Writing

“The Rose That Grew from Concrete”

“The Rose that grew from Concrete” is an autobiographical essay written by Tupac Shakur. [Verify information you write in this sentence. "The Rose that Grew from Concrete" is not an essay as it contains lines that make up a stanza. Considering this, what type of literary work should this be called?] The poem talks about a rose flower that grew from a crack in the concrete and thus defied the laws of nature. Consequently, the rose blossomed into a beautiful flower. Tupac Shakur, the poet, was a famous American actor and rapper who is popularly referred to as "2pac". He was the best-selling music artist in his time. The poem shows how a person can undergo and persevere the challenges of life and thrive into being a successful individual. This essay will provide a critical analysis of the poem by analyzing the message of survival through discussing the literary devices such as the symbols, themes, personification, tone and speaker.

The tone and the speaker of the poem are optimistic. There is optimism in the poem because it gives hope for better days. The tone of the poem motivates the reader to bravely face the challenges they are experiencing and to overcome it. “Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air,” this is a quote from the poem that shows the optimism of the speaker and the poem. The given line encourages the reader to believe in his/her dreams, no matter how funny of awkward they may appear because in the end, it will blossom into something great. Just like the flower, the flower grew in a crack in a concrete. The concrete is hard and lacks moisture and nutrients for a plant to flourish, however, despite the harsh growing conditions, the flower managed to grow and blossom into something beautiful.

Symbolism is another literary device used in the poem. Symbolism is a literary device that uses symbols, be they words, people, marks, locations, or abstract ideas to represent something beyond the literal meaning. The rose and the concrete have been used in the poem symbolically. The rose symbolizes a man while the concrete symbolizes the ghetto or tough environment. It is against the laws of nature for a rose to grow from a concrete, the poet mentions it in the first two lines of the poem, “Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's law is wrong, it learned to walk without having feet.” By saying that the rose grew from a crack on the concrete, the poet is referring to surviving the challenging life of the ghetto and finally making it to success. [Consider adding relevant details and examples to clearly reflect the symbolism used by the poet here. What possible experiences make life in the ghetto challenging? What is considered as success here by the poet?] In the second line of the poem, the poet talks about the flower defying the law of nature and learning to walk without having feet. The line emphasizes on the symbolism of the rose and the concrete by showing that there is a belief that people in the ghetto cannot overcome the challenges of the ghetto and become successful, especially without connections to affluent families. However, the flower, which symbolically represents a man shows that the man was able to overcome the challenges of the ghetto without political connections. The poet finishes the poem by congratulating the rose flower for growing through the concrete which serves as congratulating the person from overcoming the challenges of the ghetto without help from affiliated individuals and being a successful individual.

Another literary device in the poem is personification. Personification is a poetic device where animals, plants or even inanimate objects, are given human qualities. The rose flower has been personified by being given the qualities of a human. The persona in the poem refers to the flower as if it was a human, he gives it human qualities such as walking and breathing. In the poem, the persona says that the rose flower “learned to walk without having feet.” Walking is a feature often attached to humans and thus making it an element of personification. Also, another feature of personification in the poem is when the author says, “but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.” In this line, there are two features of personification, having dreams and breathing fresh air. Dreams is a feature only attached to humans, therefore, by saying a flower kept it dreams, the poet has personified the flower. Another thing is breathing, although animals breathe, in the given context, it can be a personification feature because the poet first started by mentioning something about keeping dreams. Consequently, using personification to present the message of survival.

The last literary device to be analyzed is theme. As a literary device, theme refers to the central, deeper meaning of a written work. In the given poem, the central theme is that of survival, in that, a strong individual can beat the odds alone. In the poem, the flower does not receive any help, be it rain or water from a passerby. [Include relevant evidence from the text to point out that this is the case for the flower. Which line specifically points out that the rose does not receive any help, be it rain or water from a passerby?] However, the flower is able to grow and blossom, thus showing that, when a person is determined, the person can beat the odds against him or her and survive.

In conclusion, the poem passes the message of survival. It talks about being strong, holding on to your dreams and working towards achieving the dreams. The poem effectively uses literary devices such as personification, theme, symbolism and tone to pass the general message of the power of dreams, recognizing opportunities and a strong person beating the odds alone, without help. The poem serves as an encouragement to people undergoing various challenges in life and gives them hope that there is

light at the end of the tunnel and that one should not give up, no matter how tough the circumstances appear to be. In the poem, the flower grew out of a crack in the concrete, something that is almost impossible. The flower grew and blossomed, beating the odds of nature. Similarly, determination can help someone achieve their dream only if they put extra effort. There have been debates as some people believe that the poem is about the author whereby the poet, Tupac Shakur, talks about his struggles in overcoming the challenges of the ghetto and becoming a famous and successful musician.

Your introduction could benefit from a more detailed background about the poet, Tupac Shakur and how he lived his life prior to becoming a famous American actor and rapper. Since it is an autobiographical poem, this will be helpful when you establish a connection to his written work and can possibly give better context for your readers. To build your background about Shakur, consider doing a research and answering these questions:

● Where did Tupac spend most of his years growing up? ● What are some significant experiences in his life that might have influenced to how he writes? ● When did he write this autobiographical poem?

Use these questions as a guide as you continue developing your introduction.

Organization

Some of your paragraphs lack unity as you write sentences in a seemingly abrupt manner and do not transition smoothly. Here's what you write:

The tone and the speaker of the poem are optimistic. There is optimism in the poem because it gives hope for better days. The tone of the poem motivates the reader to bravely face the challenges they are experiencing and to overcome it.

This set of sentences is informative since it tells your readers about the tone in the poem. However, it does not flow very well and some statements may come off as redundant. Some readers might not be able to clearly grasp what you're trying to point out here. One way to solve this is to put together similar ideas for a more concise sentence. Let's check a similar example below:

The tone of the poem is humorous, which is evident in the way the poet placed specific lines together. This highlights the theme of love and keeps readers entertained.

Notice how the sentences are structured to talk about the literary device used, how it is demonstrated, and the purpose. Considering this, what revisions are applicable to your sentences to make a more cohesive paragraph?

There are some sentences in your draft that are written in the past tense. When analyzing text, we use the literary present tense to give readers a better description of events as they occur. Let's take a look at an excerpt from your work:

The concrete is hard and lacks moisture and nutrients for a plant to flourish, however, despite the harsh growing conditions, the flower managed to grow and blossom into something beautiful.

Notice the use of the word, "managed" in your sentence. To resolve this, for regular verbs in the past tense, we drop -d/-ed at the end. Instead, we add -s/-es depending on the subject’s number. What is the present tense of the verb "managed" in your sentence? Check for other inconsistencies in your draft and revise accordingly.

Summary of Next Steps:

● Include more details about the poet's background in your introduction. ● Revise sentences to be more concise and to create more cohesive paragraphs.

● Check your draft for inconsistencies in tenses and revise accordingly.