November 2020

The need for a Community

In “Como Tu/ Like You/ Like Me” by Richard Blanco, it can be seen that within the

diversity that society encounters nowadays, the individual person has to make more of an effort

to include everyone and create a firm community. This can be expressed through the use of

metaphors as well as the word choice.

The use of metaphors throughout this poem reveals that the speaker longs for a

community to be part of. In the third stanza, it states “ my lifeline an unnamed road I can’t find,

can’t trace back to the fork in my parent’s trek that cradled me here”. The speaker is comparing

his “lifeline” to an “unnamed road”. In the speaker's case, he describes that because there is no

lifeline to which to turn back to. The speaker signifies that there are no cultural backgrounds to

turn onto because of the lack of perspective he was given which makes the speaker feel lost.

Nowadays it is a very big deal to present their backgrounds and to demonstrate how someone

grew up with all these different cultures, traditions, and people that were influential to them but

to a speaker it can be seen that life has presented obstacles in which were learned to succumb. It

can be seen that the speaker is a DACA student, but throughout the time that DACA was first

made a relative thing, the speaker was rid of all of the precious belongings that once made him

who he was and once helped him identify with his origin. When the speaker says, “ can’t trace

back to the fork in my parents trek that cradled me here” he’s presenting the overall idea that

because he was unable to trace his parents down a “fork”, being a impediment or obstacle in this
path, was put into place which in this case could signify the border that stood between the place

the speaker came from to the new home the speaker was given.

After there is a shift in the poem, the speaker stops using the several pronouns he was

once using before. The pronouns would consist of “I’ and “you” and instead transition into “we”.

This may signify that after the many years that the speaker was found roaming lost and hopeless

he has finally found a community in which the speaker can now rely on. The speaker has moved

along and now states “ Like thirst, like hunger, we ache with the need/ to save ourselves...” The

speaker seems unconflicted about the resentful feelings the speaker once had and also seems

forgetful as to how lonely life was without an origin. SInce the speaker has now found a

community to be integrated into, it is seen that “we” and “ourselves” which shows that they

present a new identity. The speaker now has something to fight for and protect as well as

providing for. Unlike before, they too can be protected now because they have people to rely on

and count on unlike before which creates a greater sense of security for the speaker as well as

those around them.

As a result of making a community where someone can belong fully with nothing to hide,

the speaker no longer needs to show the loneliness that they had felt for such a long time as well

as the lack of fitting in and now can roam within a community that is appreciating them and

protecting them. Every part of the individual is finally accepted into this new community

because of the nature that the community has created as a whole to make the speaker feel as safe

and secure as possible. Having a community to surround oneself with is important to the overall

identity of a person because they can have people to count on for certain things, unlike being

alone, which in the end identify who they are within themselves and within their community.