Analysis of the Poem "Babi Yar"
Analysis of the Poem "Babi Yar"In the poem, Babi Yar, Yevgeny Yevtushenko does a wonderful job of paying tribute to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. He does this by
portraying the history of the Jewish people. Yevtushenko also uses
various literary devices to heighten the sentiment of the poem.
The poem is told in the first person, by the author of the poem.
In the poem it is also apparent that he is addressing all Russian
citizens when he writes "O Russian people". In this manner Yevtushenko
is able to eulogize the Jewish victims of the Holocaust in front of a
wide audience. This technique also allows him to speak directly to the
Russian people and tell them of their wrongs at the end of the poem.
Through usage of the first person he is able to place himself in
the various situations of anti-Semitism in history. He takes us
from Egypt, to the cross; from the Dryfus affair to the pogroms; from
Anne Frank's dark room to the massacre of Babi Yar. Through all this
Yevtushenko proclaims that "I" was there. This gives the reader a
sense of being trapped in the middle of these horrifying events. The
first person gives an eerie description that a third person
description could not give.
After he finishes his recitation of past events he begins
addressing the Russian people of the present. He tells them that in
general the Russians are a good hearted people. But, he goes on to say
that there are a minority of Russians who ruin the good name of the
whole. Yevtushenko contends that these people call themselves "The
union of the Russian people". However, he then goes on to directly
contradict their self-proclaimed name with clever uses of diction. He
claims that the Internationale, or the Russian "union" song, will only
be sung after these same anti-Semites are dead. In the last lines of
the poem he admits that although he is not a Jew he demands to "let me
be a Jew". Only when he is a Jew can he then go on to "call myself a
Russian". What he means by all this is...
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