African American Literature Shine Essay, Research Paper

In the poetry Shine and the Sinking of the Titanic , Shine is a hero. Shine is considered a hero because he left the sinking ship Titanic and swam to shore in order to save his life from a forthcoming tragedy.

In this poem, it is apparent that Shine was an employee of the Titanic crew. Shine was a very intelligent and wise man, he did not heed to what the Captain, his boss was telling him. Shine knew that something was wrong when he told the Captain that there was about forty feet of water in [the] boiler-room floor , perhaps that was Shine s way of letting the Captain know that something was not right. The Captain chose to ignore Shine s warning or discovery and told Shine that he should continue to do what he was suppose to being doing and not worry about it. The Captain totally disregarded Shine s warning about the overflow of water in the boiler.

After Shine told the Captain what was going on, he knew of the outcome of the overflow of water in the ship, and so he decided not to hang around to find out; Shine jumped ship. Even when the Captain s daughter called out to him, Shine s ultimate goal was to get safely to shore and leave the sinking ship.

Shine swam to shore for thirty minutes before reaching the shore. Since Shine was part of the Titanic crew, he perhaps knew that swimming was his only chance to save his life; he was not going to stay there and drown. As Shine swam to shore, he came across a whale that wanted to eat him; this probably made Shine swim faster. Shine just wanted to get to safety. He perhaps thought that if he was not willing to stay on the ship while it sank, which would inevitable have led him to drown or get eaten by sharks or whales, he would not let this whale eat him up.

According to the poem, Shine lived to tell the story of the story of the sinking titanic. He should be considered a hero because he saved his own life. He was not in the position to save others but he did try, telling the Captain about the overflow in the boiler room illustrated that. Shine s courageous attempt to swim to shore, changed his fate, his could have been as disastrous as the others on board, including the Captain who was warned by Shine from the beginning. What Shine did was not selfish; he in all probability had family and friends, and was determined to see them again.