Natasha Trethewey’s reading at the H. Bruce McEver Poetry Reading offers more than poetry. She puts the poems in context by offering background about the topics in the poems as well as her experiences that helped the poems come about. Her first poem about forgotten soldiers uses rhyme and short lines to convey a haunting tale.
A common theme in her work is race. She uses her poetry as political commentary. She discusses her family and miscegenation, which turns her life into poetry into political activism. She is also the current U. S. Poet Laureate.
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Partying Towards Perfection
9 years ago
I felt that Natasha Tretheway’s poem, “White Lies” was very interesting. I believe the speaker is a young girl which lives in poverty. She expresses her shame throughout the poem greatly and in order for her to feel better, she lies. When her mother finds out that she has lied, she disciplines her by “cleansing and purifying her lying tongue” (line 24 & 25). With that, the girl believed the soap would cleanse inside her body as well as outside her body. I found this pretty ironic considering the fact that the mother told her daughter a lie in order to show her that it is not acceptable.
ReplyDeleteMegan H.
“White Lies” by Natasha Tretheway is interesting in the way it is set up. For a poem, it is unusually different and creative. It makes me think she is speaking and reciting a poem simultaneously. It reminds me of a ruthless parent teaching a child a lesson about lying. The discipline the mother uses on the child is angry and intense. No child wants that to happen. “She put her hands on me then washed out my mouth with ivory soap,” (lines 21-23). Fear rising in the child’s mind teaches her a lesson about what lying can cause.
ReplyDelete-Anthony C.
"White Lies" by Natasha Tretheway made me think of a girl lying of where she lives, where she bought her clothes, and about her color. “I could even keep quiet, quiet as kept, like the time a white girl said (squeezing my hand), Now we have three of us in this class.” It seems like the speaker likes the idea that the white girl shows her that she is one of "them". The end of the poem reminds me of the times where I would lie and my mom would put soap inside my mouth just as her mother put soap in hers in a sense to "purify" her.
ReplyDelete-George C.
The poem "White Lies" is very interesting. The speaker says she could lie about everything in order to be accepted. Toward the middle of the poem a white girl acknowledges her as one of them but she gets punished for it. -Victoria G.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "White Lies" by Natasha Tretheway the character was ashamed about herself. She lied about almost everything. The mother disciplines her with soap but its still isn’t going to change her lying ways. The style of the poem is not as creative as the other poems we have read. The poem is kind of like Natasha is telling her own experience. It doesn’t contain a lot of rhetorical figures. Overall I believe the poem is a good story because of the moral lesson. George P.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the title of this poem, "White Lies", I thought it was literally about white lies. However, interestingly, the meaning of this title can be interpreted in some different ways. It could be what we already know as the meaning of white lies, or it also could reflect that the speaker in this poem thinks that "White" is better. Obviously, the speaker is ashamed of not being white, and even that seemingly crucial behaviors, cleansing tongue and swallowing suds, doesn't matter for the speaker. It might reflect the poet's background, like miscegeneration.
ReplyDeleteDonghwan K.
The poem “White Lies” by Natasha Tretheway seemed interesting to me. Looking at the title I thought this poem would be about someone telling little white lies just to get out of something or just little lies we tell ourselves, but clearly it wasn’t. This poem talked about a girl who was half white (Canadian) and African American which she lied about being an African American. In lines 14-18 “I could even keep quiet, quiet as kept, like the time a white girl said (squeezing my hand), now we have three of us in the class.” The tone of this poem to me is feelings of guilt and saddened because the girl in this poem felt ashamed of herself. – Vanessa G
ReplyDelete"White Lies" by Natasha Tretheway was very interesting. I felt that the girl would lie because she was ashamed of herself. At the end of the poem the girl described how her mother would put soap in her mouth to make her stop lying, but it wouldn't work.
ReplyDelete-Megan S.
"White Lies" by Natasha Tretheway is a pretty solid poem. The way it is written is interesting because it could have been a shorter poem, not in words, but literally the length. I found it strange that she only put a few words a line. But it also sounds as if the girl is accepting her poverty but doesn't enjoy it and the fact that she is not supposed to lie.
ReplyDelete-Jake G.
My interpretation of "White Lies" by Natasha Tretheway was about a girl who constantly lied about insignificant things. She is described as being light skinned and lied to white girls about being white. It seems to me that the girl does not enjoy being African due to the way they were treated in that time of history. Being known as a white girl made her feel important and higher. So, she lied. I believe it made her feel good to lie because it made her feel better.
ReplyDelete-Marisa R
“White Lies” by Natasha Tretheway is a poem whose title has a double meaning. On the one hand, the speaker of the poem is a little African American girl that tells “white” lies that aren't as bad as regular lies. On the other hand, these are lies that she tells to white people in the hopes that it'll help her fit in better with them. The speaker mentions that she can easily tell people that her homemade dresses are really store-bought, and that she lives uptown instead of in a run-down impoverished home. She even mentions a white girl acknowledging her as a member of a trio of girls, whether it's a trio of 'white' girls or a trio of 'privileged' girls is not necessarily made clear. Her mother, however, feels differently. This is evidenced by the punishment she receives whenever her mother finds out about her lying and washes her mouth out with soap. When her mother informs her the punishment is meant to “purify her lying tongue” she proceeds to swallow the soap, believing it will purify her insides and presumably, cleanse her of the shame she seems to be having about her race and lifestyle. Tretheway is commenting on race with this poem, specifically the envy that those of different races with less privileged lives hold for those who do. She made the speaker a young girl to get this point across, as an adult would know that it is not race that one should be ashamed of, and that anyone can attain a better life for themselves. -Kyle B
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "White Lies" the speaker says she could lie about everything in order to be accepted. A white girl realizes what is going on and acknowledges her as one of them. By the end of the poem she gets punished for it. -Emily Z.
ReplyDeletein the poem "White Lies" by Natasha Tretheway the point of view is from a young girl. This girl was shown by the poet to lie about everything about her life. In doing so after another girl, who was white, wanted to accept her. but the mother realized what she was doing and wanted to stop her and probably wanted her to learn to accept her self for who she is by teaching her daughter the hard way.-Ricasso b.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "White Lies" by Natasha Tretheway there is a lot of color imagery. The first stanza especially. It mentions 6 different colors, all describing the lies. It’s about an African American girl that may tell little lies that don’t really mean much. She would lie about where she lived, and where she bought her clothes, but would also lie about being African American. It’s really sad the way she describes lying about her skin color. She writes, “I could even keep quiet, quiet as kept, like the time a white girl said (squeezing my hand), Now we have three of us in this class.” It’s sad because she’s not lying to act cool. When she writes “squeezing my hand,” I get a sense that she only lied because she liked the way the girl was acting like her friend. -Matt.H
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "White Lies" by Natasha Tretheway, I noticed she uses a lot of imagery dealing with colors. She uses 6 different colors that describe different lies. It seems as if the little girl is searching for acceptance/equality. I though of unequal rights when reading this poem because of how the speaker labels the white people as "white folk" rather than just calling them the folk. The young girl wants to be equally treated as the whites in her town and because of the inequality, she lies in order to feel a sense of normalcy.
ReplyDelete-Jordan C.
"White Lies" by Natasha Tretheway is an interesting poem. The girl in the poem wishes to become more integrated in her town. The way it is conveyed is the repetition of "white." "Were just white lies"," washed my mouth with ivory soap" (Tretheway). Due to the fact that these acts were white, the girl believes they are good. Her mother even explains "This is to purify, she said and cleanse your lying tongue" (Tretheway). Followed with the explanations of what the "white" have it makes the girl feel that they are superior. What the mother does by washing her mouth out due to the lies has a good and bad quality. The bad being that the girl thinks "white" is a purifier. The underlying good being to be proud of what she has and has no reason to pose as something she is not. This poem gives a different angle of the oppression and indifferences at that time.
ReplyDelete-Doug C.
The tone and format of Natasha Trethewey's poem, "White Lies" made it very easy to visually picture and even feel all of the emotions that the speaker is feeling. She is living in a place where she isn't treated equally. The part where her mother washes her mouth out with soap and she says how she believed that "swallowing the suds would work from the inside out" really shows how desperate she is to fit in.
ReplyDelete- Christina H
"White Lie" by Natasha Tretheway, the speaker of this poem is an african girl who has a white apperance. "light-bright' near white, high-yellow, red-boned, in a black place," (line3-5). The girl hides her race because she feels shamed being a black. She wants people treat her equally and gets respect from others. Therefor, the girl also pretends living in a wealthy family. "I could act like my homemade dresses came straight out the window of Mason Blanche" (line11-14). This poem has a lot of repetition of vowel sound, such as "lies", "tell", "light-bright", "white", "high", and "red-boned". The word "purify" is a strong word to tell a girl to stop lies. Meanwhile, "ivory soap" will not purify the girl and stop her lying because the point is not about clean her "lying tongue", it is about how girl feels about herself. The tone in this poem is sad and shame. The girl is not only sad and shame of being a black, but she also feels sad and shame of lying her race.
ReplyDelete---Peng Q.
The speaker of the poem, "White Lies" by Natasha Tretheway is an African American girl who is just a child. She lies about a lot of little things that shouldn't really matter just to fit in and make herself feel better. To illustrate more vividly the essence of white lies, the poet uses lots of colors to embrace this. The color of her skin is lighter than the black community she lives in and so, she might not feel accepted in either groups. She lies to the white people of where she lives, what she wears, and where she attends school so that the white people can accept her as their own. However, her mother is displeased with what she is doing. This is why her mother washes her mouth with ivory soap, which represents another shade of white, ironically to help cleanse her. Her mother is obviously lying too because soap doesn't purify your mouth, it just tastes really bad. However, her mother is doing this to benefit her because her mom wants her to believe what she is saying so that, she can subconsciously stop lying and accept who she is. Children usually lie because they don't really now better, but this poem is much more than a child lying. It's a race thing, where this little girl doesn't see acceptance as either race and so, she tells little white lies to belong somewhere.
ReplyDelete- Esther Pagan
*know
DeleteThe poem "White Lies" by Natasha Trethewey is about an African American girl who lies. She would lie to the white folk about where she lived or where she got her clothes from so people won't think she is poor or something like that. Her mother then finds out about the lies shes been saying and decides to punish her by washing her mouth with ivory soap. The girl believes that her mother washing her mouth with soap was a way to clean herself up so she would not find the need to lie anymore which sort of implies that she believes in whatever her mother says even though it is pretty wrong to shove soap up anyone's mouths
ReplyDeleteDarwin U
The poem "White Lies" by Natasha Tretheway has a melancholy tone to it. A young African American girl doesn't fit into society and to make herself feel better, she lies about her life just to seem like one of the other kids. Even when trying to make herself feel better she still ends up getting treated in a way she does not want to. At the end of the poem, her mother puts soap in her mouth because of the lies she's been telling. Although this seems bad, it could be a way, by mother's choice, to let the little girl know that she shouldn't have to lie about who she is and to remember that no one elses opinion matters.
ReplyDeleteThis poem by Natasha Tretheway is about a young African American girl who does not fit in with everybody else. She tries to make herself feel better by lying about her life just to fit in with others. At the end, her mother puts soap in her mouth because she has been lying. She did this to teach her daughter that lying is bad and she should be honest and not try to impress others. - Akram A
ReplyDeleteNatasha Tretheway's poem "White Lies" is about race and how she craves to be white which proves to show a sign of wealth. The title can have two meanings White Lies can mean there are small lies being told or the fact the young girl lied about being white.
ReplyDelete- Julianna C
I think that the moral behind this essay is very important. The poem is about a girl who isn't really comfortable in her own skin and would like to be of a different color. The message that the poem teaches you is to be true to yourself no matter color or race you are. I feel like that's a great message to anybody in the world, no matter the age or race.
ReplyDeleteI believe the poem "White lies" by Natasha Thretheway, was a strong poem focusing on the problem that some people go through not being comfortable in their on skin which becomes insecurity, this young girl wanted to be classified as white because she didn't wanted to be black. She may of not have wanted to be miss treated as a black person and thought she would like life better if she was white. It was a good think her mom was there to teach her otherwise that she shouldn't be ashamed of being black, it was wrong of her to lie about who she was.
ReplyDeleteAdewale Taiwo
This poem gives a feeling of insecurity because the girl feels like she has to lie to fit in. She feels out of place because she doesn't look like the other kids or have the same things as them. The part "I could easily tell the white folks that we lived up town, not in the pink and green
ReplyDeleteshanty-fied shotgun section along the tracks" supports this because she isn't proud of where she lives. This poem reminds me of the House On Mango Street because the girl in that story disliked her home and her childhood also.
-Nicole R.
This poem is sort of like a dis position for the narrator. The title "White Lies" relates literally and in figure. She is a black girl lying about her race and she feels out of place so she lies to feel accepted by others. Her mother washes her mouth out with soap and she believes this will really cleanse her insides of the lies she is continuously telling.
ReplyDelete-Omari G
this poem relates to those who may be ashamed of who they are. they want to change but just cant because its physically impossible. the title "white lies" is ironic because she tells white lies to try and be black.
ReplyDelete-Nick A
wahh, can't believe someone post this :D
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