A Study Guide for Etheridge Knight's "The Idea of Ancestry"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Etheridge Knight's "The Idea of Ancestry," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Sep 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535837514

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information.

The Idea of Ancestry

Etheridge Knight

1968

Introduction

Etheridge Knight wrote The Idea of Ancestry while he was serving a prison term for theft. The poem was first published in 1968 in a collection of works, Poems from Prison, that were all completed during his incarceration. In The Idea of Ancestry, Knight contemplates how much he misses his family as he stares at their photographs taped to his prison wall.

The Idea of Ancestry is considered by literary critics to be one of Knight's more powerful pieces. The poem is filled with the poet's feelings about his family as well as his frustration with his addiction to drugs. The drugs, as much as the prison walls, have kept him separated from his family. The theft he committed was to gain access to money to buy more drugs. Even when he was not in prison, his addiction to drugs created invisible walls that prevented him from fully engaging with the members of his family. In this poem, as he stares at the photographs of his family, he also stares into himself, examining how he has come to this point in his life.

Knight wrote many more poems, but The Idea of Ancestry is one of the most often anthologized. This poem is an example of his mastery of creating verbal images that help him to explore his emotions.

Author Biography

Knight, the second oldest of seven children, was born to Etheridge and Belzora Knight in Corinth, Mississippi, on April 19, 1931. His family was very poor, and when Knight was in the eighth grade he dropped out of school. It did not take long for Knight to realize that without a high school diploma, his chances of making a decent salary were limited to low-paying jobs, such as shining shoes. Knight spent a lot of time in bars and pool halls, where he was introduced to a poetic form similar to rapping, called toasting. It was through this form of storytelling that Knight was introduced to poetry.

Later, to earn a better living, Knight enlisted in the army and was eventually sent to Korea, where he worked as a medic. Four years later, in 1951, Knight was granted a medical discharge from the