Carolyn Forch? he often uses images of everyday life to draw the reader into his poetry. Having established a connection with the familiar, it often reveals a darker side of humanity, integrating the two seamlessly. The transition between the two mirrors real life, where the horrors coincide with the peaceful reality that many can enjoy. Forch? uses this method to compare the lives of the rich and the poor, as well as those of the powerful and the weak. In his poem "Return", published in The Country Between Us (1981), Forch? is about the surreal feeling of returning to America after spending several years in El Salvador. Forch? sets a similar tone in "The Colonel" as he recalls spending time with the upper class in El Salvador. Through the confrontation between the Salvadoran working class, whose reality is constant conflict and incessant violence, and those who control the country, Forch? challenges the reader to consider the ordinary. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayThe Carolyn Forch Years? spent in El Salvador was during a turbulent time for the nation. Many of the Salvadoran working class, which represented the largest percentage of the population, were tired of the poverty that was their reality. When El Salvador was colonized, the indigenous people were repressed and were ready for change. The ruling class, however, was in control of the military. Anyone who was in favor of reforming the nation to make it a better place was labeled a communist. With this justification the government declared war on civilians who were already suffering in their daily lives. Forch? she witnessed these horrors and decided to inform the public of these previously unaddressed atrocities. In “Return” Forch? she sets the scene by describing things that were once normal for her. The description of “ice-cold drinks and paper umbrellas” slowly comes to a halt as she recounts her experiences to a friend (17). Forch? she is clearly still shaken by her experiences. Normal things that he wouldn't think twice about before scaring her. After describing how his personal perspective has changed, he begins to expand on his time in El Salvador. Why? he describes the violence in El Salvador as “the mix / of machetes and whiskey” where “the slip of the tongue / costs hundreds of deaths” (17). This description of the upper class is in direct contrast to the previous setting of Los Angeles where Forch? sees the consumption of “frozen drinks” with their “paper umbrellas” (17). The difference between the two is conversation: the simple act of drinking after dinner can become a plot to kill in El Salvador. “The graves were men and women/ were held for a few days without food or water” are often part of “cocktails/ informal conversations on which their release depends” (17). Forch? he also comments on how this behavior encourages “men and women of good will [to] read/torture the accounts with fascination” (17). This is just one example of the horrors happening around them that are becoming commonplace for Salvadorans. In the next verse, Forch? attacks the American approach to solving the problem. These “water pumps/ and agricultural cooperatives are of little importance/ and take years/” (18). This passive attempt to fight poverty in El Salvador does not counteract the violence created by those in power. Don't these ordinary things help the Forch situation? details in his poems. It does nothing to counter “the razor, live wire, dry ice and cement” used in the torture of repressed Salvadorans (18). The aid usually offered to poor countries would not have broughtno benefit in El Salvador, where the revolution had already begun and could not be reversed. Peaceful steps taken by workers to gain greater rights for the lower classes were already met with violence. In this country where “a union leader was torn to pieces and buried” the actions of the United States were effectively useless (18). In the third stanza Forch? returns to a place many would recognize: Safeway. Forch? uses the daily task of grocery shopping to parallel the lack of food, shelter, and safety in El Salvador. She “goes crazy, for example,/ in the Safeway, for the many heads/ of lettuce, papaya and sugar, pineapple/ and coffee, especially coffee” (18). Forch? he continues his critique of America and adds another comparison to rich Salvadorans sipping their whiskey. These Americans with “their constant Scotch and beautiful white hands” have “an absence of recognition” of how something they habitually do can negatively affect people in other places in a separate situation (18). These are the same Americans who make mundane efforts to help poor Salvadorans. Forch? he describes the wife of one of the powerful and wealthy American men he met in El Salvador as offering her only "drunken kindness" (19). She is not only drunk on the "four martinis" that she manages to drink while crossing the area without harm, she is also drunk because she has nothing to fear. The poor suffer and are massacred “while Marines in white gloves [are] charged with protecting her” (19). Are these Americans who Forch? can't stand talking or being around. He is right that many in the United States fail to understand the situations that Salvadorans face on a daily basis. The last verse of “Ritorno” provides a very detailed analysis of his general opinion on American and El Salvadorian relations. Forch? reiterates the problems and violence by once again paralleling them with Western complacency. Americans “are all erased / by them, and no longer resemble / good men” (20). Forch? he also writes that “the problem is not . . . life as it is/ in America, not that [our] hands, as [I] am told, are tied to do anything. It is/ that [we] were born on an island of greed/ and grace where [we] have this sense/ of yourself separate from others. It is/is not your right to feel helpless” (20). As he writes, Forch? highlights how selfish it is to assume you can't help when these people truly have no control over their lives. The truth it reveals is that most people are too worried about themselves to help resolve or even understand the situation. Forch? he blames this attitude on the privileged lives that many are able to live. In reality, unless everyone shares the same experiences, it is impossible to truly understand each other's situations because the concept of ordinary is different for each person. It is for this reason that the lives of others, so different from "our" everyday life, are processed in our mind with a distorted sense of reality. Is “Return” a chronicle of Forch's personal experience? dealing with a situation that many may not imagine. He uses his familiarity with both worlds to highlight the differences between the two. This in turn shows how what is perceived as normal in some societies becomes perverted and dangerous in a different situation. People outside of direct contact are so consumed with the idea of ​​the normal situation that it is impossible for them to see the truth. Forch? uses her poems to help expose these events for what they are and inform more people in an effort to create change and make progress. In Forch's poetry? "The Colonel" describes,.