Respondent: Ambrest Kozlek

"Hanging Fire"

Audre G. Lorde

Unsettling America, p. 297

Biographical Info:

The poem’s relation to the course objectives:

2a: To consider "women of color" as "double minorities."

"my skin has betrayed me" and also "the boy I cannot live without"

She is aware that her skin limits her opportunity in White America. The latter quote relays that she is already in an "object" position – she is dependent on a male.

Obj.3: To contrast the dominant culture’s "American Dream" narrative with that of a minority’s alternative narrative.

Instead of being able to participate in the somewhat sweet and successful "American Dream," she is wondering if she will live long enough to even graduate from high school. Also, she says "there is nothing to do." In the dominant "American Dream," there is plenty to do, like making money and working hard for future success.

Obj.4: To register the minority dilemma of assimilation or resistance.

It is obvious that the girl in the poem has not assimilated into a group – the white group, because her "knees are always so ashy" or into a group of friends (any color) due to her comments about needing to learn how to dance and her dislike for her braces.

5a and 5c: The influence of minority speakers and writers to help others hear the minority voice and the regard to literacy as a key to empowerment.

As a warrior-poet, Lorde shows White America a Black adolescent character. Not only does the 14-year-old girl have typical teen feelings and taking part in the synthesis process, but also because she is black there is a double-dose of clash with the white, male dominating standard of America and the supposed "Dream".

This poem transmits the idea of what it is like to be an adolescent searching for identity. For example, "I have nothing to wear tomorrow" and "suppose I die before graduation" only to "tell the truth about me" as she lies dead in her coffin. Lorde hits the general thoughts of teenagers like we see other authors do in such works as Catcher in the Rye and Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret. Holden and Margaret both make analytical comments concerning death while still trying to survive the do’s and don’ts of a teenage pop- culture. Lorde, however, knows that everybody (of any color) knows what adolescence involves. So, she expresses the character of a teen with black skin; this, not everyone knows. Therefore, typical teenage emotions and questions about life are intertwined with the emotions (caused by oppression) that come along with black skin. Lorde also allows her character to be dependent on males at a young age: "the boy I cannot live without". So, if we take Dr. White’s subject-object model, we can see Lorde’s girl falling in the object position – white-black, male-female, society / rules-teenager, and there is also a parent-child issue. Now, as an emotional teen, she can just think that her mother does not care about her which is a very common teenage notion, or is her mother, also black and oppressed by society, limited to better opportunities and is in her bedroom trying to find her own identity.

• Free verse
• The run-on sentences show the emotional elevations and anxieties typically experienced by adolescents. This constant hammering of negative images with no punctuation (which causes pausing or sometimes relaxation from harsh reality for the reader) can be an effect of Lorde’s "warrior spirit" pressing toward her goal for White America seeing the mind of a teenage girl who is black. On the other hand, it shows how teens tend having a thousand things run through their minds at the same time with no clarification for their world.

1. What do you think is Lorde’s prevalent message? Being a teenage girl, being a teenage black girl, or growing up as a black person along with all the other mental and physical developments all people face?
2. Why do you suppose the mother in the poem appears to be uncaring or not affectionate with Lorde being a feminist and all

Basically, the class discussion resulted in various answers and analysis for question 2. David asked if there was any significance to the mother being in the bedroom. For example, why wasn’t she in the kitchen or den or bathroom? Interestingly, Phyllis said that there is not significance. She went on to say that the girl is a teenager, and she could be in her room having a pity-party with thoughts like, "Nobody loves me" or "My mother doesn’t love me or even care". She also pointed out that the mom is in her room because it is probably midnight, and the girl in the poem, like most teens, is staying up in the wee hours of the night contemplating her life. Michelle agreed to some point, stating that the girl is indulging self-pity. One experienced mother in the class said that usually when mothers go into the bedroom it is so that they won’t be bothered. Jupiter said that there is a parallelism. The mother is in her room while the teenage girl is in hers. This causes a connection between the mom and the daughter.

Although we were on an everlasting discussion on "rooms", Jodie brought up a quite interesting idea. She said that the line, "my room is too small for me" is her favorite line. She said that a teen’s room is like a sanctuary, yet also confining, and somewhat a prison. Likewise, while Lorde wrote the poem, she felt confined. Lorde knew that she was bigger than the small role society tried to confine her to.