Question

Write a short essay in which you examine the figurative language in “Concrete Mixers.” Explain what the concrete mixers are compared to, what the parts of the mixers are compared to, and what the drivers of the mixers are compared to. Then, show how the comparisons are related. Use details from the poem in your response. Use the reading selection to help you answer the question.

Answer 1

“Concrete Mixers” by Patricia Hubbell compares concrete mixers to elephants to show humans have created relationships with their machines in much the same way as with animals under their care. The poet shows how the drivers of the concrete mixers wash and tend to their mixers just as the mahout take care of their elephants. This comparison is set up at the beginning of the poem with this simile: “Like elephant tenders they hose them down.” To continue this relationship, the poet describes the concrete drivers as “mahouts”, the name for people who take care of elephants in other countries. The poem also describes how the concrete mixers “stand in muck”, meaning that these machines are in muddy environments similar to the environments of elephants who stand in mud or muck.In the end the poet describes how the concrete mixers are like elephants working to do humans’ work by lifting, moving and helping to create new structures in a city. The poet uses several similes to describe concrete mixers as if they were alive: “Concrete mixers/Move like elephants/Bellow like elephants/Spray like elephants” She further strengthens the effect by writing that they “…are urban elephants/Their trunks are raising a city.” This metaphor means that just as elephants work for humans in  

Poetry Collection 3 other countries, the machines in the poem are doing the labor of building a city. The poet uses the word “raising” to show that the city is being built up, becoming taller and taller with skyscrapers. Through the effective use of figurative language the poet shows how humans have begun to treat their machines as if they were living, breathing animal

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