Mr T–
I wonder why the author choice Mr. T to write his poem about?
96 Matching Annotations
- Jun 2022
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those eighteen glammering gold chains around the throat of pity, that fat hollow medallion like the sun on a leash
These chains and lavish items look good on the outside. But it is deeper than the superficial. It helps feed the idea of the example mr. t shows through his work who influences you African American boys lives. I like that he compares it to a leash. These boys are stuck with this idea and this life while mr t does it for Hollywood.
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How to hulk through Chicago in a hedgerow afro, an ox-grunt kicking dust behind the teeth;
Those young boys who look up to him are following what they see. It it causes them to do what he does and furthers the stereotype. Instead of being a positive influence.
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What were we, the skinny B-boys, to learn from you?
This could be the authors problem with what Mr. T does. Instead of breaking the stereotype and being a role model to young African American boy at the time he is showing them violence. This is someone they look up to and want to be.
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And liable to crush a fool’s face like newsprint; headlines of Hollywood blood and wincing
I agree that this simile is used to show Mr. Ts portrayals in Hollywood. He feeds into the stereotypical strong African American roles. He is viewed as scary. Instead of doing other roles to break the stereotype. He does what he can to make it there. The author of the poem seems disappointed in what he is doing.
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Sometimes drugged & duffled (by white men) into a cockpit bound for the next adventure
This shows that this man is not white and allows white men to tell him what to do. He is forced by the white men to go on his “next adventure”. I like to word choice of duffled and drugged. It shows the control they have over Mr. T.
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white feathers flapping in each lobe for the skull’s migration, should the need arise.
I feel this line helps set the authors mood toward Mr. t. The author writes about popular culture and race. The use of white feathers is interesting to me. Could it demonstrate that Mr t. is willing to do anything to get what he wants. Could it represent him using his culture in a mocking way.
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A man made of scrap muscle
This is a great use of alliteration. We can visualize what this man looked like. He was most likely big and strong and maybe even a little rugged.
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she would open her eyes and think of the place that was hers for an hour-where she was nothing, pure nothing, in the middle of the day….
I feel that in most circumstances nothing is viewed as negative. In the context of this poem it is a positive thing. She enjoys the time that she has to not think about being a mother. It’s her time to clear her mind and to meditate.
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She had a hour at best before Liza appeared
She only has an hour before he children are awake. Of how many hours we are awake a day that is not much. It doesn’t necessarily say she has a partner but if she did her responsibilities don’t just go away. Thomas could be her husband. After they go to bed at night and she does as well she will just wake up and do the same thing again.
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Later that night when Thomas rolled over and lurched into her, she would open her eyes and think of the place that was hers for an hour-where she was nothing, pure nothing, in the middle of the day….
This author uses enjambment in her poem. This allows her poem to flow nicely. I feel she probably does love being a mother. She also desires peace and a place that she isn’t a mother but nothing. Just a time to be absent from the world and to allow her mind to be at rest. Even if it is just for one hour.
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Other days she starred until she was assured when she closed her eyes she’d see only her own vivid blood.
Like others have said this stanza truly demonstrates how lonely this women is. This could also be peace for her as well. This loneliness could be sadness and peace at the same time. She has time to herself to think but she might feel that no one is there for her as well.
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Sometimes there were things to watch- the pinched armor of a vanished cricket, a floating maple leaf.
This is a great use of imagery. I feel that these sights could be calming to her and allow her mind to go other places than worrying about he children. It makes you feel the tranquility of her time outside
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So she lugged a chair behind the garage to sit out the children’s naps.
During their naps is a time that she can get her silent time to think. I assume her garage is a place that she can go to get away from the things that remind her of her responsibilities of being a mother
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She wanted a little room for thinking: but she saw diapers steaming on the line, a doll slumped behind the door.
These stanzas of the poem show the struggles of a mother wanting space to think. The author uses imagery of the doll slumped on the wall and the diapers to show the daily mundane tasks of a mother that keeps her so busy she feels she doesn’t even have room to think.
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My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
War was bad. I looked it up and this last phrase meaning it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. After the sight of the soldiers death he truly believed this phrase was a lie.
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Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, —
This phrase he is comparing cancer and sores to the sights he saw while at war. This demonstrates how bad war really was to him
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gargling
Onomatopoeia
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like a devil’s sick of sin;
This is a simile. This again shows how profoundly war affects soldiers.
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If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
This truly exemplifies the trauma that comes from war. They see so many gruesome things.
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tumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.
I love this simile! I feel it really demonstrates how fragile life is. Especially during war times. They have to be ready for anything at anytime.
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ecstasy of fumbling
I also agree that this word choice is interesting. I feel ecstasy is usually not used in a derogatory way. But in this it is used to share the fumbling of the soldiers. Here it could be associated with a frenzy
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Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
This metaphor helps the reader to feel the exhaustion of the soldiers.
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Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
You can feel the exhaustion of the men. They marched asleep. They weren’t literally asleep but they probably felt that they were. They were physically exhausted
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poets.org poets.org
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These I painted blind. Some things never leave a person: scent of the hair of one you love, the texture of persimmons, in your palm, the ripe weight.
I feel these paintings and what he is explaining represents him overcoming the barriers he faced immigrating to a new country.
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I sit beside him and untie three paintings by my father: Hibiscus leaf and a white flower. Two cats preening. Two persimmons, so full they want to drop from the cloth.
Again I feel this shows the care the son has for his father. What is symbolic of each of these pieces of artwork?
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The sun, the sun.
He brings up the word sun again.
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Wrens are soft as yarn.
I love this simile. I feel the author is great at making connections with the words that give him trouble. It could be his way of finding a way to remember the words.
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fight and fright, wren and yarn. Fight was what I did when I was frightened, Fright was what I felt when I was fighting.
The author uses alliteration in this sentence. I like this example because it shows how easy it is for those who have immigrated to another country to get words mixed up. I feel that the author had trouble with words that sound alike.
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I’ve forgotten. Ni, wo: you and me. I part her legs, remember to tell her she is beautiful as the moon.
I feel this is an important because in an intimate moment with his love he isn’t concerned with the struggles of assimilating to another country. In this moment he is actually able to teach her Chinese words as well.
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How to eat: put the knife away, lay down newspaper. Peel the skin tenderly, not to tear the meat.
Here is another example of enjambment made by the author. I feel that the way you peel a persimmon is significant. You have to be gentle and “precise”.
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This is precision. Ripe ones are soft and brown-spotted.
I like that they compare precision and persimmons. When I think of precision I think of being perfect and exact. A “perfect” persimmon has brown spots and would not look perfect.
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slapped the back of my head
I agree with my peers that the author uses enjambment in their work. This sentence really helps to set the mood for the poem. It helps the reader to see the hardships faced by children that have immigrated from another country.
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e slip of paper with Mr. Kapasi’saddress on it fluttered away in the wind. No one but Mr. Kapasi noticed.He watched as it rose, carried higher and higher by the breeze, into thetrees where th~ monkeys now sat, solemnly observing the scene below.Mr. Kapasi observed it too, knowing that this was the picture of the Dasfamily he would preserve forever in his min
After knowing her secret he probably does not want to write to Mrs Das. He knew her secrets and instead of seeing her as someone who is unhappy in her marriage like he is. He sees her as a cheater.
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They began calling his name, wandering up and down the path a bit.Because they were calling, they did not initially hear the boy’s screams.When they found him, a little farther down the path under a tree, he ~vassurrounded by a group of monkeys, over a dozen of them, pulling at hisT-shirt with their long black fingers. The puffed rice Mrs. Das had spilledwas scattered at his feet, raked over by the monkeys’ hands.
This also shows how irresponsible they are as parents. This has been a consistent theme throughout the story.
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Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das,or is it guilt?
I feel it is guilt that makes her distant from her husband.
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No, of course not. And no one knows, of course. No one at all. I’vekept it a secret for eight whole years." She looked at Mr. Kapasi, tiltingher chin as if to gain a fresh perspective. "But now I’ve told yo
If no one else knows I wonder why she told Mr Kapasi?
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A brave little boy," M~: Kapasi commented."It’s not so surprising," Ml-s. Das said,"No?""He’s not his.""I beg your pardon?""Raj’s. He’s not Raj’s son
She may feel guilty for cheating on her husband and knowing that her son is another mans child. This may be why she is distant and cold to him
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"My legs are tired," she said, sinking low in her seat. "I’ll stay here.""~Vhy did you have to wear those stupid shoes?" Mn Das said. "Youwon’t be in the pictures.""Pretend I’m there
I feel that just like at the beginning appearances are important to the Das family. Especially Mr Das. I feel he wants to appear to be connected to his Indian roots, and that his family is happy but in reality they are not.
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Mr. Das continued to read his book
Mr. Das is still more interested in his book than whats going on around him. Does he use it as a distraction from his family which allows him to distance himself from them?
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ignoring her husband’s requests that she pose foranother picture,
She again is seeming uninterested, and it putting distance between her and her husband
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They reached Konarak at two-thirty. The temple, made of sandstone,was a massive pyramid-like structure in the shape of a chariot. It wasdedicated to the great master of life, the sun, which struck three sides ofthe edifice as it made its journey each day across the sky:
I wonder if there is something significant about them visiting the sun temple. Is it only because it is important in Indian culture? Or is there a deeper meaning in using this temple as the tourist site?
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In time she would reveal the dis-appointment of her marriage, and he his.
They both are unhappy in their marriages.
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r. Das was absorbedby his tour book, so it seemed like a private conversation between Mr.Kapasi and Mrs. Das
Mr Das is again more focused on his tour book than the actually tour.
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He wondered if Mn and Mrs. Das were a bad match, justas he and his wife were. Perhaps theT~5 too, had little in common apartfrom three children and a decade of their lives. The signs he recognizedfrom his own marriage were there- the bickering, the indifference, theprotracted silences. Her sudden interest in him, an interest she did notexpress in either her husband or her children, was mildly intoxicating.When Mr. Kapasi thought once again about how she had said "roman-tic," the feeling of intoxication gre
We have already seen what Mr. Kapasi sees. The Das are not a good match. It is very odd that Mrs Das flirts with Mr. Kapasi in front of her husband. She is also very distant and cold to her husband.
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was a sign of his failings
His job is very important like Mrs. Das said. He however sees it as a failure.
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Isn’t this an air-conditioned car?" she asked, still blowing on herhand. The window on Tina’s side was broken and could not be rolleddown."Quit complaining," Mr. Das said. "It isn’t so hot.""I told you to get a car with air-condltioning," Mrs. Das continued."Why do you do this, Raj, just to save a few stupid rupees. What are yousaving us, fifty cents?"Their accents sounded just like the ones Mr. Kapasi heard on Ameri-can television programs, though not like the ones on Dallas.
This displays the theme that the family are truly disconnected from their roots. They have distanced themselves and now identify with American culture more than their Indian roots.
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Tina renewed herplea that she wanted her nails done, too,
These children seem to desire their parents attention which is not being given.
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They were all like siblings, Mr. Kapasi thought as they passed a row ofdate trees.
This is a good way to think about it. The way the parents treat their children does seem more like older siblings than like parents. I feel this ties to the theme that they are irresponsible and unloving children towards their children.
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he boy in front accommodated him by swinging his hairless knees outof the way
The boy seems respectful to Mr. Kapasi considering the way the parents treat him.
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Mrs. Das reached into herstraw bag and pulled out a bottle of colorless nail polish, which she pro-ceeded to stroke on the tip of her index finger.
Mrs Das is distant. It is very interesting behavior to paint your nails and not care when you are on a tour. Especially when something exciting like this is happening.
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hey were seated in groups along the branches, with shining blackfaces, silver bodies, horizontal eyebrows, and crested heads. Their longgray tails dangled llke a series of topes among the leaves. A fewscratched themselves with black leathery hands, or swung their feet,staring as the car passed
Again the author is great as using imagery. This is a good example of visual imagery.
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, but Mrs.Das said nothing to stop her. She sat a bit slonched at one end of theback seat, not offering her puffed rice to anyone.
This is another example the the Das parents are irresponsible parents. They are distant and fail to give their children adequate attention. Mrs Das seems especially distant from everyone.
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At this Mrs. Das gave an impatient sigh, as if she had been travelingher whole life without pause
Like others said Americans tend to be seen as impatient. I feel this also characterizes Mrs Das. She seems detached from the things around her and seems to look inward. It also displays the pompous behavior of the Das family.
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Oh, Mina and I were both born in America," Mr. Das announced withan air of sudden confiden
This is a great theme for the story. It seems that the Das family has disconnected form their roots. We can tell because of the way they dress and how they feel about living in America.
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They are quite tame." Mr.Kapasi was forty-six years old, with receding hair that had gone com-pletely silver, but his butterscotch complexion and his unlined brow
The writer is great at using imagery when describing people.
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"Bobby, make sure that your brother doesn’t do anything stupid."
I feel that this also helps display that Mr Das does not want to be a responsible parent to his children. He has disconnected from them.
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He had a sapphire blue visor, and was dressed inshorts, sneakers, and a T-shirt
I feel the clothing they wear are symbolic. The family has Indian roots but live in America. They are disconnected from their roots and have embraced their new life and customs.
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sounded as though it had not yet settled into maturity.
This reminds me of how they treat their children and how they do not desire to be parents. He has not yet settled into maturity and he does not want to take the responsibility of being a good parent.
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Among the men there would be grumbling, of course, andmaybe worse, because their days would seem longer and theirloads heavier
Here is another reference to the theme of the soldiers having to carry heavy burdens.
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Instead he went back to his maps. He was now determinedto perform his duties firmly and without negligence
His shift in feelings for Martha is allowing him to focus on his duties as a soldier.
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Lavender was dead. You couldn't burn the blame
Burning the letters was a big step in allowing him to move on from Martha. However burning the letters will not take away the guilt he feels for Teds death.
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ntangibles had their own mass and specific gravit
I like this. They talk all about weight and how much each thing they carried weighed. Here we see that the emotional baggage they carry does not have physical weight. Still, it is heavy and overwhelming.
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They carried all the emotional baggag
This is a theme of the story. The soldiers all carry emotional baggage.
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ed Lavender'ssupply of tranquilizers, how the poor guy didn't feel a thing,how incredibly tranquil he was
This is symbolic. Ted took tranquilizers because he was fearful. He was scared of war but his death was fast. The fellow soldiers shared that he is tranquil now, or at peace.
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cement
Cement is a motif. This was brought up earlier on page 3. It ties well into the continual idea of weight.
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They shared the weight of memory.They took up what others could no longer bear. Often, theycarried each other, the wounded or weak. They carriedinfections.
He is the motif of weight and the theme that the soldiers are carrying burdens. They also have a shared burden as soldiers in the war. They all carry fear, guilt and sadness.
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t, he was thinking about Martha. The stresses and fractures,the quick collapse, the two of them buried alive under all thatweight. Dense, crushing love.
The motif of weight is mentioned again.
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HenryDobbins carried his girlfriend's pantyhose wrapped around hisneck as a comforter. They all carried ghosts.
Ghosts are symbolic. I feel they could represent those who have passed due to the war. This could be their own soldiers and their enemies as well.
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all love andlightness
I like this phrase. I know that the word lightness is associated with the word sun. I feel this could also be referencing the motif of weight.
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where it seemed weightless
A motif in this story is weight. The soldiers carry burdens and heavy bags. At home, things seem weightless. They are not experiencing the pain and fear a soldier feels.
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Like cement
I like the use of cement. I know it is an explanation of Ted's death but it is a great use of imagery and is symbolic. Cement is heavy, and the bags the mean carry are heavy. What is also heavy is the feelings of guilt, fear, and responsibility that come from serving in the war.
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Lieutenant Cross kept to himself. He pictured Martha's smoothyoung face, thinking he loved her more than anything, morethan his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because heloved her so much and could not stop thinking about he
I feel now that guilt could be a possible theme of the text. The guilt Jimmy feels, and many soldiers probably feel could be a burden for them. I find it interesting that Jimmy is feeling guilty and so he thinks of Martha and his love for her as a distraction. He then recognizes and shares that the reason he feels guilty and that Ted is dead is because Martha is a distraction for him. It is a cycle.
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ieutenant Cross felt the pain. He blamed himself. Theystripped off Lavender's canteens and ammo, all the heavythings,
Jimmy felt guilty for what happened to Ted. Guilt and a sense of responsibility could be a burden for Jimmy. This characterizes Jimmy. He is one the feels responsible for the men in his platoon. Jimmy is responsible and empathetic.
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But Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried 34rounds when he was shot and killed outside Than Khe, and hewent down under an exceptional burden, more than 20 poundsof ammunition, plus the flak jacket and helmet and rations andwater and toilet paper and tranquilizers and all the rest, plus theunweighed fear.
Here is another reference to burdens. I still feel carrying burdens could be a possible theme. The narrator mentions that Ted was under an exceptional burden. Ted carried around a lot of ammunition which was a physical burden for him. The narrator specifically brings up Ted's fear and how it was unweighed. His fear could not be weighed but it was still a part of his exceptional burden. Ted's burden was not only physical but emotional as well.
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virgin
Like others, many have mentioned that this word has been mentioned a few times before. I also wonder why it is so important to him.
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ut it implied burdens
Could carrying burdens be a possible theme of the text? We know the soldiers carried many things physically and emotionally as well. At this point in the text, there has been mention of a few soldiers who have already been killed in action. Seeing friends die and having to fight a war is a burden enough. Many also carry around pictures from their life before the war and the pull to be home and with family may also be a burden for many. I feel carrying burdens could be a theme of the text.
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his love for Martha up the hills andthrough the swamps
Something about this sticks out to me. Marching up hills and going through swamps are things that are unpleasant and undesirable. They are uncomfortable. Love is pleasant, warm, and desirable. These phrases invoke opposite feelings. I appreciate the use of these words because it reiterates that love and things that are important pushed these soldiers as they went through hard times.
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Henry Dobbins, who was a big man, carried extrarations; he was especially fond of canned peaches in heavysyrup over pound cake. Dave Jensen, who practiced fieldhygiene, carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-sized bars of soap he'd stolen on R&R in Sydney, Australia.
This reiterates Bailey's point that the soldiers carried what they determined was a necessity as an individual. While they mainly carried the same things some may carry extra food or hygiene products because they felt those things were personally important.
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Slowly, a bit distracted, he would get up and moveamong his men, checking the perimeter, then at full dark hewould return to his hole and watch the night and wonder ifMartha was a virgin.
I know that the passage mentions his love for Martha. I am also wondering if it is not just love that he feels for her, but if he uses her as a distraction from the war. Martha might be a distraction from the duties and misfortune of being a soldier at war.
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er professors and roommates and midtermexams, about her respect for Chaucer and her great affectionfor Virginia Woolf.
I feel this passage also helps us to recognize the love that Jimmy has for Martha. He not only takes time to read her letters deeply but remembers things about her. He remembers the things she loves. Like her respect for Chaucer and her love for Virginia Woolf.
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were playing was the blues. He hit something in all of them, he hit something in me, myself, and the music tightened and deepened, apprehension began to beat the air. Creole began to tell us what the blues were all about. They were not about anything very new. He and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen. For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness
They used the blues to release their emotions. The blues for them was a way to share in their suffering and to come together in understanding.
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No, there's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it, to keep on top of it, and to make it seem-well, like you. Like you did something, all right, and now you're suffering for it. You know?" I said nothing. "Well you know," he said, impatiently, "why do people suffer? Maybe it's better to do something to give it a reason, any reason
Again the theme that all people suffer is present in this passage. Sonny shares that you do anything to keep from drowning in the suffering. This could have been a reason for his drug use.
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I read about Sonny's trouble in the spring. Little Grace died in the fall. She was a beautiful little girl. But she only lived a little over two years. She died of polio and she suffered. She had a slight fever for a couple of days, but it didn't seem like anything and we just kept her in bed. And we would certainly have called the doctor, but the fever dropped, she seemed to be all right. So we thought it had just been a cold. Then, one day, she was up, playing, Isabel was in the kitchen fixing lunch for the two boys when they'd come in from school, and she heard Grace fall down in the living room. When you have a lot of children you don't always start running when one of them falls, unless they start screaming or something. And, this time, Gracie was quiet. Yet, Isabel says that when she heard that thump and then that silence, something happened to her to make her afraid. And she ran to the living room and there was little Grace on the floor, all twisted up, and the reason she hadn't screamed was that she couldn't get her breath. And when she did scream, it was the worst sound, Isabel says, that she'd ever heard in all her life, and she still hears it sometimes in her dreams. Isabel will sometimes wake me up with a low, moaning, strangling sound and I have to be quick to awaken her and hold her to me and where Isabel is weeping against me seems a mortal wound
This passage is another passage that supports the theme that suffering a big part of life and that every single person will experience it.
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"I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?"
This reminds me of what Sonny's friend said at the beginning when the narrator asked if Sonny was trying the kill himself. He said to him that Sonny wasn't trying to kill himself but he was trying to live.
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he child is filled with darkness. He knows that every time this happens he's moved just a little closer to that darkness outside. The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. It's what they've come from. It's what they endure. The child knows that they won't talk any more because if he knows too much about what's happened to them, he'll know too much too soon, about what's going to happen to him.
Here is another mention of the motifs of light and darkness. I saw that someone earlier mentioned a theme that every person will experience suffering and I feel this passage describes that idea.
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disaster. Some escaped the trap, most didn't. Those who got out always left something of themselves behind, as some animals amputate a leg and leave it in the trap. It might be said, perhaps, that I had escaped, after all, I was a school teacher; or that Sonny had, he hadn't lived in Harlem for year
I believe this passage is referring to the hardships that many face growing up in an area like Harlem. They are trapped in this way of life and many do not make something of themselves. The narrator says he was one of the individuals who got out and he was able to become a teacher.
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Yet, when he smiled, when we shook hands, the baby brother I'd never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light
Darkness vs. light is mentioned again. Could this possibly be a theme? The darkness is the hardships of the people in this time and the light represents them overcoming these hardships.
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me being a musician
Blues is a music genre as well as can symbolize sadness. I feel there is a connection between Sonny being a musician and the sadness he feels. He mentions in the paragraph before that he is not very strong in the head.
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But now I feel like a man who's been trying to climb up out of some deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the sun up there, outside. I got to get outsid
This story has mentioned a lot about darkness but now it is mentioning light. This could possible be another motif.
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All at once something inside gave and threatened to come pouring out of me. I didn't hate him any more. I felt that in another moment I'd start crying like a child. "Sure," I said. "Don't sweat." I looked in my wallet and didn't have a dollar, I only had a five. "Here," I said. "That hold you?
This is a great example of characterization and a possible character arc as well. The narrator stated earlier he never liked the man but whenever he asked for money he would give it to him. The idea that he does not hate this man anymore could represent him forgiving and loving his brother and those in similar situations to him.
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Sonny asked me how it felt." He paused, I couldn't bear to watch him, I watched the barmaid, and I listened to the music which seemed to be causing the pavement to shake. "I told him it felt great." The music stopped, the barmaid paused and watched the juke box until the music began again. "It did."
I assume that this is why he feels responsible. He is probably referring to heroin and he told Sonny that doing heroin felt great.
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"when I saw the papers this morning, the first thing I asked myself was if I had anything to do with it. I felt sort of responsible."
This man said earlier that he doesn't hang around those types of people. It makes me wonder why he feels responsible if he shared that he was not involved with those types of people? Could he have been the one that introduced heroin and peddling to Sonny?
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Sometimes it hardened and seemed to expand until I felt my guts were going to come spilling out or that I was going to choke or scream.
Earlier in the paragraph, the narrator shares the fear they feel for Sonny. This imagery of the ice melting in his stomach and trickling through his veins allows the reader to feel and imagine the fear he feels for Sonny. This passage specifically reiterates the overwhelming discomfort and anxiety he feels for Sonny.
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They were filled with rage. All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness, and in which they now, vindictively, dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone
Darkness appears to be a motif in this story. This passage is another reference to darkness. He refers to the darkness of the lives of the people around him. He could be referring to the struggles the people faced at this period of time.
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I didn't want to believe that I'd ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out, in the condition I'd already seen so many others.
This is another reference to darkness.
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