In “Southern History” by Natasha Trethewey, a twelfth grade history class is discussing African-American history. At the end of the poem, the teacher plays a movie, and the movie depicts the truth about blacks.. The author uses italicized words, structure, simile, and personification to show that facts can continuously be distorted as time passes. In the beginning of the poem, the class starts talking about life in the south before the Civil War. The teacher said slaves were “happy” before the war. This is known because throughout the poem, the teacher’s dialogue is shown using italicized words. The structure of the entire poem is also more straightforward since the stanzas are only two lines each. This gives each stanza more impact
