Neglected: Patricia Smith’s Blood Dazzler - Nick

Tone can be best described as the feeling or mood directed towards the reader. Although there are multiple characters as well as feelings in Smith’s work, the tone of Blood Dazzler to me was neglected. I felt that Luther B was neglected and the people of New Orleans and the surrounding areas shared the same sentiment. Although this is a description of my feeling, I still believe the implicit message from Smith was that the characters were neglected and mistreated.

I chose the word neglected to describe multiple feelings portrayed by Smith. There were elements of anger…fear… resentment…depression but these are all feelings from those described in the poems. The 4th definition of neglect v. from the Oxford English Dictionary is what I believe Smith is portraying to her audience, that those affected by Katrina felt neglected. The definition reads: “To fail to give proper attention or care to; to fail to take due care of; to leave unattended to or uncared for.” The discussion my classroom of our favorite poems all have this common motif. Casey brought up “What to Tweak” as her favorite poem. When I re-read this poem the author is describing how those involved did not get the proper attention or care needed. The email’s version of the scene did not accurately represent the people’s true troubles. Rachel brought up a poem about Luther B, the dog chained to the tree and passed away. Luther was a character neglected, tossed aside given very little attention to his wellbeing. Like the community in New Orleans, it was figured that Luther would survive even with the little amount of care and concern in the beginning. In the end Luther passed away and ascends above the physical state of being.

The poem I felt best conveyed the neglected feeling was “Superdome”. This was my personal poem since I associate this poem with the visual images I saw of the great dome filled with neglected citizens. Citizens who could not return back to their homes in the 9th ward. Citizens who slept cautiously for fear of their safety since they did not have a shelter, for example when the main character pities the women with slammed shut legs and the elders in declining health. Those to me represented a group that I never considered. I knew the Superdome was being used as a place for the victims of Katrina to stay, but when Smith went into detail of what her perspective of a refugee, I wished more attention had been focused on those families. I wished those who were there were not neglected by those who could have helped more. The description of those in the dome was most impactful. Smith effectively uses the main character in the poem to convey the neglected tone.

Even though multiple characters in the poem had feelings that could be stated as tone, the author wants to implicitly communicate that those involved in Hurricane Katrina were neglected. Smith styles her poem in such a manner to show how even though she is explicitly angry over the response to Katrina, she wants to convey the people’s neglected feeling to her audience.