Author: Honeysuckle_Hearts

Wearing Trust and Acceptance

Four pieces of jewelry. Two bracelets and two rings tell the story of three generations of fiercely string women. First, a pink diamond ring, set to look like three heart, and the second with a birthstone setting. Third, a secret message in the form of a bracelet and finally a shared symbol connecting us all. The first ring was given to me by my mother on my 10th birthday, the second by my grandmother on my 13th birthday. The bracelets were given to me by my mother for my high school graduation and 18th birthday respectively. These pieces don’t only serve as a symbol of our time together but also as a symbol of trust and love.

These relate to the our class as they were given to me by those who raised me much like how Hao in The Legand of Auntie Po passes on traditions and his love of cooking to Mei. Additionally, at the end of the book Hao wants Mei to have all that she wants in life and accepts that in order for her to do that she will have to stop working in the kitchen in order to focus on school. Similarly, my mother and grandmother want the best for me and my life. Further, their acceptance and support for what I want to do with my life continues to motivate me. Finally, their acceptance of who I am, what I want to do, and where I want to go, as reinforced by the jewelry, lets me know that I can and will always be able to talk to them about anything

A Mirror Works Two ways

Throughout Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, unexpected characters mirror each other in unique ways. This is first demonstrated in Act I Scene 7 where Prior and Harper “meet” in a mutual dream/hallucination. In this scene, it becomes clear that Prior, a gay ex-drag queen dying of AIDS and Harper, a Mormon Valium addict are more similar than previously thought. Both individuals are shunned by their perspective groups and are thus outsiders. Furthermore, the loneliness and isolation each faces in regards to their relationships, Prior being abandoned by Louis and Harper being agoraphobic and often being left alone by Joe. This scene highlights how the two of them although isolated and alone could find comfort together and learn something about themselves as demonstrated by “the threshold of revelation” that each experience.

Furthermore, Kushner demonstrates the similarities between Louis and Roy later in the play, mostly highlighted by their shared viewpoints of American society and democracy. This fact is especially demonstrated when Roy talks about his views and rolls in American democracy and Louis’s tirade about America.

Kushner uses these parallels not only to emphasize characters hardships and viewpoints but also to make the reader understand character’s values in a new way. For Harper and Prior I never saw the connection between the two characters struggles until they “meet” in Act I Scene 7. As for Louis and Roy their similarities in their viewpoints although Louis does not necessarily view himself as a republican, his tirade on race, democracy, and the lack of angels in America (Kushner, Act II Scene 2) is followed by Roy’s admission of his role in Ethel Rosenberg’s death in Act III Scene 5. These scenes emphasize what each character values thus making the reader understand the characters better while also drawing attention to how the each character is in a way a mirror of another, showing both the audience and the characters the good and bad of themselves.

A Separation from identities

In Loving in the War Years, Moraga alternates between using prose and poems to tell her story of growing up Chicano and a lesbian. Her alternating between these two forms of writing expresses her acceptance or lack thereof of these identities as well as her comfort expressing herself. This is demonstrated by her using poems to describe her lesbian relationships delving into her emotional connection to women, while using prose to describe her slightly strained relationship between her culture and family.

When she writes about her family and growing up Chicano, she writes in essay form. Very rarely talking about herself in these essays, often talking about her parents, grandmother, or sister, this lack of personal narrative reads as her distancing herself from this part of her identity. Therefore, raising the suspicion that she may not feel as connected to this part of her identity. The perceived disconnect relates to Clare’s narrative in Exile and Pride by explaining how some exiles are self-imposed and not actually due to the person’s sexual identity.

Meanwhile, Moraga writes about her experiences with women and her identity as a lesbian in poem form. The stark contrast between writing about others to actually writing about herself and her emotions about her lesbian experiences reads like a window into her heart and soul. Simultaneously, her poem format of writing about these experiences creates a sense of belonging to this part of her identity. Her poems display the raw emotion that comes with accepting a part of your identity that often times is discarded when suppressing a part of yourself. I believe that Moraga’s use of prose and poems to describe her various identities is used to highlight both how at odds the two identities are with each other and the comfort and connectivity she feels towards each side of herself. However, at its core her disparities between how she writes these two parts of herself is a commentary on her own intersectionality.

“God’s” Will

Something interesting I found was that Boy in a Whalebone Corset started and ended with mentions of locusts. At the start of the poem the grass is compared to a “sleeping swarm of locust” and at the end of the poem the night is said to be “made of locusts.” This repeated phrasing of “swarms of locusts” is reminiscent of the ten plagues in the Bible. In Exodus, the Egyptians are subjected to ten plagues until Pharaoh agrees to set the Israelites free. The plague of locusts specifically, is the eighth plague followed by the plague of darkness and the death of a first born. Parallels can be drawn between the father and Pharaoh in this poem, similar to how Pharaoh wouldn’t let the Israelites be free, the father refuses to allow the boy to be free to be himself and wear what he wants.  

I find it interesting that locusts specifically were chosen as a descriptor as they are known for destruction. Which mirrors that of the destruction the boy’s clothes are facing in the hands of his father. Continuing with the plague theme, the final plague was the death of a first born. While the boy didn’t physically die in this poem. One can argue that his soul did when his father burned his clothes thus essentially killing off his identity.  

I think the meaning behind the implication of religion in this poem is perhaps the reasoning behind the father’s discontent and disapproval of his son’s clothes. Which is further emphasized by the irony of the father burning the son’s clothes, and their smoke “being mistaken for Old Testament God.” Ending the poem on this note drives home the assumption of religion being the guiding factor of why these clothes are unacceptable and why wearing such items needs to be punished.