Reading both of this poem caused so much destruction in my heart. They are two very opposite poems and, yet life is in between both. The poem Hanging Fire has an affectionate sensation of a young teen feeling isolated and different. Than in the poem From the Diary of an Almost-Four-Year-Old there is a young girl who looks up to the future and to the future of a younger child. Both poems have their own ways to explain things. Both of these poems have repetitions in their piece of literature that contribute to the entire thesis.
In the poem Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde, we see the repeated phrase “…and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed.” Just by this phrase we can see that there is a child still searching for his momma and his mommas help and yet, she is behind doors leaving him on his own. In this poem we see that there is a depressant expression towards life. This young man is thinking of what would happen if he was dead. This poem also expresses a sense of a kid looking for momma. He explains all the things he still has to learn and there is no one there to guide him, there is a door separating his childhood from adulthood which he cannot understand. He expresses himself in a way that makes me understand that he might as well be dead since no one will actually be hurt by this. This fourteen year old kid has no believe that he will lived through long enough to grow up and yet he still repeats, “…and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed.”
In the second poem From the Diary of an Almost-Four-Year-Old by Hanan Mikha’il ‘Ashrawi, we see a better perspective of life with fear towards one thing. The repeated phrase toward the soldier with the big gun makes us understand that this four year old has fear to the soldiers out there. She has gotten an eye blown out and yet, this young girl still looks forward to the future and what she will do in the future and she tries to figure out how she will be able to see with only one eye. This young girl talks about life in a positive way and something she looks forward to. As for death, the young girl does not express any kinds of attitudes towards dying or leaving the world. She rather views life through the lighted route where she follows. One very interesting detail about this young four year old is when she points out about the nine month old that has lost an eye also. She considers the fear that the same soldier shot both of them and she says, “…but she’s just a ay who didn’t know any better.” This small phrase makes a very huge impression on the type of person this young girl is. She feels bad that she has lost an eye, and yet she still says that she has lived through four years already and this baby is just beginning to see. I think this young girl will grow up to have a generous soul to other humans of the world.
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Well, I wrote on the same topic and I definitely didn’t see what you did in the poem “Hanging Fire”. My first reaction after reading it was how petty the teenager sounded, but you’re comment that she is feeling isolated, as illustrated by the repeated phrase “and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed”, helped clear things up a bit. I didn’t understand why she was so afraid of death, but I understand now that she fears she won’t be missed even if she was to die so soon. And as far as the “petty” things she was worried about, like braces and learning to dance, I see that she is so concerned with them because she has no guidance from her mother and she fears that she will not be able to fulfill these mundane things in the correct manner. For the second poem, I again didn’t have the same perspective. I thought that by her ending statement of already seeing enough of life that she meant the child didn’t deserve the same blow because she has not yet experienced life. I’m not saying the child wants to die, but from what I read I don’t think she really cares if it happens to her or not in the near future. You gave a very interesting view on both of the poems, and it helped me understand them a little better. First impressions aren’t always right, and your blog helped me realize that.
ReplyDeleteI had the same idea as you when reading “Hanging Fire”, I felt as if this kid was searching for some sort of attention and guidance and she was not receiving it from her mother. I felt for this kid she was going through all kinds of changes she mentions her face has became her enemy because she now haves acne, as an adolescent your body goes through so many changes you need someone there to help you understand what’s going on. In my blog I mentioned well maybe this kid is being a bit dramatic but really what do I know? This could have been this child’s cry for help. The young girl portrayed in “The Diary Of…” became my hero after reading the poem, as adults we think about all the things we have to get done the things we need to do we need to rush here there and everywhere. But all this girl was worried about is how the world was going to look different; she wasn’t even worried that she was getting a glass eye she was just happy she had an eye. This is why she is my hero, she did not let the fact that she did not have an eye bring her down.
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