The author of this poem used shoes as a metaphor to express his thoughts in the poem. The shoes have been used in this case to represent human beings. This style gave the poet power to write his thoughts figuratively, making it hard for readers to spot the meaning of the poem instantly.
The issue of death is cruel and language can be limited in expressing the pain and the loss that comes with it. The poet points out the issue of death from his poem intelligently. The following lines, “we are the shoes, we are the last witnesses”, shoes are worn by everyone, even in time of death, one has their shoes on. Therefore, in this scenario, the shoes act as the last witness to the horrific acts of death. They witnessed the demise of their loved one after the other. This assumption takes us back to the horrors of the holocaust, when the Nazis killed masses of Jewish people in Europe, after World War II (Pearce, 2019). The shoes represent all the people who died during the mass murder.
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The poem goes further to assert that “We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers, from Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam”. Jews who were killed came majorly from Europe: Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam are all European Countries. This discovery allows us to conclude that the shoes represent the loss of lives.
The last three lines of the poem are ironic; because the meaning portrayed here is the opposite of what the author intends. The last line indicates that “they avoided the hellfire”. They were able to avoid it because they “are not made from blood and flesh”. It is not possible to avoid the hellfire when you are made of blood and flesh or fabric and leather. Therefore, the outcome portrayed in the last three lines negates our expectation when someone or something goes through hellfire. There is situational irony in the last three lines; given the last line indicates “hellfire” then in this situation it could not be possible for the shoes to avoid hellfire but in this case, the author intends to mean that shoes could not be killed since they do not have a human life. The lack of human life allowed them to be the last witnesses to the atrocities meted against humans.
The poem uses the metaphorical style through the use of shoes as witnesses to death. The shoes witnessed the horrors that occurred to their wearers. The irony in the last three lines is well captured due to shoes lacking human life they managed to survive hellfire. However, it is not easy for anyone or anything to avoid hellfire but the irony is the shoes did because the perpetrators who did kill their wearers did not find any reason to kill the shoes.
Reference
Pearce, A., 2019. An Emerging “Holocaust Memorial Problem?” The Condition of Holocaust Culture in Britain. The Journal of Holocaust Research , 33(2), pp.117-137.
