h. In this work, the one that stands out most clearly for me is third-generation timetable. This is a linking of two entirely incompatible terms. Third-generation refers to a family, while a timetable is a schedule, most often used in connection with finding out the times of trains. Here, I believe he is saying that the family had hoped to break out of the cycle of poverty and migrant working by having the grandson (the third generation) go to school, but that plan (the timetable) is now upset, because the boss wants them to pick more cotton, even if it means sacrificing the boys education and the familys dreams of getting him out of the fields. The lines that make this clear are:From el amo desgraciado, a sentence:I wanna bale a day, and the boy heredont hafta go to school.El amo desgraciado means the despicable boss. Obviously the man doesnt care what becomes of the child or the family, all he wants is to meet his quotasurpass it it possibleand if that means the child has no future except as a field hand, the boss couldnt care less. He is going to stand in the way of the boys education for the sake of the crop.VIToneTone in written literature is somewhat vague. It generally means the way in which the poet hopes the reader will hear his words. Since he cannot speak aloud to us, he chooses words that will convey not only his direct meaning, but how he feels about his subject. I said that the tone of this poem is angry, and I believe it is, because that is what I feel when I read it. Certainly the blazing sun, the pain in the hands and backs of the pickers, the hopelessness of the boy who wont be going to school, all these add up to a bleak and unpleasant situation. But there is an underlying feeling about it that indicates to me these people know they are being abused, and although they have been treated badly for three generations, I get a sense that they are ready to rebel. Poetry is probably the most subjective of all th...
