Critical analysis of Robert Priests poem free essay sample

The title of the poem ‘Christ is the kind of Guy’ shows that Christ is compared with a guy. The term ‘Guy’ is clearly indicative of the fact that now a days people lack severely the rightful respect for religion and for religious figures. Prophet of any religion is given the prime respect and this respect should be adopted as fundamental religious phenomenon; but today people treat prophets like common people as far as the issue of respect is concerned. To add to adversity, on grounds of obeying the Prophet or complying with what he preached, people extent even worse behavior. This is the central theme and idea of this poem which is embodied in the title itself and then reinforced in each and every line of the poem. Another interpretation could be that though the element of respect is there but the poet wants to tell us that Christ is more like a human being rather than a prophet. We will write a custom essay sample on Critical analysis of Robert Priests poem or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Thus the title itself presents the whole idea of the poem and thus foregrounds the coming plan of ideas. Through this title Robert Priest has shown that prophets are like human beings. The narrator of the poem reports a series of incidents. The poem starts as: Christ is the kind of guy you just cant help hurting The word ‘Christ’ has double meaning. First, it refers to prophet and second it refers to everything he taught. He (Christ) is hurt by us when we do anything wrong and all which goes against his preaching and wisdom. The poet exploits concrete vocabulary to present philosophic and to some extent abstract ideas. The words like ‘push’ ‘squash’ ‘stumble’ ‘bruises’ and ‘wounding’ are very vivid and present the visual images portraying how and in which cruel ways people crush and torture the pioneers of their religion. The poet says that we do not respect religious teachings as we should. If someone sacrificed his life for us we have the responsibility to respect him and follow his teachings. This point highlights the theme of the poem that how we treat the religious figures. Through the visual imagery the poet tells us how we hurt Christ. When we walk, if we hit our foot against something, we hurt ourselves. In the same way when we do not follow God we hurt Christ. No matter how much you love him when you walk you stumble into him The poet wants the readers to realize that just association with the morals and religious dictations is not enough. Robert Priest laments that human beings have forgotten the basic and primary purpose of their creation. Human beings have become narrow minded. They do not accept others’ ideas. Extremism is prevailing in the society. Every person extracts his/her own version or understanding of the teachings of prophet, regardless of the fact that how far it goes along or confine with the teachings of their prophet. Thus people get multi versioned religious sects, each quarrelling with the rest to prove their own authenticity and in the course of the struggle to prove their righteousness they hurt their prophet in one way or the other by disobeying his doctrine: Christ the haemophiliac even the gentlest people cant help wounding Jesus Christ Here, the poet further pinpoints the behavior of the so called torch bearers of religion- the ones who claim having followed Christ; instead they are the ones who hurt Christ the most. As such people who show being the humblest and gentlest ones hurt Christ knowingly or unknowingly. These lines can be interpreted as the people who claim to possess a more gentle view of religion -the atheists who do not show any reaction towards religion and thus claim having no part in the religion based disputes. These are the people who hurt Christ the most as they deny the existence and significance of religion and the teachings of Christ altogether. The best way of all is the moderate way neither touching the boundaries of extremism nor shunning religion altogether. The poet here wants to provoke readers’ attention towards the lack of people choosing this way – the path of moderation endurance and patience which is the path Christ chose for himself as well as for his followers. You have a dream with a hammer You are making a house In the morning you awake and find him up there on the crossbeams one hand nailed to the door frame In the following lines the poet draws his assertion to the malicious fact of modern life- the materialistic approach towards life. Now people are indulged in the material pursuits of temporary life to such an extent that this mad quest leaves them no time and tension to bother what Christ or religion bade or forbids. This kind of cupidity blinds the modern man and looking that the material dreams and pursuit of worldly prosperity confront and hindered by the doctrine of religion; in such a situation what most of the people do is depicted in these words: Look Jesus you say I dont want to be saved like this! But then you hurt him extra taking him down you pry at the nails savagely but its no use These lines clearly indicate that when placed in condition to chose one between religion as a purpose of life and worldly pursuits as aim of life most people chose the materialistic option and leave such salvation which demand sacrifice of worldly leisure and luxuries. It can also be interpreted in other terms- that when one sees Christ suffering and sacrificing himself through crucifixion, in order to save others, he exclaims with pain and sympathy that he does not want the salvation which costs Christ’s life. Christ is the kind of saviour you can only get off a cross with a blow torch The poem ends with the lines composed showing a shift of mind or thinking line pertained through the whole poem. Here the word guy is replaced with saviuor which shows that Christ is given respect with regard to the fact of his being the savior of humanity. The lines are indicative of the demand of sacrifice in order to get salvation. Further, it can be extracted from these lines the poet bewares humanity of the generosity and forgiving nature of Christ which means that Christ has forgiving nature no matter how you sin or hurt him; he will say: â€Å"Father forgive them he says as you begin to burn his hands Robert Priest is a poet, playwright, song-writer and novelist. Priests poems and prose have been included in numerous anthologies and magazines both in Canada and abroad. Robert has over twenty years experience as a teacher of writing for people of all ages. â€Å"Christ is the kind of Guy† is a question on modern man that how through their behavior and acts hurt Christ. Christ is a kind of savior who sacrifices his life for the sake of humanity. He is a prophet but in the poem the word â€Å"guy† has been used for him which pointed towards the fact that modern man has no respect towards Christ. They shows indifferent attitude towards Christ. Christ is a messenger of God and prophet but human beings treat him as a â€Å"Guy†. The main theme of this poem is how we treat religious teachings and religious figures. From the beginning of the poem it seems that Christ is compared with ordinary human being. As in the poem: Christ is the kind of guy you just cant help hurting Prophet is a kind of messenger of God, whatever Christ preaches us is not outcome of his own mind but those teachings are the words of God and human beings must obey it. But here situation is reverse, human beings are unaware of teachings of God and Christ and on each and every step they are disobeying the religious teachings which are symbolically reason of Christ’s pain. Robert Priest has given certain kind of images and by those images he tried to tell us how we tease Christ. We do a series of acts to taunt Christ. As in the poem: No matter how much you love him when you walk you stumble into him you push him accidentally from a window If you back the car out you will find him squashed behind the wheels broken on the doorall over the grate In our life whatever we do is the cause of Christ hurting. Our minor acts or doings becomes the cause of his pain because apparently we love Christ or religious figure as a prophet but we do not follow his teachings. These images are disturbing, there is no respect for Christ and poet is questioning towards the reader. Respect refers to whatever he teaches us we do not follow. We do whatever we want because all these teachings are difficult for us to follow. So these kinds of acts and our rude behavior of man is totally painful for Christ. He is a savior and he sacrificed his life for human beings, for this he struggled hard throughout his life but for modern man it is impossible to do all this. Another idea is if someone sacrifice for us we have to give him some respect and in this case respect will be given only in terms of obeying his teachings. In the following lines: Christ has the kind of skin that bruises when you hold him the kind of face that kisses cut Christ is kind of vulnerable you can’t even touch him. Symbolically it means that we hurt him so much that now we can’t touch him. We give him so much pain and we showed so much bad and extreme attitude towards Christ like he have â€Å"kind of face that kisses cut† because we make our own beliefs and we forget all his struggle and sacrifices. Christianity gives the belief of â€Å"trinity† but human beings make classes between them: He is always breaking open when we go to embrace him The above lines show that even if we follow him it increases his pain. Here the word embrace symbolically show the obedience of Christ’s teachings. This is so because we made sects in religion and we follow whatever we consider right. We totally ignored what the Christ has said. So our attitude is ignorant and we create narrow-mindedness. Some follow his sayings but they are following it to the extreme level, they exceed what the Christ has said so in this manner they also give ache to Christ. They add their own improvisation. Christ the haemophiliac even the gentlest people cant help wounding Jesus Christ They are always running for a band-aid and then pulling open his old wounds on a nail In these lines poet metaphorically explains the fact that whenever we start to follow the religious beliefs, we try to change it; we follow all those beliefs that are interpreted according to our own views. And by doing this, different classes have been created. And it is also excruciating for him because people change the shape of his teachings. He did not give the lesson of division in fact he gave the principle of humanity. Poet sarcastically claim that the people who call themselves as â€Å"gentle† people are also hurting him. Gentle meant to be that they are intolerant, agnostic, and moderate and they show that they act upon Christ’s teachings whole heartedly but actually they create the bigotry in religion. Actually human beings categorized themselves but it is also a kind of soreness for him because Christ did not label them. In reality religious teachings are same for all. Christ did not categorize people; these are the classes that are made by human beings. Some are called gentle and some are called extremist. They are always running for a band-aid,and then pulling open his old wounds on a nail In these lines poet metaphorically says that they are running for â€Å"band-aid† that it seems that they are following his teachings and not try to hurt him but by following their own interpretations they actually â€Å"open his wounds† rather giving him comfort. If there is a cross in your house you will find yourself bumping up against him accidentally moving him closer and closer to it his arms continually more and more widespread as he talks In these lines cross refers to the idea of crucifixion. Metaphorically it means that living in one house in which there live different people with different views. Religion is a kind of house where some people follow teachings and religious beliefs but some do not. And those who are following, not because that, that these words are the words of God but because of social pressure. And those who are following are not giving space to others. They not only make this kind of mistake but this show a contrast between their belief and acts. Christ is the kind of guy ,who cant help falling asleep like that ,his arms spread wide as though over the whole world ,You have a dream with a hammer ,You are making a house ,In the morning you awake ,and find him up there on the crossbeams ,one hand nailed to the door frame These lines are symbolic with two interpretations. The words â€Å"house† and â€Å"hammer† are symbolic. The first interpretation of these lines is that house is symbolic of security and bonding. Building of a house means that we do adopt a religion but the word hammer suggests obstruction. That because of the divisions in religion in different sects people follow the leaders of their own sects instead of following Christ, and this is the source of labeling in religion. The second interpretation is that religion turn to you in an individual. We are thinking that we are following religion but because of our own improvisations in religion we bring nonacceptance. Christ’s teaching is that every human being is equal in the eyes of God but because of our additions in the teachings of Christ we create labels and divisions. And by doing this we messed up everything. And hatred and disharmony is created. Poet creates a persona and it seems that someone is talking and narrating. At the end of the poem the persona is saying that: Look Jesus you say I dont want to be saved like this! But then you hurt him extra taking him down you pry at the nails savagely but its no use This shows that persona is describing the fact that he do not want to suffer like Christ. He does not want to follow the religion because the path of religion is full of sufferings. This denial is also a kind of hurting because to be a Christian means that you should follow the teachings of religion and if you do not follow them this means that you are throwing the whole philosophy of Christianity on the face of Christ. In the last lines there is a shift of Christ from the name of â€Å"guy† to â€Å"savior† Christ is a savior for whole humanity. Whatever you do to him, but in reply he always prays for your good in front of God. As in the following lines poet says: Christ is the kind of saviour you can only get off a cross with a blow torch Father forgive them he says as you begin to burn his hands At the end we can say that the whole poem the whole poem is about the problems of human beings. Modern man is in problems because he lost his faith on religious teachings. The poem is written in free verse. There is no rhyming scheme. Poet symbolically and metaphorically conveyed his idea. There is a clear use of imagery which shows the whole picture in front of readers. There is also use alliteration as â€Å"help hurting†, â€Å"whole world†, â€Å"father forgive† which gives a rhythmic effect to the poem.