Two Scavengers in a Truck… Page 8. Cultural background- USA, San Francisco. U may refer to the poem using the shorter version of the title as show above.

This is a poem of contrasts, the ‘beautiful people’ & the ‘scavengers’, two totally opposite groups of people who meet at the traffic lights in their different vehicles. They are opposite images, being compared, in a snap shot moment seen by the poet, almost like a photograph. It makes him think about the opportunities we have in life & how our lives can turn out differently, we can be the scavengers on the garbage truck or we could become the beautiful people in their Merc, with a good job & all the benefits that come with it.

For a short moment in time the paths of these different people cross, what if anything have they got in common? On the surface they have nothing in common, however when the reader looks closer we see that there is a similarity in appearance between the man in the car & the young man on the ‘garbage truck’. This similarity in appearance is suggesting that if life had been different the garbage man could have ended up with the life of the ‘beautiful people’

The American dream is at the heart of the poem, the belief that we can all achieve our potential, all men are created equal yet one of these men works for the garbage company & the other is an architect. The poet is suggesting that the American dream is a lie.

The scavengers seem to be figures of revulsion & those in the car beautiful The scavengers are compared to vultures, ‘gazing down as from a great distance’ however being up physically higher could also be seen as having the higher moral ground. Is the poet suggesting that the job the scavengers do is more honest & worthy? The older man in the truck is described as ‘some gargoyle Quasimodo’, a repulsive figure compared to the beautiful, well groomed people in the Merc. The couple in the car seem to be ideal but does the poet approve? Does he approve of either group?

The pair on the truck seem to be the unpleasant ones but there is an honesty about their work which the poet seems to think more worthy than the ‘beautiful people’ who make their money on the backs of ordinary people like the garbage men. The beautiful people make their money developing the city, turning it into commercial development & are destroying the soul of the city- something the poet disapproves of.

Important the use of colour which reflects the brightness of the sunshine of the setting of the poem- San Francisco & the also the brightness of the life & prospects of the beautiful people. Look at comparisons made

Look at the structure & unusual line length mention its irregularity, especially the ending, like an afterthought but a very important message in the poem- drawing attention to this point by being separate from the rest of the poem. The end of the poem is the poet asking the reader to think about the true meaning of democracy, he calls it ‘that small gulf in the high seas’, so small a leap to make but full of peril.

Look at the comparison of the beautiful people to ‘some odourless TV ad’, suggesting there is no soul to them, they aspire to being like this but what soul or worth does it have? Look at where you think the poet might have been in this scene, was he watching this from a distance, perhaps he too stopped at the traffic lights & his attention was drawn to this totally opposite people, who under other circumstances would never come anywhere near each other, would have nothing in common.

Contrasts in life This short moment in time had an effect on the poet & made him think about life, equality & the true worth of people.