These are the Times We Live In Analysis

Imtiaz Dharker’s primary intention was to tell the reader that racial prejudice is just a part of life.

Trying to bridge the gap between your experience and hers, one of the poem's defining features is the
way it speaks to you directly, using the second person perspective to help you walk in her shoes and get
a flavor of how demeaning it is to be scrutinized so intently and with such suspicion all because of your
appearance: the word looks appears in the second line, is repeated in verse four, and again in verse five
to suggest the interaction goes on far too long to be comfortable. The official staffing the immigration
counter has noticed a couple of things that have triggered a red flag warning. Her name (Imtiaz is the
writer's first name) contains an unusual letter Z, unusual in Britain and other Western countries anyway,
and she's just moved house so there's a discrepancy between addresses. Apparently, there are some
visual differences between the passport photograph and the woman in the flesh (for example, the
birthmark shifted recently suggests she may have aged) and the poem builds up to the admission that
you don't match your photograph, which seems to come as much of a surprise to herself as it is to the
immigration official. While small changes in appearance over time, not to mention moving house, are
perfectly natural and harmless, when confronted by a dark-skinned woman, these details arouse the
immigration officer's suspicion. Through his reaction, Dharker reveals how prejudice is baked into the
system the official represents. As the pattern of humiliation unfolds, we see how scrutiny leads to
suspicion that leads to objectification.

Almost immediately she feels invaded by him reading you backwards rather than simply checking her
passport details. Not only does this point to a certain lack of logic (reading backwards is a poor way of
understanding something), but through a special type of metaphor called metonymy (A figure of speech
in which a word is substituted for another word that it is closely associated with), the whole of her
identity is reduced to her passport (she calls it a book as if it contains her entire life story rather than
travel stamps and basic info) which becomes a symbolic stand-in for her in the mind of the official. You
shrink to the size of the book in his hand. Once he conflates her and her passport as one and the same,
he's already begun objectifying her - and as soon as a person is seen as a mere object, dehumanization is
only one small step down prejudice's slippery slope. As one of the key images in the poem, the shrinking
feeling she experiences implies the power imbalance inherent in this interaction. Dharker's a single
individual whereas the immigration officer represents an entire system, and you hand over your
passport suggests a surrendering of personal autonomy; now he's holding her life in his hands. From this
moment onwards she is completely passive. All she can do is stifle her upset lest anger lands her in
greater peril: you could be offended and what did you expect? are expressed in a tone of resigned
frustration, the rhetorical question implying that this kind of treatment is commonplace. Her only
concrete action is a single, exasperated laugh which reveals both incredulity at the way she is treated
and her humiliation throughout the ordeal.

The form of the poem helps us feel her distress written in free verse, Dharker's verses are unequal in
length and do not follow a set meter or rhyme scheme. Instead, she uses unpredictable verse lengths,
line lengths, in frequent rhymes (such as photograph/laugh, eyes/surprise and away/today) and other

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structural features combine to replicate the unpredictability of the encounter. From the first line
onwards, Dharker mismatches the poem's lines and sentences. The first sentence ends after the word
passport, but Dharker adds - He...onto the end of line one before using enjambment to connect the first
and second lines, emphasizing the transfer of power from her to the immigration officer and suggesting
that she's not in control of what happens to her next.

However, at the end of all this, her identity is never sufficiently established to the satisfaction of others.
Phrases such as all that's left, you don't match and coming apart imply that she's constantly being made
and unmade, pulled apart, stuck together, and pulled apart again before the glue is even allowed to set.
Words for various parts of the body are scattered everywhere: face, hand, eye, birthmark, arm, leg, chin,
hair, mouth, eyes again. All the pieces are there, but the poem doesn't combine them into a coherent
whole, suggesting a fractured sense of personal identity. The use of personification in it just moved
house and the birthmark shifted recently creates the impression that she's not the owner of her own
identifying features - misread and reconstructed by others, the 'truth' of who she is not up to her to
decide. In fact, her heart, symbolizing her sense of self and representing who she truly is, remains left
out of the picture they have drawn. Sitting at her core and representing emotions, experiences, and
memories, it's the one part of her body that no-one looks for or cares about getting to know.

Language

“You”-The use of “You” throughout the poem is to make us get a firsthand experience of the grave
situation. “You” immerses the reader into the poem and makes the reader more susceptible to the
poet’s appeal. Also, imagine if you are “a person of color” and you happen to read this poem, you kind
of feel a bit uneasy of the discriminatory situation, it kind of even affects self-esteem. Now imagine if
you are Caucasian or white to be exact, the use of “you” makes you feel more or less dark skin in order
to feel such discrimination. This is the technique used by the poet to put you in the shoes of the
agonized persona (which is actually her).

“Shrink to the size of the book in his hand”-This is a metaphor and creates an image of the reader
shrinking into a tiny object. Its effect is it shows how powerless the immigrant is in the face of a racist/
discriminative officer and the fact he is represented as the book in the officer’s palm exaggerates this
effect. “Repetition of ‘the times we live in'”- to suggest that prejudice during migration is very mundane
(nothing out of the ordinary) and gives a sense nothing can be done about it as it is the requisite of the
times we live in. The poem talks about a Z in the immigrant’s name. This is important as the word Z is
evident in the poet’s name hence this is most likely a first-hand account of her plight. A Protocol that
takes place at an airport (for immigration)

Theme

Shows how immigration protocol is normalized and the ‘racist factor’ as a result of migration.

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Structure

Free verse, to represent the desire to move around. Cluttered and disorganized, to represent fear and
the haphazard nature of the immigration protocol. Run-on lines– show consistency, how immigration
and prejudice based on origin is a part of life.

Diction

‘Passport’- from the first line the readers become aware that the poem will be discussing travel.
Repetition of ‘the times we live in’- shows an acceptance of how they are being treated; that it is the
norm and we should therefore simply adjust. ‘Shrink- to stress how intimidated the immigrant is.
‘Birthmark’- this is used to identify people; it is a distinguishing feature; the fact that it shifted could
suggest how because she has moved to a new place her identity has also changed (it could also show
that this is not actually her passport and she is immigrating illegally). ‘Suspiciously’- the automatic
response is not to trust people and to question their intentions. ‘Scrubbed out’- there is no memory of
who you used to be; it has been erased permanently.

Imagery

‘Reading you backwards’- could indicate that the process of their assessment is faulty; you don’t read
backwards; it also indicates a lack of trust. ‘They missed out on your heart’- the heart is being used to
represent goodness and who the person is on the inside rather than just what they looked like, the
immigration officials don’t see the person for who they really are.

Tone

Second person narration (use of the word ‘you’) to force the reader into the position of the immigrant
and have them see things through their eyes; it could also be used to portray what is going on as a
universal experience. The narrative tone and repetition of ‘the times we live in’ suggests a type of
complacency; the speaker is just telling a story of something that happens, and is not out rightly
criticizing it.