Blog 4- Mr. Z & Literary Techniques

  The poem, Mr. Z, by M. Carl Holman, uses irony to describe the character of Mr. Z, the racism that exists in the poem, and the meaning of the work. It is implied that Mr. Z is a black man who denies his race because he is ashamed of his skin color and his ethnic group, which he tries his whole life to separate himself from. He was said to "seize whatever ground was Anglo-Saxonized,"(Holman). This shows irony in that he doesn't want to be judged as a lesser, but by turning to people of different skin color and race than he, denied his own race and pretty much judged himself as lower. More irony can be seen in the conclusion of the poem. His whole life spent struggling to keep away from people and "places where they (his bride) might be barred," (Holman) turns out to be a waste considering after his death he is distinguished as part of the race which he tried to ignore. I believe the lesson of this poem to be that one can't escape who one is or where one comes from. One cannot go on living who they are not, and expect to not be found out. Mr. Z, although coming from a race which has been largely discriminated against, discriminated his own people by separating himself from them.