We were asigned to write an essay about … with Senior 2, Pato corrected it and finally, we had to re-write it separetly.
This is my correction:
“The City Planners” by M.Atwood and “ThePlanners” my B.K.Cheng share ideas about man and nature. How far do you agree?
‘The City Planners’ and ‘The Planners’ share themes about humanity and nature, but in a negative way.
Firstly, they both deal with modernization and the organization of the cities. In ‘The Planners’ we read “The buildings are in alignment with the roads which meet at desired points (…)”, “The country wears perfect rows of shinning teeth”. This meansthat everything is organized in perfect order, that the houses are all aligned and that they all look alike (uniformity). WHEREAS, in ‘The City Planners’, the writer refers to the roads, “the planted sanitary tres…”. Both descriptions refer to very boring man-made cities.
Secondly, the poems are also about the negative side of modernization. About how the planners don’t care or respect nature as they “erase the flaws”, for example. Moreover, they don’t give importance to future consequences as they are ignorant, as they only think about themselves. “… in a bland madness of snows.” which means that they are blind and can’t see or don’t care about it. B.K.Cheng also says “They erase (…) the blemishes of the past…” meaning that the planners are destroying culture, nature and history. Anyway, nature shows that they are hurting her, she complains. “… whine of a power mower cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass.”, the autor uses alliterations here to reinforce the cry or the complain of nature for being cut and destroyed.
Third of all, they mention how the planners are “greedy”, about how they want more, more money, expansion of the cities. “They have all the means”, “That is where the City Planners with the insane faces of political conspirators…” these quotes make reference to the fact that they have everything, money, land, authority, control, power as they are business men, they are the government,
On the other hand, the planners also develop another theme. “But my heart would not bleed poetry”. By writing this, Boey Kim expresses his feelings, that the planners will not destroy art. That art will always ‘live’ in his poems. “They build and will not stop”. The writer has a negative view of modernization and progress. “Anesthesia, amnesia, hipnosis”. The autor uses this metaphor to say that they make sure that it doesn’t hurt and that we don’t remember the past as they are destroying it.
In conclusion, these two poems are related with man and nature. The writers express these ideas in a disappointed and pessimistic way.