So here goes nothing…
Throughout Benjamin Zephaniah’s Homeward Bound and Neighbours, many similar themes are addressed throughout the entire piece. Discrimination is an obvious theme, proof in Homeward Bound being, on line 24 “Labour didn´t vote for him”, this is saying that although the old man voted for Labour, which promised working class men a better life, the Labour party was only concerned about the workers from the UK, not immigrants, and the old man, being an immigrant, was excluded. The support in Neighbours is immediately obvious on line 1 “I am the type you are supposed to fear, Black and foreign”. This strongly infers that because someone is different in anyway to most, we are supposed to be wary of them, because they are different to what they are used to, eg. Colour of skin, size, religion, etc…
In addition to discrimination, another similarity is the optimistic feelings or ideas given by the main characters, the old man in Homeward Bound and the young man in Neighbours. Line 9 and 10 in Homeward Bound “He came here full of hope, with a great big smile”, is the confirmation for this, saying that he was very hopeful when he came here, sure that he would lead a better life than in Jamaica. In the Neighbours, the protagonist is being optimistic by saying that his new Neighbours should be happy, glad even, that he is moving in next door to them. This is expressed on line 20 and 21“You should feel good, You have been chosen.”
There may be various similarities between Homeward Bound and Neighbours, but like many other poems written by the same writer, there are some differences, however, they are not as apparent as the similarities, and have to be looked for. One of them is the mood in both poems being completely different. Homeward Bound is quite a sad, moving poem, talking about the old man’s regrets, memories and in the final stanza, the fact that he shall never return to his home country, sweet Jamaica, “That old man, Shall die in Kensal Rise”, line 47 and 48, is ending the poem on a sad note, making the old man’s regrets clear. However in Neighbours, the mood is up-beat, and, as the young man enjoys some fun, and this is made clear in the end, as he states, line 30, “ And when the sun is shining, I go Carnival.” Therefore, both mood’s contrast, sad and up-beat.
In addition to the other difference, there is also the aspect of the men both being of a different religion. In Homeward Bound, the old man is a Christian, as stated on line 22, “And his Christianity. On the other hand, the man in Neighbours is inferred to be of the Rastafarian religion, line 3 “Big and dreadlocks.” This inferes that, because a characteristic of the Rastafarian religion, is the dominant hairstyle of dreadlocks.
While writing these two poems, Homeward Bound and Neighbours, Benjamin Zephaniah was most likely focusing on addressing in-equality amongst people because of what they look like. This is most likely because of how he looks himself. Therefore he was probably trying to express what it felt like to be different from other people, and to be avoided and shunted aside by society because he was foreign looking. Wanting people to not judge a book by it’s cover, he probably wrote those poems to change how they treat others, and to try and stop this happening by raising awareness about discrimination. My favorite of the two poems is Homeward Bound, because I personally find it quite touching. This is because at the beginning of the poem, the old man used to dislike living in Jamaica, but in the end of the poem , the old man finally realizes what he used to have, and begins to regret his decision of moving to the UK. Finally, also, in the last stanza, it is said that the old man shall never return home, and shall die in Kensal Rise, and that he knows it, and the readers knows it, but don’t tells him. This ends the poem in a moving way for me.
I hope I didn't bore you to death. 
So yeah, can you tell me if its good or not? And if not, how I could improve it.
Thanks,
Bella
xxx
I like your analysis. If it were me, I would have a new paragraph at the end to summarise what you feel about his work. eg "Overall, his work has too much emphasis on his black Caribbean background, I believe that he is an excellent writer but he needs to broaden the scope. There must be subjects he can cover which offer all of us insight" whatever you think. The black issues have all been covered years ago by people like Eldridge Cleaver.
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