How to build a Sand Castle by Gerardo Mena Analysis

In the poem “How to build a Sand Castle” the poet Gerardo Mena uses a sand castle as an allegory to explain the effect of a war and it's violence on an unidentified land and its generations.

At first sight, “How to build a Sand Castle,” promises that the poem would teaches  how to create a sand castle steps by steps. When one look deeper, however, Mena uses many literary elements such as symbolism and setting to reveal the struggles of the war and its trauma. Since the beginning of the poem, Mena illustrates that “There was a small island in the middle of a blue ocean./ This island had a beach made of white powdered”. Mena, In other words, sets the story in any small island surrounded by water who have been constructed thru the residue of a gun’s power. Weather this guns were introduced by the sea,  the nation itself or a foreign nation that wanted to conquer or imposed its different view on this anonymous and unpopular land, one can not tell. If we take the logic of reason seriously, however, the implication is that there is an imminent threat of colonialism that it is almost intimidating this isolated and unprotected place to either stand up with violence or give up their liberty to this dominant source who has reach their beach or geography limit with the intention of controlling politically, economically and culturally. On the other hand, Mena might refers that this island was created threw the violence of the gun and its white residue.  Because Mena does not refers to “the white powered” by name as the white residue left from the gun, one can speculate that the white power could be either cocaine/ heroin, talc, the powder of radiation itself or all of them. Because cocaine as a drug who could be used as a current due to its demand by the population, rather than money as currency to financiated the war itself just like pure silk shirts or cigarettes during World War I, one can assume that the consumption of it during wartime and the production of this white powered contributed to the economy of this small country.

      When Mena further mentions “sand, but it was not sand-- it was something else. /On this island there was a boy”. When Mena repeats  that it was something that appeared as sand, yet it was not sand might reveals that there was something hidden in plain sight or something more sinister behind the cortina of small particles that came together to create an open space, like a beach, that would be enjoyed by the family if they were willing to travel the long trip to this space. Because the beach or the space around it tends to be poorer or segregated areas from the rest of the population, it can be assumed that a child would be raised on poor condition and in need of more resources due to the contrast thread of natural disaster.

When Mena mentions that  “there is a boy”, then, it is implies that there is life that it is growing watching this intoxication in a daily basis who it is considering this toxic as normal. The boy who it is still young enough helds an innocent that it is trying to use his surrounding as art or tool to expresses his creativity and artistic values.  When Mena mentions that “held a shovel and a pail in this small boy hands./ He spent a warm afternoon building castles/ from the sand on his beach, but it was not sand--/ it was still something else”. Indirectly, this imagery illustrates  a small child with a shovel and a pail who it is sitting on the sand playing with the sand. The repetition that “it was not sand,” however, placed the child in a deathly place such as a mass grave or cementery where the child is playing with the ashes of the bodies of the people who were killed there. Even though one does not know who the bodies belongs to or how they got there, the child have been forced to grow up watching and playing with the remaining. Because one assumed that a civil or global war took place on this zone, one can assumed that the white powered could be the victim of this war themselves including this child. The child who it is the next generation is forced to grow up watching the effect of the preview social conflict and forced to become a “war machine” as Mena titled this section even without him knowing it.

When Mena, indirectly, mentions the shovel and pail who are tools that are used on construction, sculpture, paint or simply dig the land  in order to penetrated the land, one can assumed that the child’s future have been transform into a cemetery where his social death it is already link to the rob of his innocent and  the change from an innocent child into a machine who does not value people’s sufferer or death anymore after the extraction of sympathy or pureness.

      When Mena writes that “Each time he finished a castle, a wave/ would sweep over and knock it down” . Despite the effort and time invested, the work that was being assigned to construct this castle was unless because it was constantly being destructed by the power of nature itself. If the wave, however, was a metaphor for the constant hit of some kind of invaders, one can assumed that this wave were being a force that would constantly destroyed the community or absorbed its natural resources. Because the sand would absorb the water, it can assumed that the sand needed the water in order to be mold more easily, yet, if one assigned a lot of water, it will just drain out. In the same way, it could be assumed that the castle was a metaphor for a war that would not have an end, yet who would have a devastating effect based on the density of the number of wars fought. On the other hand, the wave could represents the adversities that the narrator have to resist when everything seen to go against him. In a way, his action demonstrates the narrator’s unwillingness to give up to nature or any other force despite the toughness of the situation. Irrationally, this behavior reveals the psycho of the narrator who  keep repeating the process even when he knows that something is wrong and illogical. Rather than to change the process in order to obtained a different result where his castle would last, the narrator seen to enjoy the destruction of the sand castle because he is forced to renew his imagination in order to innovates his creations or he does not want to change his values to a more humane approach.

         When Mena mentions that “Each time a wave knocked down his castle/ he would build a taller one”. Mena tries to illustrate the struggle of power between nature versus the man. In a way, the narrator who represent the man knows that was he is doing is illogical and irrational, yet he prefers to continue with his actions rather than to admit defeat by the waves. The fact that he keeps building a castle taller than the preview one, indirectly, is an indication of a trait of grandiose narcissism that reflects that he might look for attention and a sense of entitlement that might indicates that the world is their to do as they pleased by taking over and not allowed others view to be considered even when they know that they might be wronged. Rather than to considered this repetition and creation of “a taller one” as an act of stupidity, the appearance is what is significant for the narrator. Because the taller and stronger buildings are associated with intimidation and power. One can assumed that this tall castles are trying to intimidate the most  smallest and vulnerable one to give in to their strength and control and left behind their identity and will to comply with his demand. In a way, Mena might be criticized that the invaders are bullying the small isolated island in order to include a doctrine that might be illogical or irrational, yet it sells the illusion that the new generations have a chance to made it to a better future as long as they complied with the irrational demands. Because this system is based on a weak platform where there is not chance for creativity, identity and will of the individual to think and simply be themselves, but rather, it is based on a violence, deadness and power struggles that tries to steal the will of the individuals.As a result, one can concludes that there is an uncertain future for the habitants of this land and the government itself.

    When Mena makes an impossible world possible for the obsessive compulsive narrator with “He built castles until the island was gone, became/ the castle. There was only his castle and only the sea” , one can assumed that the narrator wants to provide hope to the narrator. In a way, the island became his shelter,  house, and his security place to protect the boy, the people and himself. The moral problem that comes with this quotes is “At what costs does the narrator achieved it?” In a way, the narrator is fooling himself with the notion that he is doing it for the good of all.When one look deeper, however, the motivation was replaced from the need to expand beyond its capacity to have more than it was needed in order to obtained more power rather than the basic resources to survive a decent life. When Mena uses a hyperbole in order to exaggerates the expansion that this unidentified nation or castle obtained by conquered more of the sand structured in territory that were vulnerables and unstabled, it can be  interprets that this nation obtained its purpose of stealing or claiming others barriers based on a weak foundation and a game of domino that does not have an end and can not success on a logical foundation.

When Mena finished with “A little girl emerged from the rough sea, made of the rough sea./ This is worth dying for/ she said, and she opened her mouth/ and swallowed the boy whole/ because she loved him”, it can be logically deduced that this nation is predicated on a form of cannibalism and  toxic form of love that carried a trauma and guilt that does not just affects its men, but also the women who received the rough treatment and marks from this expansion. Mena, indirectly, it is arguing that both children despite of the gender became the victim of this system. The girl who used to be characterized as innocent and vulnerable girl in front of her situation came out of this zone with post traumatic stress disorder and guilt that were more visible than the boy who used to behave more in accordance with society’s standards.  The girl who became a product of this violence and toxic environment begins to embrace the values and standard of normality that were socially accepted. The problem that the founder of this society did not realizes was that the girl would became into an unpredictable force that was impossible to control that would eventually end up harm her own brothers. The boy, in the same way, by maintaining its submissive role and innocent, he became an easy prey who could not defend his ideas or persona, yet who developed feeling of nationalism that cloud his judgment and logic. Despite the social fault of this community who shaped or mold the personalities and values of this individuals into either victim and killer, this individual adapted different to the same environment in the name of love. When Mena finishes with “This is worth dying for,” one can assume that Mena's sarcasm tone reveals that this war is not worth dying for.