Chairil Anwar - Themes

Themes

Teeuw notes that it is difficult, if not impossible, to identify a single theme which unites all of Anwar's work, as his poems reflect his state of mind at the time of writing. Teeuw writes that the only feature common to all of Anwar's work is an intensity and joie de vivre that reflects Anwar's radicalism, which permeated all aspects of his life. Individual poems, though at times full of excitement, generally reflect a fear of death or depression, to the point that it is impossible to identify "the true Chairil ".

Aside from that, Anwar's works are multi-interpretable, with every reader able to take what they want from his poems; Teeuw notes that the Japanese overlords read "Diponegoro" as a challenge to white colonialists, Indonesia's Christians read "Doa" ("Prayer") and "Isa" ("Jesus") as proof that Anwar had a positive view of Christianity, and Indonesia's Muslims read "Dimesjid" ("At the Mosque") as proof that Anwar "met with Allah in a mosque and fought with Him".

Teeuw also notes that Anwar's early works heavily show the influence of Hendrik Marsman, while other works harken back to Rainer Maria Rilke, J. Slauerhoff, and Xu Zhimo. Muhammad Balfas notes that Anwar was an "intellectual poet", with his works being "detached".