Thug Life

Prayer of The hunger by W.S. Rendra

Second essay | Bintang Amelia | 112012125
Real life is not like a fairytale where magic things suddenly come out of nowhere
every time you are in trouble. Not everyone have happily ever after ending. A poetry written by
W.S. Rendra entitled doa orang lapar gives us a picture how though real life is (in Indonesia).
For some people, real life is like a battlefield where you only have two options which is kill or
being killed. In order to fulfill daily need, also for the sake of surviving, some people dare to
cross the boundaries. This poem shows how poverty could blind peoples conscience.
There are a lot of ways to describe about poverty, but in this poetry the poet use
hunger as a representative. In my opinion hunger is the strongest feeling or motif that
masterminds a crime. In the poetry, the poet use metaphor in comparing hunger and black crows.
Such as in the first line of the first stanza HUNGER is a smooth black crow. Just like in the
horror or mystery books, crow is animal of the evil and darkness. I think crow is also symbol of
greedy and cunning; they often crowd around carcass then snatch away food with the other (just
like herrings). Crow in this line I think more likely describe the hunger feeling itself. Hunger
can make people greedy just like black crow. However the second line of the first stanza has
other meaning although the poet uses the same symbol. Millions of crows like a black cloud.
The crow in here I think refer to people who are suffering of hunger or people who dont have
enough money to eat. A single crow maybe describes to one feeling, but then the poet said
millions of crows it means not just one hunger, but a lot of hunger. Thats why I think the crow
in here referring to people who suffer of hunger.
The poet said in the second line of the second stanza how terrifying crows are. This
is shows that people who are suffering of hunger is terrifying, in other words could also be
dangerous. As I said before, for some people whenever they are in trouble and they dont have a

though heart, they will do anything to survive. The poet mentioned some crime in the poetry
which is done on behalf of hunger. Hunger is dangerous feeling, it can push people out of the
boundaries such as the poet has mentioned in the second stanza hunger is rebellion. Is the
mysterious force, moving the murderers knife in the hand of the poor. Not only in the past, but
until now some people willing to kill each other for money and those people mostly come from
the poor. For example is robbery whereas the victim often found dead.
Once again the poet use metaphor to compare hunger and coral rocks such as is the
first line of the third stanza hunger is coral rocks, beneath the sleeping face of the sea. The
coral rock is usually sharp and hard, even fishermans ship would scatter in pieces if it crushes
coral rock. I think in this line the poet wants to say that even a person who looks calm and
harmless could be dangerous too. Hunger can also make people doing bad job. When the poet
talked about honor I think the most horrible things which can betray an honor is becoming a
sexual worker (becoming a whore) such as in the fourth line until seventh line of the third stanza
is the betrayal of honor. A strong young man crying to see his own hands lay honor down
because of hunger can you imagine? Even the young and strong one also commits a crime only
for food, and of course it will hurt his pride knowing that what he did only to feed his stomach.
People who have power can also be blinded by hunger such as the writer said in the last line of
the fourth stanza hunger is a devil offering dictatorship. The reason why I can conclude this is
because usually dictatorship often sticks to people with big power. The fifth stanza Hunger is
black hands putting handfuls of alum into the stomach of the poor it means the people dare to
fake foods by mixing the ingredients with chemical liquor such as alum, borax, chemical dye,
and etc. Just like in television shows (Reportase Investigasi) the reason why the people do that is
because they want to reduce the cost of making so that they would earn more money.

The repetition of O God is the form of prayer, in my own opinion this prayer is not a
kind of prayer which thanking or asking for something but more likely questioning and
complaining about injustice that they have to receive such as in the 6th stanza of the poetry
and this is Your stomach, your stomach hungers, O God. Your stomach hews alum and broken
glass I think the people questioning if they are similar with God, why he let them hungry and
suffering? In the last stanza the poet said that millions of black crows like a black cloud.
Blotting out my view of Your heaven this shows that hunger can make people dont care about
doing good things so that they can go to heaven. As long as they can eat, they can survive, thats
more than enough.
As the conclusion, hunger which is raised by the writer in this poetry can drive people
crazy. No matters how old are they, young or old, weak or strong, powerful or not hunger will
push them to their limit and boundaries. At first I keep looking for the date when this poetry was
made to understand more the story behind this poetry until I realized that the socio-culture which
is raised in this poetry is general. It doesnt refer to one time moment. It happened every day,
from past until now, and maybe in the future.
Source: www.penyair.wordpress.com