My Country (For Mandela)

Summary

The narrator is crying standing in the gate. She wipes her tears and then she go to her

mother and she saw a fake smile from her. While they are having dinner, she took the picture

of her father and her mother is trying to avoid it. She thought that her father left her mother in

sorrow. They witness how the people took her father away from them. It hurt her mother a

lot, but since she is still kid she doesn’t understands what is happening. She never got to say

goodbye and comfort her father.

My Country (For Mandela)

Literary Critic

The poem is in a free verse. The speaker of the poem is in the first person point-of-

view. The speaker is talking about her father. She articulated her feelings of witnessing her

father taken away. The tone is very innocence and in despair.

The theme is all about love. It tells about the love of a family; a wife to his husband

and daughter, and a daughter to her parents. The love that their family have, is very

comforting, especially to the readers.

This poem is all about Nelson Mandela is a civil rights advocates and he is anti-

apartheid. He is being caught and put into prison because of fighting for what he believes

what is right, and after he got out to prison he became the president of his country, South

Africa. This poem is dedicated to him by her daughter. It is poem that is all about the father

sacrifices for apartheid (racial segregation).