Where (say it)<\/p>\n
Where (louder)<\/p>\n
Where<\/p>\n
Are we going? — Jasper, 1998<\/p>\n
The repetitions of three \u201cWhere\u201d here are definitely noticeable. Even without putting them in the context, they by themselves express a strong feeling of uncertainty and anxiety from one who keeps going but doesn\u2019t know the destination. The question \u201cWhere are we going\u201d itself implies passivity: the one who lead the way couldn\u2019t ask this question. It must be someone that passively follows the group that asks this kind of question. The words in the parentheses are also revealing. \u201c(say it)\u201d here gives me a feeling that the author maybe once fails to speak out this question in the real life, and it is a question that is hard to ask. Accordingly, \u201c(louder)\u201d shows that even if someone is brave enough to speak out, their voices are still not loud enough to be heard. \u201c(louder)\u201d here, contradicting the word \u201cquiet\u201d that shows up repeatedly in previous lines, shows the author\u2019s strong will that doesn\u2019t want to keep silent and be represented.<\/p>\n
When I consider these words in their context, they are the emotional apex of the section, even of the entire poem. In section 2. There are a lot of hints that \u201cI\u201d in the poem is on the road that \u201cI\u201d am not willing to go, that \u201cI\u201d am following others, with a “smile” on face but feel loss inside. Given Jones\u2019s identity as an African American Gay, it reminds me of what Dennis said in the interview as an Asian American gay \u201cthere\u2019s such a societal instinct to try to act white, to act straight, or to act gay\u201d(15). As Gloria Anzaldua said in her letter to 3rd world women writers that \u201cwe cannot allow ourselves to be tokenized. We must make our own writing.\u201d (168), the author also says in this poem that he doesn\u2019t want to just follow the \u201cwhite men\u201d and he wants to speak out his own voice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Where (say it) Where (louder) Where Are we going? — Jasper, 1998 The repetitions of three \u201cWhere\u201d here are definitely noticeable. Even without putting them in the context, they by themselves express a strong feeling of uncertainty and anxiety from one who keeps going but doesn\u2019t know the destination. The question \u201cWhere are we going\u201d … Continue reading (Say it) (louder)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}