In the poem ?The Rose That Grew from Concrete? by Tupac Shakur, the poem represents the ways that someone can become something great coming from a place that?s not recognized as great. In this poem he uses a rose, something that?s recognized as beautiful, even with its imperfections. Roses are a symbol of beauty and love, but it?s also taken with caution because of its thorns. The rose correlates with people, and how beautiful people are and how even in our imperfections we can be loved. Being that the rose grew from concrete something hard and that has no nourishment, manmade cement, and not really appreciated, a thing that people walk all over and don?t really take care to appreciate that it?s there. The concrete represents the ghetto, or any place that?s looked at as a place that has nothing good to come out of it.
This poem represented Tupac?s life in the way that he came from a place that meant nothing to society and a place that no one really cares about, a place that seems to just recreate a mess and not really give love and nourishment to the people that come from it. Tupac is the rose coming from this place, when a rose needs nourishment and care to grow and he as a person needs the same thing was able to come from such a horrible place and actually make a good life out of it. When the place that he comes from has given him nothing in life but a hard upbringing, the fact that he can still prosper and be beautiful even with his imperfections. He is one of the lucky ones that was able to come from such a hard place and still grow as a person and not become a product of his environment.
Even in Tupac?s life people always doubted him and put him off as just a thug with nothing to really offer the world. They called him a thug because of where he came from and the media felt that he was unable to be a role model for kids. But in the poem when he says ?Proving nature?s laws wrong it learned to walk without having feet? this just validates the fact that even though society has guidelines for what greatness looks like and comes from, you can always prove it wrong by just simply learning to get through the hard times and getting past the hardships of where you come from. You can become everything that they said you wouldn?t, just never quit trying.
?Funny it seems but by keeping its dreams it learned 2 breathe fresh air? In this particular part of the poem he emphasizes that you have to follow your dreams in everything that you do. Tupac was big on following your dreams, he believed that no one could ever take away your dreams. One of my favorite quotes by him is when he says ?reality is wrong, dreams are for real? And in this poem he really expresses that by saying this rose learned to live in this world by just never losing sight of its dreams. By following his dreams, he learned to live and he inspired many other to do the same thing.
Even though Tupac wasn?t perfect he was beautiful and through this poem he wanted people to not look at the flaws that he had but the fact that he?s beautiful and perfect in his own ways because he defeats the expectations of society, because he was able to become something amazing and was able to grow into a successful, loving, and inspirational black man coming from the ghetto a place that had no love and support and was hard to grow in. A place that a lot of people can?t seem to break out of, he was able to make a great life out the hard life he was given by simple following his dreams. So he wants everyone to appreciate that instead of the fact that he has flaws, but find the beauty in him as a rose.
