Poetry Commentary: Wanda Why Aren't You Dead

Wanda Coleman’s “Wanda why aren’t you dead” represents the story of an African-American women struggling to meet the expectations put forth by herself and society. She is insulting herself based on her flaws; the one’s she believes she has as well as the one’s others must’ve pointed out. Through the use of the speaker, diction, and structure Wanda is able to illustrate the battle that revives in her head as well as the pain associated with it.

            The attitude of the speaker is hateful, yet we can learn from the author’s name that the person being insulted and the one initiating those insults is the same. From that we can derive the fact that Wanda is unhappy with herself, whether it’s because she hasn’t been able to meet her goals or somebody else’s. She says in the beginning of the poem, “wanda. That’s a whore’s name, wanda why ain’t you rich.” The whole poem wanda is constantly listing out her flaws as well as questioning here character. Even though we can acknowledge the unhappiness that Wanda feels towards herself, the poem suggests that some of the flaws Wanda mentions may have been pointed out from a third party. The speaker addresses herself   in the third person, which could suggest that all these flaws are merely a merged list of the horrible things she has been told by numerous people.

            The diction in the poem helps us further analyze the hate that Wanda feels and why it’s there. By reading the poem we can tell by the vernacular that Wanda is an African-American women. This can be confirmed with lines such as: “You’re joking. Girl, you crazy”, “wanda you have no humor in you you too serious”, and “why ain’t you dead yet.” Furthermore, after recognizing the fact that she is from African-American descent it is evident that the diction in the poem suggests that some of the statements made in the poem don’t come from Wanda. She says, “wanda what is it like being black.” It wouldn’t make sense for a black woman to ask herself what it’s like being black, so this statement came from somebody else. Moreover, we can ponder upon the notion that the person saying these horrible things is a black man, for she says, “I hear you don’t like black men.” Although some of the statements may have come from Wanda, it is safe to assume that some of them came from others; particularly black men.

            The structure emphasizes on the pain and lack of respect in Wanda’s life. Throughout the poem every word is lowercased, even Wanda’s name; demonstrating the lack of self-respect. Furthermore, the repetition in the poem further explicates the pain that Wanda experiences. She is constantly reminding herself of the miserable life she’s living and never ceases to mention the flaws associated with her personality. She says, “wanda why don’t you lose weight” and “can’t you afford to move of this hell hole.” This clearly demonstrates that she has no respect for herself and feels the need to constantly remind herself of her flaws.