Alice Walker’s narrative
...though he survived he writes, “It was not dying: everybody died. It was not dying: we had died before.” He describes the death of others whom he cared for or knew and the destruction of his surroundings. Something inside him died, he was never the same after seeing massive damage inflicted on everything and he expresses this. In the last verse of ‘Losses’, he says, ‘It was not dying- no, not ever dying; But in the night I died I dreamed that I was dead, And the cities said to me: ‘Why are you dying? We are satisfied if you are’; but why did I die?’ Jarrell shares with the audience a taste of what was going on inside his head and sharing with the reader that dying doesn’t mean death of the body, but he is dying ...