like a bird of prey, the profile of night.
Several years following the Vietnam War, Yusef Komunyakaa, being a Vietnam survivor himself, writes the poem, "Facing It," allowing his emotions to resurface while he views the Vietnam Memorial. Yusef allows the reader to experience the conflicts of his feelings, in the perfect example of man versus himself. Komunyakaa's poem incorporates two contrasts, light and dark and present day and past.
Of the contrasts, the comparison between light and dark commences the poem. This contrast is in turn composed of race and Yusef's environment. His references to skin color leave the reader questioning whether the memories of the war, also stirred reminders of how Yusef's "black face" could have played a role in the way he was treated during his war effort. The speaker alludes to his own reflection in the black granite as "the profile of night slanted against morning"; this juxtaposed metaphor of night and day reinforces Yusef's comparison between light and dark by giving the reader the image that the slanted granite slab (referred to as the night), is leaning against morning. .
Yusef depends "on the light to make a difference." Komunyakaa sees "a white vet's image" who has "lost his right arm" coming closer to him. The notable technique in this excerpt is Yusef's reference to the vet as being white. This brings the reader to believe, again, that all the other memories of war gave life to his memory of the racial differentiation; in addition the author's use of detailed description in expressing that he's lost his right arm makes the white vet more realistic and believable.
Furthermore, the second of the contrasts, and also the more noticeable of the two, is that of his comparison between reality and what he thinks he sees, his past. Komunyakaa parallels two opposites, again, by believing he is "stone" for a moment, followed by the realization he is "flesh.