Explication of Dudley Randall’s “The Melting Pot” An explication is an
interpretation of a written work. They differ from person to person in that we
all don’t interpret things alike. It seems to me that we learned in high
school about literature and such was a waste of memorizing and testing because
we were taught only “right” answers about written works. There is no right
way to interpret an author’s work. What they do is leave doors open to make
you think about their work. Even a songwriter does the same thing. Songs can be
even more difficult to interpret than a poem or story because the first that
thing usually attracts us to a song is the music and that is what we concentrate
on mostly. Then a question comes about in my mind that why there has to be any
answers or meaning to a work. Why can’t I just enjoy a poem for the way it
sounds when it is read aloud? Why can’t I just enjoy a song for the way the
words are put together and enjoy the music? It can be fun sometimes to analyze a
work and pick out things like wonderful metaphors. I can see where that comes in
to literature. What I hate is when I read a really great story and I enjoy it
and then I go to class and get hounded for answers and I give them and they’re
not right because I felt different about a story than someone else. Well,
anyway, I’m going to do the best explication I can of Dudley Randall’s
“The Melting Pot” on page 693. Bartorillo 2 “The Melting Pot” seems to
be about anyone and everyone being accepted as Americans except Blacks. The
second set of four lines is kind of funny because it gives you several names
that sound un-American and when they come to be an American they lose that and
use a more American version of their name. Even when people came through Ellis
Island they usually took a different name or made theirs shorter to be more
American. The next four lines read about a Black man who is unaccepted as an
American even though he’s been there waiting for it. The poem seems to say
that no matter where you’re from if you’re white you can become a white
American no matter what country you’re from. It seems to say that we’re
divided into Whites and Blacks regardless of nationalities. The end of the poem
is where Blacks decide that they’re going to be who they are and be proud of
it and they don’t care about being accepted or not. So that was my own
interpretation of a poem. Someone else might have another idea about it but that
is perfectly okay because our minds work in all different ways.