NicholasBradfish

= "Tu Do Street" by Yusef Komunyakaa (1988) =

// Nick Bradfish //
Searching for love, a woman, someone to help ease down the cocked hammer of my nerves & senses. The music divides the evening into black & white -- soul, country & western, acid rock, & Frank Sinatra. I close my eyes & can see men drawing lines in the dust, daring each other to step across. America pushes through the membrane of mist & smoke, & I'm a small boy again in Bogalusa skirting tough talk coming out of bars with //White Only// signs & Hank Snow. But tonight, here in Saigon, just for the hell of it, I walk into a place with Hank Williams calling from the jukebox. The bar girls fade behind a smokescreen, fluttering like tropical birds in a cage, not speaking with their eyes & usual painted smiles. I get the silent treatment. We have played Judas for each other out in the boonies but only enemy machinegun fire can bring us together again. When I order a beer, the mama-san behind the counter acts as if she can't understand, while her eyes caress a white face; down the street the black GIs hold to their turf also. An off-limits sign pulls me deeper into alleys; I look for a softness behind these voices wounded by their beauty & war. Back in the bush at Dak To & Khe Sahn, we fought the brothers of these women we now run to hold in our arms. There's more than a nation divided inside us, as black & white soldiers touch the same lovers minutes apart, tasting each other's breath, without knowing these rooms run into each other like tunnels leading to the underworld.

Way 1: First Impressions
Yusef Komunyakaa's "Tu Do Street" describes a colored (American) GI's experience in a "//White Only//" bar in Saigon, Vietnam as well as his pursuit to finding solace in the love of a prostitute. From the start of the poem Komunyakaa, through figurative language and imagery, portrays the man as someone who is ready to explode as he searches for "someone to help ease down the cocked hammer / of my nerves & senses" (2-3). The someone he is searching for is later in the poem revealed to be prostitutes, women who can only be found through his venturing "deeper into alleys" (33).

The colored GI’s struggle with racism is also evident in the poem. Racism is exhibited when the man remarks “When I order a beer, / the mama-san behind the counter acts as if she / can’t understand” (26-28) of a bar that is clearly for white’s only as “Hank Williams [is] calling from the jukebox” (16-17). The man’s racial tribulations don’t end with the bartender though, as even the “bar girls / fade behind a smokescreen, fluttering / like tropical birds in a cage” (17-19). The man is so disregarded that even the prostitutes, whose profession it is to seduce men, seem exotic as they turn their backs and give him “the silent / treatment” (21-22).

However, it is in these women, who both colored and white GI’s alike seek refuge with that the racial divisions begin to fall. Men of different races who can’t even be in the same bar as one another “touch the same lovers / minutes apart, tasting / each other’s breath” (42-44). The irony this sentiment carries is further contributed to as the GI remarks how “we fought / the brothers of these women / we now run to hold in our arms” (37-39). It is for this reason that I believe Komunyakaa’s message surpasses that of declining racial barriers to also envelope the barriers of ethnicity and nationality that are removed due to the shared commonality in the Vietnamese women.

There are several words and phrases in the poem that I imagine are cultural and historical references that I don’t fully understand, such as “Hank Snow” (14) and “We have played Judas / for each other out in the boonies” (22-23). Also, there are two references to specific battles in the Vietnam War, “Dak To” and “Khe Sahn”. I am curious as to whether these two specific battles are of important significance or not.

Way 2: Engaging with the Text
Audio Version: []

"Tu Do Street" lacks both stanzas and a rhyming scheme and is instead written in free verse. This places a significant emphasis on punctuation and line breaks when reading. Komunyakaa’s effective use of line breaks is especially notable when the colored GI explains that the music he hears is a racial divide between blacks and whites. When reading this description aloud, “The music / divides the evening into black / & white”, the line break between “black” and “& white” causes a pause to spoken which further emphasizes the separation of the races (4-5). After typing the poem, I also realized that Komunyakaa uses ampersands very frequently. Upon examining these, it is apparent that he uses them for making comparisons of opposites, such as “black / & white” (4-5) and “beauty & war” (35).

Way 3: A Point about Form and Its Relationship to Content
“Tu Do Street” is a narrative poem as it tells a story. It is also considered free verse as it employs no regular meter, alliteration, or rhyme scheme. This lack of formal, rigid structure serves the poem well as it allows Komunyakaa to have freedom in the expression of his ideas. Komunyakaa utilizes this as he floats from one idea to the next, such as the flashback the colored man has of his childhood in Bogalusa when he is in the middle of painting the the scene at a bar and the racial divide in Saigon.

Way 3: Another Point about Form and Its Relationship to Content
The lack of stanzas forces the reader to read without pause with the exception of line breaks and punctuation. The line breaks interrupt sentences allowing the readers mind to wander where the poem is going to take them next as they pause to find and read the next line. Commas in the poem also serve to focus the reader’s attention and create a more dramatic effect such as in “Searching for love, a woman, someone” (1-2). The use of commas here shows how the colored man isn’t looking for anyone in particular, as he is instead looking for anyone who he can use to calm his war ravaged nerves.

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The narrator uses figurative language effectively in “Tu Do Street” to enhance the readers understanding of certain emotions due to the trying circumstances excerpted by war, racism, and segregation. For example, on lines 2 and 3 the narrator uses a metaphor as he talks about finding someone to “help ease down the cocked hammer / of my nerves & senses.” This metaphor compares the nerves and senses of the narrator that are thoroughly damaged from the Vietnam War to the cocked hammer of a gun. This comparison is very fitting given the context of the poem but it is also very powerful in the image that it conveys to the reader. A cocked hammer of a gun indicates that the gun is ready to go off in an explosive fashion. The damage that the gun is capable of is also remarkably terrifying. These details of the cocked hammer together provide great insight into the fragile yet dangerous state of mind of the narrator. Beyond being a GI in the Vietnam War the narrator is also combating racism and segregation that contribute to his delicate state, “When I order a beer, the mama-san / behind the counter acts as if she / can’t understand, while her / eyes caress a white face” (26-29) and “only enemy machinegun fire / can bring us together” (24-25).

Another instance of figurative language is the simile used on lines 18 and 19 that describe the bar girls who are “fluttering / like tropical birds in a cage.” This passage is identified as a simile due to its use of the word “like”. By doing so, it compares the bar girls in the white only bar to tropical birds that are fluttering around a cage. These tropical birds in the cage are no different than the “exotic” prostitutes the narrator is trying to pick up for comfort. But as he is in a white only bar trying to pick up these women, they can’t get away fast enough from him. Just as the cage causes the birds to attempt to frantically escape, the colored narrator forces the women to scatter in their desperate attempt to avoid him.

Just as interesting though is what this simile on lines 18 and 19 says about the prostitutes the American GIs search for in Saigon. As they are compared to birds locked in a cage it can be assumed that they are also trapped inside the bar and their profession, unable to escape even if they wanted to. This meaning is further supported through the imagery used in line 21 as the narrator describes the prostitute’s smiles as being painted on. This clearly indicates to the reader, through the sensory detail of sight, that the prostitutes don’t want to be in the bar or their profession as they have to fake a smile. Something or someone is keeping them there and forcing them to put on a happy face to attract men. Later in the poem, the narrator also states how the prostitutes have a softness in their voice because they are “wounded by their beauty” (35). This line paints a picture of the women and illustrates to the reader why these particular women were chosen to work as prostitutes.

A simile is again used by the narrator in his description of the rooms that the GIs take the prostitutes to as he says “these rooms / run into each other like tunnels / leading to the underworld” (45-47). The significance of these lines is also discussed in detail in Way 7. This simile makes a comparison between the rooms that the prostitutes use for their clients, the American GIs, to tunnels that lead to hell. This passage is of significance when viewed through the context of the time, a context that is clouded by a racial and segregated landscape. The white men appear to have their own prostitutes, as was seen in the previous two paragraphs, however, that isn’t really the case as the prostitutes serve white and colored alike. White GIs would never knowingly engage with these women if they knew that they were also serving colored men. Things were so segregated in fact that even the narrator remarks that “only enemy machinegun fire / can bring us together” (24-25). These tunnels that the comparison is made to are very much like the connections that the Vietnamese prostitutes create between the white and colored men. Connections that at the time of the Vietnam War were thought to have not been possible due to societal and cultural beliefs.

Way 5: Analyzing the Setting
The setting of “Tu Do Street” takes place overwhelmingly in Vietnam. In the beginning of the poem the narrator appears to be moving through a downtown area of Saigon populated by bars and dark alleyways marked by “off-limits” signs (32). These alluring alleyways that house the criminal element of Saigon cast very much the same imagery as the tunnels used by the Vietnamese on the battlefield that the narrator describes as leading to the underworld (45-46). This imagery of Saigon casts it in a dark, ominous tone which serves to highlight what the narrator and the other American GI’s experienced in the Vietnam War. This dreariness and unhappiness also coalesces with the racism and segregation the poem deals with in the exploration of the colored narrator’s experiences as a GI, a child in Bogalusa (Louisiana), and in the bar that has Hank Williams playing from the jukebox.

Way 6: Identifying and Analyzing Point of View
“Tu Do Street” is told in the first person point of view as it is “told by a narrator who is actually a participant in the events of the particular story” (Brown and Yarbrough 63). This is evident as the narrator recites memories of specific battles in the Vietnam War and parts of his childhood using first person pronouns such as “I”, “my”, and “me”. This specific point of view allows the reader to be immersed in the imagery and minute details of the narrator’s memories. A different perspective on the narrators memories would have take away from the level of detail significantly as the memories would have to be told by someone who didn’t experience them firsthand. This is undesirable, especially from the reader’s perspective, due to the powerful topics “Tu Do Street” discusses such as racism, segregation, prostitution, and war. This is particularly important so that the reader can empathize and understand the emotion, the hardship, and the frustration that segregation and racism cause for individuals such as the colored narrator.

Way 7: Analyzing Complexity, Ambiguity, & Difficulty
Lines 6-7 “I close my eyes & can see / men drawing lines in the dust” has more than a singular meaning and as such is ambiguous. “Tu Do Street” deals in large part with the Vietnam War as it takes place in Saigon and as the narrator makes references to specific battles such as Dak To and Khe Sahn (36-37). With this in mind it is easy to see that lines 6-7 refer to the lines that are drawn on the battlefield by commanding officers. These lines are the front on the battlefield, where soldiers wait laying in trenches for a chance to destroy the opposition who lies on the other side of the line. However, beyond this obvious meaning of the line given the setting and historical context of the poem, the segregation and racism display in the poem culminate to provide an altogether different meaning. The narrator closes his eyes, almost as if this image of men drawing lines haunts him in his sleep. It’s an image that he can’t get out of his head, something that is permanently lasting, like the experiences the narrator has through his endurance of segregation and racism. This line, much like the line on the battlefield, is imaginary. It’s a line that is drawn by societies and cultures to exclude those who don’t fit in or conform, a line that ultimately separates black from white.

Lines 45-47 “without knowing these rooms / run into each other like tunnels / leading to the underworld” also display ambiguity. The literal meaning of the passage speaks to the multitude of rooms, much like could be found in a hotel. These rooms run together through narrow corridors that resemble tunnels and provide refuge for the American GI’s addiction and dependence on prostitution. These same tunnels that American GI’s turn to for comfort and condolence also represent the tunnels that the Vietnamese were so famed for using during the Vietnam War (Columbia). These tunnels provided a means for the Vietnamese to funnel supplies throughout the battlefield and acted as a great place for them to hide as they killed their enemy, American soldiers (Columbia). Understanding this ambiguity leads to irony as the platoon mates of these dead American soldiers scour the tunnel like hallways of buildings in search of Vietnamese women to ease their nerves and senses.

Way 8: Considering Canonicity
To be considered for inclusion into the canon, a literary text must have “aesthetic and cultural value” (Brown and Yarbrough 2). “Tu Do Street” provides a perspective into the 1960’s and 1970’s, the time of the Vietnam War, through its inferences to racism, prejudice, and segregation. For example, these values can be seen through the separate white and black bars and through the treatment the narrator receives by bartender and prostitute alike once he enters a "White Only" (13) bar. Additionally, throughout the poem black and white are referenced in order to show how the nation is divided, a characteristic of the separatist 60’s and 70’s culture. “Tu Du Street” also provides present and future readers with an understanding of the hardships endured by non-white people in generations past, something that can only be experienced for these readers through literature and not first hand. For these reasons “Tu Do Street” deserves to be included into the canon.

Way 9: Biographical Context
Yusef Komunyakaa was born April 29, 1947 in Bogalusa, Louisiana where he experienced both the pre- and post-Civil Rights era (Wikipedia “Yusef”). Komunyakaa endurance of segregation and racism growing up as well as the southern culture he experienced in Bogalusa are very influential in his writing. Komunyakaa’s large similarities to the narrator point to the fact that Komunykaa himself is the narrator. He alludes to his childhood in Bogalusa in “Tu Do Street” as well as the segregated institutions, such as “White Only” bars (13-14) that were commonplace during his adolescent years. His experiences further penetrate “Tu Do Street” as Komunyakaa’s biographical information reveals that “He served in the U.S. Army from 1965 to 1967, doing a tour of duty in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War” (Wikipedia “Yusef”). Komunyakaa draws from these first hand experiences to incorporate and enhance the imagery and figurative language used in “Tu Do Street”. For example, only someone who actually served during the Vietnam War would be keen to the fact that a soliders nerves and senses become akin to a “cocked hammer” (2-3). These personal experiences that Komunyakaa has the ability to draw from are of great benefit to his writing and ultimately to the reader as “Tu Do Street” provides a realistic glimpse of the emotion and hardship segregation, racism, and war cause.

Way 10: Historical and Cultural Contexts
Yusef Komunyakaa lived in a time characterized by the racial divides that are alluded to in “Tu Do Street”. Racial segregation was still prominent in the United States through the 50’s and 60’s. It wasn’t until the landmark case of Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 that the education system was reformed to prohibit separate white and black public schools (Wikipedia “Racial”). Komunyakaa embodies these experiences in his poem “Tu Do Street” as he consciously discusses the racial and status quo of the point in time surrounding the Vietnam War, the 1960’s (Salas). For example, the segregation of public facilities is evident as he explains “bars with //White Only// / signs” (13-14) that he saw as a child in Bogalusa, Louisiana. Komunyakaa even shows that the racial segregation eclipsed the borders of the United States as the prostitutes in Saigon gave him the silent treatment and “the mama-san / behind the counter acts as if she / can’t understand” (26-28) when he attempts to order a drink from a white only bar. The reassuring fact, and foreshadowing of the eventual abolishment of racial segregation Komunyakaa experienced growing up, is also evident through the uniting force that is the Vietnam War. “only enemy machinegun fire / can bring us together again” (24-25) shows how it is possible for blacks and whites to unite and bond together, despite the cultural and social norms, to fight a common enemy. Although the war creates tumultuous circumstances for this breaking down of racial barriers it stands to make the larger point that it is possible to do so, which actually did occur increasingly so after the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case.

Way 11: Theoretical Application
The postcolonial critical theory seemed an appropriate place to start given the segregation and racism that is evident in Komunyakaa’s “Tu Do Street.” Postcolonialism is explained as the “the conflicting discourses between dominant cultures and oppressed cultures, the members of the dominant group always create an //other//, a member of a race, religion, nationality, or other subgroup who doesn’t conform to the dominant ideology” (Brown and Yarbrough 240). This //other// that belongs to an oppressed culture or race “is always forced into a submissive role, relegated to stereotypes, and judged inferior” (Brown and Yarbrough 240). This context created by postcolonialism lends insight into the various literary devices utilized by Komunyakaa. For example, in order to contrast the dominant and oppressed, Komunyakaa separates the two races, “black / & white” (4-5). The placement of these two races on two separate lines enhances the readers understanding of the divided setting in which the narrator lives. The colored narrator is, in fact, deemed so inferior as a result of the racial divide that the prostitutes in the bar with Hank Williams playing don’t pay any attention to him (16-22).

This critical theory also is relevant to the major theme of “Tu Do Street”, the Vietnam War. Here, the dominant culture is fulfilled by America who has moved its army to the other side of the world in order to combat the culture and politics exhibited by the Vietnamese. As a result of American deeming the Vietnamese to be inferior, men draw imaginary lines on the battlefield in the hopes that the other side will step across (8-9). Postcolonialism also offers an interesting question though, if America sees the Vietnamese as being inferior then how come its soldiers turn to the native women for comfort? “Tu Do Street” brings this irony up itself as it says “we fought / the brothers of these women / we now run to hold in our arms” (37-39). This irony, compounded with the irony that black and white individuals differences can only be set aside in a time of war, serve to illustrate the hypocrisies of racism and segregation.

Way 12: Another Theoretical Application
Applying the feminist critical theory to “Tu Do Street” is both interesting and revealing given the mainly masculine tone of the poem. Specifically the feminist critical theory “embodies a way of reading that investigates the text’s investment in or reaction to the patriarchal power structures that have dominated Western culture” (Brown and Yarbrough 226). Brown and Yarbrough further illustrate the aim of the feminist critical theory as they explain it its focus “on the objectification of women as either ideal, saintly creatures or seductive corrupting ones” (228). The patriarchal power structure can be seen in “Tu Do Street” by the fact that the men hold all of the power in society, women are only displayed in the poem for their ability to provide sexually through their roles as prostitutes. These powerful men, however, are also likely the reason why women maintain these positions despite their discontent and unhappiness (Explained in Way 4). As women are only shown in the role of prostitutes, the feminist theory would argue that women are being objectified as they are not shown for their intelligence or personality but only for their beauty and ability to provide in the manner required by men. Despite the negative connotations, “Tu Do Street” portrays to the reader that women ultimately serve to highlight the dependence the GIs have on the prostitutes as it is only with the prostitutes that the GIs can find refuge and relief for their war torn “nerves & senses” (3).

Way 13: Unifying Interpretation
 My interpretation of “Tu Do Street” has significantly changed from what I described in Way 1 as a result of thoroughly examining the text in Ways 2 through 12. I initially thought that the poem mainly reflected upon the narrator’s experiences in the Vietnam War and the tribulations he endured as result of being colored. However, I now realize that the poem has much more that it is trying to convey to the reader. What initially seemed liked soldiers turning to prostitutes for help in easing “down the cocked hammer / of [their] nerves & senses” (2-3) turned out to represent a message about irony and hypocrisy of racism and segregation. Lines 17-21 depict how the white men have their own prostitutes as the colored men is then relegated in lines 32-35 to wander deep into alleyways to obtain the comfort he seeks. However, it is later revealed in lines 41-44 that these women serve white and colored men alike without the white soldier’s knowledge. This commonality between the two races of divided American soldiers shows that the differences that each side believe exist are just as imaginary as the lines that are drawn on the battlefield in line 8. The fact that the narrator also states that colored and white soldiers come together under enemy machinegun fire (24-25) also further supports this argument. Out of all the possible times for the two sides to unite it happens when lives are at stake. This display of trust and dependence on the other race illuminates the fact that the barriers society and culture established are artificial and not indicative of an actual difference or separation.

It also became increasingly clearer that the passage “There’s more than a nation divided / inside us” (40-41) spoke to the effect that America’s culture was having on Vietnam. America just didn’t start a war with Vietnam but also brought along with it its societies problems. The narrator depicts how the prostitutes and bartenders in Saigon had to appear to be selective in who they served so as not to upset the white GIs. This, along with the ideas in the previous paragraph, is ironic in the sense that America entered Vietnam to stop the spread of communism, an ideology they didn’t agree with, and instead of spreading freedom and democracy to Vietnam brought segregation and racism to its people.

Works Cited and Consulted
Brown, James S., Scott D. Yarbrough. __A Practical Introduction to Literary Study.__ Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc, 2005.

Columbia Electronic Encylopedia. "Vietnam War." 1 January 2009. EBSCOhost. 24 July 2009. 

"Racial segregation in the United States." 24 July 2009. Wikipedia.org. 24 July 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_States>

Salas, Angela M. **"**Race, Human Empathy, and Negative Capability: The Poetry of //Yusef// //Komunyakaa//." Fall 2003. EBSCOhost. 24 July 2009. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=11288147&loginpage=login.asp&site=ehost-live>

"Yusef Komunyakaa." 8 July 2009. Wikipedia.org. 30 July 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusef_Komunyakaa>