Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck and The Ostler written by Wilkie Collins :: English Literature

The two stories iam going to compare are Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck in 1937 and The Ostler written by Wilkie Collins in 1985. For this assignment I am going to compare and contrast the themes and languages of two poems. The two poems I am going to describe are 'Old Father' written by Hugh Boatswain and 'Island Man' by Grace Nicholas. Old Father is about a certain immigrant who lives in England in the winter of 1959. The poem is written in a West-Indian dialect. The poem is about a black man who denies his roots and wants to become like a 'White Man'. He does this by acting like them for example he wears white clothes also he likes it in England and to stay there. Island Man is about a certain immigrant who lives in Neasdon, in London. He has a dream about waking up in his own land in the Caribbean Sea, hearing the sound of the sea. This immigrant does not like London and prefers living back home in the Caribbean. The poem is written in one long dialect. There is only one similarity in the theme of both poems. They both are poems about a certain person who is different to society. Old Father is about a black man living in England denying his roots: "That don't like serving black people." This emphasises that, he has changed into someone different, someone who he is not. It also suggests that he is trying to impersonate a 'white man'. Another way he does this, is by insulting black people: "And he crack joke with them white people on we." This suggests that he is showing them that he is not a black man. He may look like one, but in his own mind he is not. In my opinion, I would say he loves living in London. However, we have no evidence why he does not go back to the Caribbean. There are also a series of differences between the two poems in the themes between the two poems. In Old Father we realise that he loves England: "His roots have no meaning now. " So he likes it in England and doesn't want to leave England. He has also forgotten who he is. He is trying to be like the 'White Man', not the black man that he really is. We also see that he has changed into someone different: "Coloured girls no good for he." This shows that he has totally changed into someone different, as he is coloured and not going out with coloured girls.