Hanging In The Fire Analysis

The morals of one’s beliefs can change the world. The feeling of change and diversity sets the tone of hope and belief that a better day will come. The 20th Century poets set a shift for writers. Their work about identity became a popular topic; however, the identity to themselves, culture, and beliefs was still in the process, the Black Arts Movement still took a stand. The Black Arts Movement started in 1965, and ended in 1975. The Black Arts Movement was to enhance the minds of African Americans. Awaking the African American mind, made many writers reflect on Black history. The movement also made the writers reflect on the community as a whole. In The Black Arts Movement and African American Young Adult Literature: An Evaluation of Narrative
The first line reveals the narrator’s age. In the second line, the reader gets deeper into the problem: “my skin has betrayed me” (Lorde 2). The girl is African American and is feeling betrayed by her color. She starts to ask questions throughout the rest of the stanza. She questions about her knees, and if she will die in the morning. African American girls have to worry about their skin getting enough moisture, and if they would live a full life. The last line of this stanza shows the support system the girl has, “and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed” (Lorde 10-11). The girl feels alone, and the mother seems to be in the bedroom ignoring her. The bedroom is a sexual place, but also sacred. The reader doesn’t know what happens in the bedroom, or why the mother is not supporting her daughter. This could be a generational issue with African American women, when the mother can’t answer the child’s questions, she ignores the child. There is a possibility the mother is going through her own issues of different depressions, and doesn’t even think of addressing the girl’s questions because the mother figures she will grow out of this stage in her life. As the reader enters the next stage in the poem, the girl shares her fears. The girl needs to learn a new dance, she feels as if her room is too small for her, and she questions if she will die before graduation. By the
In The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry Vol.2, Yemanja means “mother of the other Orisha, Yemanja is also the Goddess of oceans. Rivers are said to flow from her breast… Those who please her are blessed with many children” (Ramazani, Ellmann, O’Clair 618). In the first stanza, the reader is introduced to an unfair mother from the narrator’s perspective. Explaining the mother having two faces, helps the reader see that the mother also has two daughters. One of the mother’s faces is white, while the other face is black. The “perfect daughter” which is not the narrator gets the most attention from the mother. The narrator goes on to express how she needs her mother’s blackness to help her get through this life. In this poem the feeling of being left out is taken to a different level of cruel. The mother is supposed to be the nurturing caregiver to her children. In this poem, the mother is seen as playing favorites with the white daughter. From the reader’s perspective, the narrator’s mother has two daughters and one being lighter skin than the other one. The narrator, seen as the child with little attention, needs her mother’ blackness, which means the mother’s approval of her. She compares her relationship to day and night, which the two never meet and day and night cannot become one. This poem is reflecting a deeper purpose in the perspective of