Exits: A Metaphor for America Poem Analysis

The poem is a metaphor for the expectations and reality of life in America.

The poem transforms ideas as it progresses going from a moviegoer to a family struggling with immigrating to the states, to the expectations of women in America. This is all greatly helped by three main poetic elements, metaphor, repetition, and enjambment. “Exits” employed the use of repetition to add to the impact of the entire poem, which in its simplest form is a metaphor for how pristine the United States appears to the outside world, while showing how damaged it is inside.

The beginning of this poem displays a scene of a spectator watching different movies displaying many different problems that these characters are experiencing.

The viewer then becomes a character in their own movie. There’s a lot of enjambment in the third stanza to help readers depict that this person’s life is spiraling out of control. They realize that they are a part of the movie and that these struggles are theirs to get out of.

The ending of this poem is a statement on how people are expected to conform as a member of the general population of the US and do as they’re told, as shown by the line, “This only works if you play the part as written” (Beasley Line 19). This point becomes obvious, especially due to the line “Someone nailed your trapdoor shut,” (Line 15) showing how some people may make life more difficult for others and how it can be burdensome to find a way to exit and deal with your problems.

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The problems discussed in this poem start off as those of others that can be comical to view, but very quickly transform into something far more personal. The first stanza utilizes a ton of repetition, with every line starting with the phrase “In the end.” (Lines 1-5)

This is used to help further the notion that the first stanza is discussing possible movie endings, and that it’s meant to be seen as something that’s watched and not experienced. This idea transforms with the help of this repeating phrase at the end of the stanza, as it’s used as a transition into an idea of the rest of the poem, a kind of snap back to reality. The poem depicts a movie ending and a first-person perspective of someone walking out of their theater and into their life. Later the cliche that life isn’t a movie somewhat comes to life in the poem, showing struggles with an immigration process and a family not being permitted into what they see from the outside of a perfect world in America. However, as a closer lens zooms in it shows this is far from the truth. The poem shows different problems in America, such as expectations for women and for people to fill a cookie cutter role. The poem transitions gracefully with the line, “this is not the light comedy you signed up for.” (Line 14) This line also sets up the continuing idea of expectations versus reality.

The expectation that America will be an amazing place with little to no issues, versus the reality of the tremendous obstacles inside. Beasley helps further her point of the problems in America and give an example of the gravity of the situation by employing repetition the fourth stanza to help further this point, depicting mothers across the country “baking pie after pie after pie” (Beasley Line 17), and “drinking glass after glass after glass” (Line 18). The baking pie line makes readers immediately think of a stereotypical American image of a mother baking a pie and placing it on the windowsill, but it actually is in reference to women giving birth to more and more children, causing and creating more problems. The last stanza helps further this point with the tone being determined by the powerful last line of the poem, “In the gingerbread house, something must burn.” (Line 20) This line shows that in order for things to be positive, people must conquer their problems, and get to the sweet side of life. This line and the last stanza as a whole really help set the tone as negative and ominous, going back to the aforementioned metaphor in the poem.

Sandra Beasley employs the poetic elements of metaphor, repetition, and enjambment to help wonderfully portray a portrait that is both vague on the first read and clear on further analyzation. The metaphor in this poem helps portray a far deeper meaning than seen on the surface level, and shows the problems she sees in America. The repetition and enjambment help the metaphor by making obvious points of emphasis and changing the flow of the poem for when things start to go awry. Overall, “Exits” does a great job of making readers go back to the poem multiple times and keep an open mind.