"A Story About Chicken Soup"

by

Louis Simpson

Unsettling America 245

Louis Simpson was born and raised in Jamaica. His mother was a Polish Jew who immigrated to the United States in the early 1900’s, and his father was of Scotch ancestry. Simpson immigrated to the United States when he was seventeen. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany, receiving two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for his service. His European background and Jamaican upbringing became a source for many of his poems. His book of poems titled, At the End of the Open Road, won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry. "A Story About Chicken Soup" is a poem from this book.

This poem is written from the perspective of a second or third generation immigrant (literary objective 2a) who is remembering the land and hardships from which his family fled. The poem looks back at a family who fled during a national migration to escape from persecution and death that was certain had they stayed behind (literary objective 1b).

"A Story About Chicken Soup" is a poem about the Jewish holocaust during World War II. The poem tells of the memories, both good and bad, that haunt the story teller. Simpson divides this poem into three distinct sections.

The first section tells of the good memories. The opening line, "In my grandmother’s house there was always chicken soup," relays fond memories and familiar smells. He mentions that there was poverty in the old world, but these thoughts are surrounded by memories of enough food to eat and snow falling on the necks of lovers. Times were hard, but life was filled with good things like weddings and chicken soup. At the end of the first section, the bad memories start to creep in. The war has started and the Germans have killed all of his family.

The second section deals directly with specific memories from the war. He remembers seeing a young German girl who is so thin he describes her as not having enough skin and bones to even make chicken soup. The effects of war can be seen even in the families of those who are doing the horrific slaughtering. The last stanza of the second section states, "We had killed her mechanical brothers, so we forgave her." The mechanical soldiers are soldiers who do what they are told, and the writer acknowledges that as a result there are innocent people that are suffering on both sides of the war.

The third section brings the writer to a time far removed from the war, but he is still haunted by the memory of those who were lost. He sees their eyes and states that "they have some demand on me…They want me to be poor, to sleep in a room with many others—Not to walk in the painted sunshine to a summer house, But to live in the tragic world forever." He would like to forget the awful memories that haunt him and pretend that it never happened, but the eyes from the past are begging him to always remember so that it might never happen again.

Student: The cuckoo mother bird leaves the baby bird in a robins nest and leaves.

Cuckoos eat robins.

Dr. White: I think it’s time. The cuckoo represents the bird coming out of the clock, as

in German cuckoo clocks.

Student: He is scarred. At the end of the poem he needs the memories in order to

heal and chicken soup is a healer.

Student: Chicken soup is the staple and diet of Jewish people. It is often called chicken soup even if only chicken fat is in it and no meat.

Student: People need to be reminded of what happened. He is carrying a burden. The war is behind him and he wants to move on but the memories keep coming.

Interpreter: The eyes stick out, therefore he cannot forget.

Student: The immigrants are his parents and family and they do not want him to forget…never forget.

Dr. White: America is a carefree world. You see a tension in the Jewish world and the New World. (Dr. White related the poem to the end of the book Bread Givers, and to what the author said about the two worlds.)