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Flag by John Agard

I think Flag by John Agard gives a negative view on patriotism


because at the end of the first stanza it says Brings a nation to
its knees which gives a negative view on patriotism, because it
says patriotism, portrayed by the flag, can cause the end of a
nation through war, as losing war, or even participating in war,
can bring a nation to its knees, by causing death etc. Bringing
something to its knees also connotes with pain, and bowing
down, behaving and doing as someone is told, this makes the
reader think of falling, as in falling in line to do what a country
tells you to do.
The poem also gives a negative view on patriotism because in
the final stanza of the poem it says then blind your conscience
to the end, and this means that being patriotic (through a
countrys flag) takes away your ability to make choices until
you die, or until the country is no more. This is personification,
because a flag cannot physically blind you, and a conscience
cannot physically be blinded; but what the flag represents (the
country) can blind, or stop, you, and your conscience from
making choices by controlling you (as I mentioned earlier). To
blind makes the reader think of hiding things and things
being deceptive, this could make them question a country and
its honesty, if the said country is what it seems, and makes
itself out to be.
Another reason the poem Flag gives a negative opinion on
patriotism is because it says Whats that rising over the tent?
and Whats that flying across a field? these both imply that
patriotism leads to war, as in the flag rising over a war tent,
and a flag flying across a battlefield, the poem also makes this
point stronger by making both of these lines similar, so the
reader will link them together and think about what they mean,
that being patriotic can lead to war and death (This is
demonstrated through the flag).
I dont think a flag has any power by itself, because as said in
the poem it says more than once Its just a piece of cloth.

Which tells us that a flag is a piece of fabric, and nothing more,


that the only power a flag has is the power given to it by us. A
towel is just a piece of cloth, but we dont start wars and fights
for a towel, but we do for a flag, this is because we choose to
give the flag the power it has, which we choose to give it, most
of the time unknowingly;
We give the flag power by choosing what team we support (in
sports), and who to fight for (in war).
Overall, I think that the poem implies that patriotism is not a
good thing, as it has in multiple places demonstrated that it can
lead to death and removes ones ability to make decisions on
what someone believes. The poem also shows that a flag has
no power, only the power that we, as people, decide to give it,
knowingly or unknowingly, this is demonstrated in four of the
five stanzas when the poet says Its just a piece of cloth. The
poet, John Agard, came from Guyana which was, when he was
brought up, a British colony, and he would have seen how the
patriotic spirit of people can lead to the near total destruction
of a culture or at least that culture being changed; and this may
have led him to think badly of patriotism.

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