Similarities Between Nothing's Changed And Island Man

Both Nothing’s Changed and Island Man portray conflict in culture, though they both portray it in different aspects of culture. Island Man presents conflict between an old culture and a new one while Nothing’s Changed shows the conflict between two different races and classes.

In Nothing’s Changed we see how hostile and angry the difference in culture and opportunities makes the poet in lines such as in “the hot, white, inwards turning/anger of my eyes.” Word choices such as “hot” and “white” used in conjunction with “anger” clearly convey to the reader an intense anger towards the aforementioned District Six and the culture difference there. This stands in high contrast to the feelings of Nichols towards the difference in culture throughout Island Man, which is much a reaction of apathy. Nichols uses words like “grey” and “dull” to express her boredom to the other culture, using simple uninteresting language with few literal devices when compared to the earlier stanzas to express her apathy, much different to the intense emotion in Nothing’s Changed.

Also, in Island Man, the previous culture is idealised and it’s romanticised whereas in Nothing’s Changed the older culture is portrayed as being horrible. In Island Man phrases like “the sound of blue surf” and “the sun surfacing

In both Nothing’s Changed and Island Man, the final lines both present a negative idea. In Island Man this is “Another London day” which implies a sense of boring repetitive actions by using the word “another” and slowing down by being a stanza by itself. In Nothing’s Changed, the title “Nothing’s changed” is the last line. The use of “nothing” implies an absence of something which is what should have “changed”. This sense of lacking and pessimism in both poems serves to create a dreary, depressing mood and they both make the reader feel that there is little