Biographical Commentary On Blue By Chris Abani Essay

Biographical and Historical Context in â€Å"Blue† Born in Nigeria, the prolific writer Chris Abani depicts a sad yet unavoidable reality of the history and political chaos of his â€Å"Troubled African nation† (Poetry Foundation) in several, if not all of his writing pieces. Although it is best to read the writer’s pieces through the scope of his life, Abani encompasses the overall situations which Africans undergo with such perfection, that no biographical or historical context is necessary for one to fully grasp his works of art. In â€Å"Blue,† Abani conveys meaning through imagery, which promotes an effective perception of what the characters experience. In his third stanza, Abani remarks, â€Å"Her pride masticated like husks of chewing sticks† (Abani 3). The aforementioned is a simile whereby the author compares the black woman’s pride to a banal object, suggesting that her pride and very existence is made insignificant, for she has been â€Å"Sold six times on the journey to the coast, once for a gun, then cloth, then iron manillas† (3). This helps to generate an image which shows with clarity how corrupt African society is as the writer appeals to the readers’ personal feelings; thus causing them to empathize with the character’s despair. Among other examples of imagery employment within Abani’s â€Å"Blue,† the one that is most remarkable is that in which he, through the medium of a metaphor, actively compares pain to the â€Å"Blue inside a flam e† (3); moreover, by comparing said elements, the