a book and a pen

“A Book and a Pen” is a poem written by Jon Jonassen (1980). It is a very nice poem. It describes the confused feeling of the author. He found that he actually did not know who he was and why he lived, with 'a book and a pen', which he used for the whole life. He finished high education and got a job, but the job was not related with his study. When he got old and returned back to his hometown, he eventually found that he couldn't interpret the meaning with the knowledge he learned from schools, and he was disappointed.

The hero repeats the" book and pen "three times, that means he has read many things, and written a lot, which are thought to be necessary for the ruling class and for his future. However, all his learning is proven to be useless in his job- “trash” he explains it as. His people still live in the very primitive life and style, they do not need it.

Moreover, the "book and pen" is again proven to be unfitted for his original life after he retires to his hometown, for people communicate to each other with their own indigenous languages and songs, which seem very different from what he received from his "book and pen" education.

He seems understand that he has just learned according to what "they " asked him to study. He is forced to accept all kinds of 'new thing', for 'they' thought that he needs to give up his backward culture and language.

But as a human being, one thing is with him the whole life: his original culture, his source of living; he may forget it for a period of times for some reasons, he eventually would remember who he is, and, what he longs for, in his deepest heart. Just as the author wrote, the old songs and legends about his ancestors linger when he getting old, and he regrets for his not knowing them earlier, maybe he should have learned them younger, for this brings him life in the end.

This poem calls out that colonization can conquer a person's outer action and even his knowledge, while can not conquer a person's internal spirit. Human traditions and cultures can pass down generation to generation, even not by written communication, for they flow from  people's heart.