Question

Read this description of the man in "The Legend." A few sounds escape from his mouth, a babbling no one understands as people surround him bewildered at his speech. The noises he makes are nothing to them. What theme does the speaker's description of the man support?

Answer 1

Answer:

The answer to the question: What theme does the speaker´s description of the man support, is, alienation.

Explanation:

"The Legend", is a poem by Asian-American writer Garrett Hongo, which was published in 1988, as part of his book of poetry "The River of Heaven". This particular poem came to life after a pretty strong event that marked Hongo during a trip to Chicago. One day, watching television, he saw a program where they were presenting a short news report on an Asian man who had been shot by accident on the street. What truly marked him was to see how the murder of this man was treated with so little respect, how people cared very little about who the man had been, or anything about him. The man was treated almost as a non-entity. This event spurred Hongo to write his famous poem and what he expresses, in that particular stanza of his poem, is not so much the process of death of the man, which is described by the watching speaker, but rather, the total alienation from the people around towards the dying person. It shows how the people around the dying man simply do not show any emotion, or care, because this man is totally different from them, in every respect, he is not one of them, and therefore, it does not affect them that he has been shot by a boy, or that he is dying without anyone doing anything. This event also forces Hongo to rediscover his own roots as an immigrant and a part-Asian man.

Answer 2

Death. also I can't help but feel there has to be more to the question.