Mr.Z

"Mr. Z" by M. Carl Holman

"Prelate proclaimed them matched chameleon" (Holman).

The metaphor presented by Holman in the poem leads to a better understand of the poem. The chameleon provides an insight into the feelings toward his life. Chameleons change color to fit into their environment much like Mr. Z could change his personality or look to fit into the society that has left his doubting his own culture. The first line provides the first perspective into Mr. Z who believes his mother's skin was wrong initializing a thought that he was black. Furthermore, Mr. Z has given up his culture in order to become Anglo-Saxonized and fit in with the society he was thrusted into. The food mentioned in the last line of the second stanza further explains his background of being black as he denies them to be apart of his life as well. Another metaphor presented in the poem captured a fuller understanding of Mr. Z's personality. The metaphor, "An airborne plant, flourishing without roots" (Holman), allows for understanding that Mr. Z has walked away from his culture but in a positive way. As the metaphor initiates Mr. Z to be surviving without his culture, the immediate feeling portrayed is that normally people without their past cannot survive, yet Mr. Z seems to be finding himself in a good position without his culture leaving him to be a chameleon to whichever culture is the most accepted.