How does Harrison present his struggle for identity (in

relation to class) in his poem Them and [Uz] and one

other poem you have studied?
Harrison presents his struggle for identity in Them and [Uz], when he
structures the poem into two stanzas I and II. The first stanza
describes Harrisons life at school as a child; and the second, his change
of identity (discovering himself and his class). The first stanza uses lots of
punctuation and a very formal tone; this could represent the middle class
and upper class as they are more refined in their speaking and are
stereotypically better educated.
The second stanza then uses much less punctuation and uses
colloquial, taboo words such as Buggers. This could represent a
stereotypical working class as they were seen at the time when the poem
was written as having little or no education and using primitive curses and
taboo words. This also shows Harrisons aggression in the poem, which
depicts how unwilling he is to listen to and accept traditional values. This
makes it clear that Harrison believes he can be a good writer by using his
own style and it doesnt matter that he is from a working class
background.
Harrison may have stylized these two stanzas like this and the
middle/upper class. He could also have deliberately placed the
middle/upper class stanza to show the working class will always be
beneath them and how the middle/upper class must go first as they are
surely more important. However, Harrison could also use the structure to
show the difference between what happened physically and what
happened mentally with him and his struggle for identity. The first stanza
tells us how he was physically perceived and put down by his teacher at
school whereas the second stanza tells us how he came to discover who
he really was and accept who he was. This is reflected clearly in the
rhyme scheme as in the first stanza it is very traditionally regular which
is how the teacher likes poems to be written. However, in the second
stanza the rhyme scheme is irregular, which suggests this is more how
Harrison wants to write his poems. This could also suggest to the reader
that Harrison has finally discovered his identity and what kind of poet he
wants to be not the same one as his teacher tried to force him to be.
This shows the reader that even though his teacher says that working
class poets dont exist, Harrison is proving him wrong.
The structure follows a similar theme in the poem Turns by Tony
Harrison. In Turns the first stanza is about how Tony wants to fit in with
the working class; the second is the moment when his Father dies and the

third is about how Tony comes to realize that he doesnt need to try to fit
into a class and he will find his own way. The first and last stanzas have a
regular rhyming pattern; this could show how Harrison was thinking
clearly and has a very strong, firm opinion on where he wanted to be in
society. However, the second stanza has an irregular rhyming pattern
which could show how -with the death of his Father- Harrison was
suddenly very confused and suddenly unsure about his place in society.
On the other hand, the different rhyming patterns could show how in the
first and last stanzas he and his Father are unified in their class and
opinion, whereas in the second it could show how perhaps Harrison
believes his Father to be different to him. This shows that to discover his
identity, Harrison had a mental struggle to decide where he was in society.
Likewise, in Them and [uz] Harrison uses rhyme to convey his
emotions regarding his struggle for identity. In the first stanza the rhyming
pattern is regular (Broken,Spoken,Death,Macbeth); this could show
how the teacher tries to make Harrison write in a traditional form, like the
old poets, and that Harrison is being told who he is meaning he doesnt
have a true identity. However, in stanza 2 the rhyming pattern is irregular;
this could express the confusion in Harrisons mind like in Turns- as he
fights to discover his identity as he is unsure whether to stick to the
regular, traditional rhyming pattern of the middle and upper class or
whether to become different and to rebel against his teacher. On the other
hand, this could also express Harrisons excitement at the at the
realisation that he is allowed to be whatever kind of writer he wants to be;
this can be seen as he rhyming pattern is seemingly random like a
random, excited thought process.. Harrison could have done this to
express the difference between what was the norm when he was
searching for who he was and how he was always told what to do, and
how he discovered his true identity but was still confused about where
exactly he was regarding class as he was brought up in different ways.
The use of the irregular rhyming pattern in the second stanza could
however mean that Harrison has finally found himself and is writing in his
own style, as opposed to what other people have set as the rules - dozing
Daniel Jones. When Harrison mocks dozing Daniel Jones he could be
saying that he doesnt care about what literature was originally meant to
be like, he can write in his own style. He could also be saying that Daniel
Jones is dead now and its time for a new era of literature and style of
writing.