In your opinion, did ingrid jonker use language effectively to create a sense of a particular time and place in “the child is not dead”? respond in at least 150 words, giving reasons to support your answer and referring to specific words or phrases from the poem.

This is what I used, which is directly out of the lesson and is 452 words long. Because free verse is closer to spoken speech, you feel as if Jonker is speaking directly to you, the reader, as she describes the child who becomes a symbol for a new South African society. In addition, she doesn’t use punctuation marks to end sentences. It’s as if she’s spitting out her rage in one prolonged breath. Look at her use of language in the first verse of the poem. The dictionary meaning of cordoned is surrounded by a protective or restrictive barrier. But as it’s used in the last line, cordoned has the connotation of being under siege. Here the heart and soul of South Africa is surrounded by the restrictive barrier put in place by the forces of discrimination and repression. This feeling of being under attack is emphasized in the second stanza. Jonker uses figurative language to create the image of the child shouting the breath of righteousness and blood as he struggles in the streets of his embattled pride. Here it’s his pride that’s embattled or under siege. The repetition of the phrase The child lifts his fists shows that he’s constantly fighting back against his oppressor. Jonker’s use of these images helps to establish her tone throughout the poem. She’s enraged at what she sees in South African society, but she also believes in change. Repeating the phrase The child is not dead in the third stanza is an affirmation of that belief. Look at this example of figurative language in the fourth stanza of the poem. Here, Jonker uses a metaphor to compare the child to the dark shadow of the soldiers. The child, the future of South Africa, is always present, although the soldiers don’t or won’t see him in the shadows. The last two lines of this stanza show that the child has triumphed. For the first time in the poem, Jonker says this child, not the child. She’s using language carefully to refer specifically to the child who was killed in his mother’s arms at Nyanga during the riots in March 1960. This signals a shift in her tone, from anger to hope and triumph. The child is now a man who treks through all Africa. Think about the connotation of treks. It implies a long, difficult journey. Instead of simply walking, the child is making this long, difficult journey from oppression to freedom through the entire African continent. Finally, Jonker completes the child’s transformation in the last two lines. Here she uses a metaphor to directly compare the child not to a grown man but to a giant, a figure of immense strength and power. Now the once-oppressed child is strong enough to journey through the whole world. And he does it without a pass free from repression and discrimination.

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