Analyzing John Murillo's Poem 'Enter The Dragon'
John Varghese
Professor Black
English 130
17 March 2014
Understanding the Difference In the poem, “Enter The Dragon”, we see a relationship between the speaker and his dad. Throughout the poem, there is a shift in tone. One interpretive problem presented by John Murillo’s “Enter The Dragon” is the tone the speaker uses when he says “I learn the difference between cinema and city, between the moviehouse cheers / Of old men and the silence that gets us home” (ll. 30-31). The poem begins with the speaker and his dad watching a Bruce Lee movie, Enter The Dragon. For the speaker the good part “starts with a black man / Leaping into an orbit of badges,” (ll.1-2). Here we are seeing imagery because you see this black man, Jim Kelly a super hero, being in the middle surrounded by cops orbiting him. The black man uses “arc kicks” and “karate chops” to beat the thirty cops. After beating them up, Kelly takes off with …show more content…
Only in these lines do we see the speaker realizing the difference between cinema and city. Cinema which signifies noise and city which indicates reality. The cinema is Kelly beating up the cops and that’s what the speaker wanted to do when the cops came near his car. But on the other hand, the dad understands that what he saw in the movie is different than what he is actually facing. Not only does the city suggest reality but silence as well. The last line says “silence that get us home” meaning that the father understands that the only way he is going to go home is if he chooses silence over noise, which he does. If he chose noise it would not bring him and his son home. The reality is getting home. The speaker wasn’t expecting this from his dad. He was not really disappointed at his dad but frustrated. He knows that there is going to be a moment in his life where he’s going to go through the same thing and realize that reality and cinema are not the same
Professor Black
English 130
17 March 2014
Understanding the Difference In the poem, “Enter The Dragon”, we see a relationship between the speaker and his dad. Throughout the poem, there is a shift in tone. One interpretive problem presented by John Murillo’s “Enter The Dragon” is the tone the speaker uses when he says “I learn the difference between cinema and city, between the moviehouse cheers / Of old men and the silence that gets us home” (ll. 30-31). The poem begins with the speaker and his dad watching a Bruce Lee movie, Enter The Dragon. For the speaker the good part “starts with a black man / Leaping into an orbit of badges,” (ll.1-2). Here we are seeing imagery because you see this black man, Jim Kelly a super hero, being in the middle surrounded by cops orbiting him. The black man uses “arc kicks” and “karate chops” to beat the thirty cops. After beating them up, Kelly takes off with …show more content…
Only in these lines do we see the speaker realizing the difference between cinema and city. Cinema which signifies noise and city which indicates reality. The cinema is Kelly beating up the cops and that’s what the speaker wanted to do when the cops came near his car. But on the other hand, the dad understands that what he saw in the movie is different than what he is actually facing. Not only does the city suggest reality but silence as well. The last line says “silence that get us home” meaning that the father understands that the only way he is going to go home is if he chooses silence over noise, which he does. If he chose noise it would not bring him and his son home. The reality is getting home. The speaker wasn’t expecting this from his dad. He was not really disappointed at his dad but frustrated. He knows that there is going to be a moment in his life where he’s going to go through the same thing and realize that reality and cinema are not the same