First Person Narration in "Facing It"

This emotion is best conveyed with the use of the archetypal person narration?that ir, the "I"? inwardly the poem. By placing himself inner(a) the poem, Komunyakaa has, in effect, placed his audience within the poem as well.

The image of Komunyakaa's face "hiding inside the black granite" is significant as well. It is as if he feels as though he should be inside the w both with each of the other men that he once knew. This thought permeates the poem, as the narrator explains how when he turns one way, "the orchestra pit lets [him] go", still as he turns another, he is back inside it again. He also explains that he is "half-expecting to find [his name] in letters care shutout" on the palisade. With these images, Komunyakka is able to express to the audience his throw realization that any one of the names on the wall could have easily been his own. The audience shares this experience with him through the first person narration.

Metaphor and simile are also apply in conveying emotion to the audience. In saying, "I'm stone. I'm flesh." Komunayakaa does not prefer for a literal meaning, entirely a metaphorical one. We love that the narrator doesn't actually perceive himself as stone. Rather, the meaning present is duple. On one hand, he speaks of his reflection in the stone?that is, the stone version of himself, which looks back at him. On the other hand, he wishes for a "stone" heart, that he might be able to bl

The simile " resembling a bird of prey," conveys the patriotic image of the bald shoot?an American symbol of freedom and national strength. Here however, it is a hunter with a keen eye. That his own reflection " eyeball [him] equal a bird of prey" conveys a twofold meaning.

The first is that very image of America as a hunter, as it might have been portrayed during the Vietnam War; the second, perchance more intimate expression, is that of the narrator searching, hunting for himself in the wistful image.

ock out the emotions that threaten to overwhelm him, and fight away tears. Nor is he mere "flesh," but a living breathing person, with complex emotions an feelings. "I'm flesh" refers more to a general sense of snag helplessness than a literal reference to his own flesh.

He also expects to find his own name on the wall, "in letters like smoke." Literally, the letters are a white-gray, like the color of smoke, etched into the black granite. Alternatively, however, "letters like smoke" is a symbolic image, referencing not only the smoke from a gun that has just been used in the heat of battle, but also, and perhaps more importantly, the smoke is all that is left afterwards a fire has been extinguish. As lives are often referred to as "flames," the audience can understand the origin of this image. The 58,022 names on the wall are essentially all that remains of the extinguished flames?memories in "letters like smoke. That Komunyakaa is able to convey all of this emotion in three words is certainly a testanment to the brevity and beauty of his poetry.

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