Practical Criticism - Figurative Language

 Hello friends, I'm a student of the Department of English,M.K.B.U. This blog is a part of Thinking Activity which is given by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir. In this blog I'm going to do an analytical study of the poem 'THE BREAD OF THE PEOPLE'  WRITTEN BY BERTOLT BRECHT. 

Points to Ponder :-

• Introduction

• About Poet 'Bertolt Brecht'. 

• A Poem 'The Bread of The People'

• Problematic things of this poem

• Poetic Devices which are used in this poem :-

• Poet's point of view towards a Poem

• Conclusion

1. Introduction :-

A Poem 'The Bread of The People' is written by Bertolt Brecht. It is written in blank Verse and it consists of 30 lines. In this poem ,the poet compares Justice with Bread and he also tries to define how people accept justice or how they take justice . He also tries to define what is the importance of justice in our life. 

2. About Poet :-

Bertolt Brecht, original name Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht,  German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer whose epic theatre departed from the conventions of theatrical illusion and developed the drama as a social and ideological forum for leftist causes.

Brecht created numerous plays and theatrical productions during his career, including Die Dreigroschenoper (1928; The Threepenny Opera), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (first produced in English, 1948; Der kaukasische Kreidekreis, 1949), and Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (1941; Mother Courage and Her Children).

Brecht influenced the history of drama by creating epic theatre, which was based on the idea that the theatre should not seek to make its audience believe in the presence of the characters on the stage but instead make it realise that what it sees on the stage is merely an account of past events.

His Notable Works: “A Manual of Piety” “Baal” “Drums in the Night” “Herr Puntila and His Man Matti” “Kleines Organon für das Theater” “Mahagonny".

3. A Poem 'The Bread of The People' :-

Justice is the bread of the people
Sometimes is plentiful, sometimes it is scarce
Sometimes it tastes good, sometimes it tastes bad.
When the bread is scarce, there is hunger.
When the bread is bad, there is discontent.
Throw away the bad justice
Baked without love, kneaded without knowledge!
Justice without flavour, with a grey crust
The stale justice which comes too late!
If the bread is good and plentiful
The rest of the meal can be excused.
One cannot have plenty of everything all at once.
Nourished by the bread of justice
The work can be achieved
From which plenty comes.
As daily bread is necessary
So is daily justice.
It is even necessary several times a day.
From morning till night, at work, enjoying oneself.
At work which is an enjoyment.
In hard times and in happy times
The people requires the plentiful, wholesome
Daily bread of justice.
Since the bread of justice, then, is so important
Who, friends, shall bake it?
Who bakes the other bread?
Like the other bread
The bread of justice must be baked
By the people.
Plentiful, wholesome, daily.
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4. Problematic things of this poem :-

1).  Comparison between Bread and Justice becomes problematic in some ways .

e.g. :- "Justice is the bread of the people"

Bread has tastes but Justice doesn't have any kind of taste. We cannot eat justice,we cannot touch justice,we cannot see justice.

  "Justice without flavour" 

Justice doesn't have any kind of flavour, it has a type. 'Flavour' can be used for Bread not for Justice.

According to Poet justice and Bread both are similar because we cannot touch justice or eat justice but we can judge it. Both are made by people and both can be good or bad. 

3). "The Bread of Justice"

Here in this line Bread is used as a metaphor for justice but Bread is a far-fetched metaphor because Bread is concrete and Justice is an abstract. We can touch ,see,and eat Bread but we cannot eat ,touch and see justice. 

So, Bread is a far-fetched metaphor for Justice and Justice is not a Bread,so we cannot consider Justice as the bread of justice. But if we see as per the Poet's point of view then we can say that this metaphor  connects with Justice .

For  e.g. :- Bread and justice both are not similar for all humans. Rich people can get both the things easily but for poor people it becomes too hard to get both the things. Even Rich people get it unlimited or as they want but poor people cannot have choice to get this things. 

5. Poetic Devices which are used in this poem :-

1). Metaphor:- 

"Justice is the bread of the people"

 The speaker compares justice to bread, implying that just as bread is a basic necessity for survival, justice is a fundamental requirement for the people. The metaphor extends throughout the poem as the speaker describes the qualities of good and bad justice and how it affects the people.

2). Personification:- The speaker gives human qualities to the concept of justice by saying "Throw away the bad justice baked without love, kneaded without knowledge." This personification emphasises the importance of justice and how it should be created with care and attention.

3). Repetition:- The speaker repeats the phrase "the bread of justice" several times, emphasising the central idea of the poem and the importance of justice to the people.

4). Rhetorical Question:- The speaker asks the question "Who, friends, shall bake it?" implying that the responsibility of creating justice lies with the people themselves. This rhetorical question is meant to engage the reader and encourage them to think about their role in creating justice.

6. Poet's point of view towards a Poem :-

In the poem, Brecht compares justice to a person's daily bread. The bread, which stands for justice, is both plentiful and scarce at different times, and it has both good and awful flavours. Hunger is a result of a lack of justice, but discontentment is a result of a poor perception of justice.

The poet continues by saying that in his opinion, bad justice is like a loaf of bread that has been cooked without love and kneaded without wisdom but has a grey crust. The bad justice is ultimately the one that is made too late. The other meals can be skipped if there is delicious, ample bread or justice. However, the reality is that a person never always receives Justice.

Similarly, bread is a daily requirement that supports our ability to preserve our lives. Another constant requirement that is unavoidable is justice. Justice is required throughout the day in a variety of circumstances. Whatever the circumstances- happy or difficult-we must eat to survive, and that is justice.

Finally, the poet poses a fundamental query, such as "Who bakes the bread of justice?" And he provides an answer to that query. They have spent their entire lives perfecting the art of breadmaking.The poet explains how individuals bring about their own justice.

7. Conclusion :-

So, throughout this poem we can get the idea how justice is important in our life and how it can compare with the Bread. Bread and Justice both are similar because if we are hungry then we do not find faults in the food similarly if the justice is in favour of us then we accept it happily instead of finding the faults in it. 

Word Count :- 1100

Images :- 01