Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two

Beautiful People in a Mercedes

Lawrence Ferlinghetti
LO: to deconstruct ‘Two Scavs’

 M- Understand the narrative of the poem

 S- Understand how to analyse metaphors;
 C Explore the language and structural
features of Two Scavengers in a Truck,
Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes.
 CULTURE

America:
• Rich, powerful Western
nation;
• Many rich people but also
growing “underclass” of
poverty stricken people.
 SURFACE MEANING

• While waiting at the traffic

lights, two bin men on the
back of a bin wagon look
across at the two
passengers of an expensive
car.
 Your eyes switch
Written in Two scavengers in a truck, from one line,
free verse Two beautiful people in a Mercedes and one vehicle,
to the other
Use of capital
letters but no At the stoplight waiting for the light
punctuation                    nine a.m. downtown San Francisco These
   a bright yellow garbage truck colours often
            with two garbagemen in red plastic blazers indicate
     standing on the back stoop danger
These phrases
                   one on each side hanging on
have two
  and looking down into
meanings
                   an elegant open Mercedes
       with an elegant couple in it

The man
      in a hip three-piece linen suit
         with shoulder-length blond hair & sunglasses Harsh alliteration
The young blond woman so casually coifed reflects negative
               with a short skirt and colored stockings feeling toward the
   on the way to his architect's office elegant couple

The beautiful people

look bland in
comparison
 And the two scavengers up since four a.m.
                   grungy from their route
          on the way home
Links by The older of the two with grey iron hair
repetition Complete contrast
                         and hunched back
with the elegant
        looking down like some
couple
                gargoyle Quasimodo
And the younger of the two
Some             also with sunglasses & long hair
similarities       about the same age as the Mercedes driver Suggests
between the vultures
two And both scavengers gazing down
                         as from a great distance
               at the cool couple The opposite of
      as if they were watching some odorless TV ad their bin lorry
           in which everything is always possible

And the very red light for an instant

              holding all four close together
They share the           as if anything at all were possible
same hopes and                                    between them
dreams in this        across that small gulf
A political point
freeze frame                      in the high seas
about opportunity
                                   of this democracy
and liberty in
America
 IDEAS, ATTITUDES, FEELINGS
• Ideas:
– Great disparity of wealth and opportunity in the USA
– People in the same city are separated by social circumstances
– Strangers brought together in one brief moment
– Always look up to wealthy powerful people, but scavengers
physically look down at them
• Attitudes:
– Garbagemen are real, beautiful people are distant and fake
– Is such a democratic society fair if there is such disparity?
– We become our jobs
• Feelings:
– Curiosity
– Envy
– Hope
– Possibility
– Beauty of human society in one brief moment
 LANGUAGE
Unusual (American) words
Simile
Repetition
Alliteration
Personification
Metaphor
STRUCTURE
Stanza/sentence
length/shape.
Stanza content (storyline).
Viewpoint.
THEME
What is it talking about?
Tone/emotion of piece.
PERSONAL RESPONSE
What point/s do you think the
poem is making?
What connotations, thoughts,
images, feelings, etc does the
piece make you think/feel?
How effective do you think
the poem is in achieving its
goals?