Wanda Why Aren't You Dead

At first glance, upon reading this poem the reader gets the impression that someone is reprimanding a black, woman of low social standing. This person could be her mother, boyfriend or a rejected suitor. However, since the poet herself is Wanda and through,
tone, diction and structure we may assume that Wanda is speaking to herself.

The tone of the poem is scolding and insulting. This single black woman, “being black” who has a poor standard of living, “why ain’t you rich: and “can’t you afford to move out of this hell hole”, is having a hard time to raise her children, “ready made family” under slum like conditions. She may have been abandoned by the father and is being judged by society. Being black is a discrepancy in itself, add to this the stigma of being a single parent and to top it all being fat and perhaps unattractive puts the icing on the cake as far as societies pre conceived notions and prejudices.. It is possible she is repeating in head the insults she hears repeatedly from her former lover or mother or due to her frustrations is beating her own self up. All in all she wonders why she is not dead under these horrifying conditions of hardship and self loathing and revulsion.

The diction which has bad English shows that she is from a low family background and has received little education. The use of “ain’t,” “gonna,” and “you joking girl” show local colloquialisms of her community. Word usage to insult her feet, “how come your feet are so goddam big,” may be further proof that she herself and not a third party is looking at her own body and has full view of her feet. It is interesting that she has chosen the word usage” black” but does not enter into any racial slurs but tells us that being black has its own way of life “what is it like being black”. She does not like black men revealing her own prejudices or bias due to past experience. She has removed herself from herself and is looking at herself almost in a mirror, “if I were you”.

The structure of the poem is revealing to the story being told. Wanda and I is never capitalized. Of course this could be due to lack of education. However, more profoundly, it shows that she sees herself in a self demeaning manner and feels she is not at a level to be given importance or respect. The poem lacks punctuation to give it a sing song conversation and the lack of a question mark means she does not require any answers, it is a statement not a question. Repetitions, “were you” and “that” may not be stammering but reinforcement and confusion. The spacing at the end shows her thoughts are fading but emphasis on “ALWAYS” protrays anger.