16 pages • 32 minutes read
Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Exploitation of Labor
Espada has spoken and written eloquently about his memory of his father’s involvement in labor protests when he was still a child (Mishler, Peter. “Martin Espada on Framing the Present through the Lens of the Past.” LitHub, 2021.), and the theme of sympathy for the plight of exploited laborers runs through not just this poem but much of his life and work. The poet is concerned about a philosophical system that sacrifices the wellbeing of workers on the altar of capitalist progress—in reality, he argues, the bank balances and share values of the unseen and unmentioned bosses of the company.
Marx’s notion of alienated labor is implicitly considered in that the makers of the legal pads—at least at the time—derive no benefit from the product of their hard labor. A contrary reading might suggest the poem is a defense of the dream of self-betterment, since it ends with Espada going on to law school himself and using the same pads he once made. Yet this theory does not really hold up. Espada has described how he represented many clients from migrant backgrounds who worked long shifts in blue-collar jobs, yet they earned barely enough to cover the rent demanded by unforgiving landlords. The poem is his acknowledgement that but for good fortune this could have been him: As the second-generation migrant, more opportunities were afforded to him than to his father. He is acutely conscious of this, and much of his poetry pays homage to the workers who cannot escape but are tied by a lack of education or opportunity to this type of endless exploitative labor. In doing so, he criticizes the simplistic idea of the so-called American dream: that everyone can work their way up from the bottom to success and riches. Is this really possible, Espada makes his readers think, when the nature of the work makes it an achievement to simply reach the end of each shift intact.
The Human Aspect of Law
Espada has described himself as “a poet-lawyer” (Thomson, Gabriel. “Against Oblivion.” Interview with Martin Espada, Poetry Foundation, 2018.), and the law or its forces are a central concern in much of his poetry. As a practicing lawyer, perhaps it is no surprise that he concentrates on the actual human processes of the legal system rather than the abstract ideal of “justice.” Espada underlines that the law is an imperfect system, dependent on the people who create and oversee it. This is represented by the mass-produced yellow legal pad—the tool of the lawyer’s trade on which case notes will be made that might win or lose people their liberty. Yet the system itself and the verdicts it delivers are influenced by many hidden human factors, making “the perfection of paper,” or the ideal of justice, an illusion. In the same interview (Thomson, 2018) Espada recalls once encountering a judge who appeared to take pleasure in finding against a tenant who had left tires in the hallway outside his apartment. To the poet, this was a manifestation of a system he felt was often rigged in favor of the powerful in society against the people who were truly in need of legal protection.
The law, in other words, is an ambivalent force in Espada’s poetry. It has the potential to do good, but only if those who work in it maintain an awareness of the forces that shape society and push people into situations beyond their control. If the law is produced by states, administered by men and women, and can therefore be imperfect, Espada undoubtedly believes in a higher law of morality. Yet he is an avowed atheist (a view he has expressed at length as co-editor of The Necessary Poetics of Atheism, 2016). For him, this does not mean following religious rules. Rather it takes the form of a secular commitment to remembering the sacrifices of his father and other workers who have strived and suffered for others, sometimes paying the ultimate price.
Remembering and Reflecting on the Past
Poetry has a long tradition of remembering and reflecting on earlier experiences, in many cases recognizing the significance of events with the greater wisdom of age. This is certainly the case with “Who Burns,” which, in its formal structure is designed to enact the recollection/reflection process. The English poet William Wordsworth famously described his poetry as “emotion recollected in tranquility” (Wordsworth, William. “Preface.” Lyrical Ballads. 1800.). However, Espada’s first stanza seems to deliberately avoid recollecting emotion in favor of a dispassionate, documentary-style account of the process of labor.
But for the word “sluggish” (Line 13) there is no hint at the boy’s feelings, and yet the fact that Espada recalls the experience so vividly conveys a great deal. The physical damage to his hands is mirrored by the mark the work has made on his memory. He conveys this with the precision of his recollections: the color of the glue; the fact that it was nine o’clock when time began to drag and he began to grow sluggish. All these details create an impression of authenticity, lending an authority to the reflection which follows in the second stanza.
Unlock all 16 pages of this Study Guide
Plus, gain access to 9,100+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
