Blog 4, Week 8: Question 4 and 5

4. The title of “Commitments” is interesting in the context that this poem is written by a gay man. Although I can only surmise here, it seems to me that because he is also a black gay man, there may be more social backlash in a community of black minorities. This author, Essex Hemphill, writes poems and other stories of being a gay black man, which conveys to me the taboo nature and ridicule he may have been subjected to by family, friends, and people in his community. The title of this poem, “Commitments,” strikes me because it appears that the author may have in mind of writing about relationship commitments as a homosexual man. The implications of this on the other hand could also be the lack of fulfilling other commitments that are traditionally and socially expected of a male. The one section that really stood out to me in this poem would have to be lines 13-18. It mentions here that photographs are taken and children are held by their parents. To me this sounds like the moment when parents raise children with hopes, aspirations, and dreams that one day their children will be happy. For society and many people alike, happiness also entails getting married and having a family. When I read the first few lines here, I imagined how parents are proud of their young children, and desiring to raise them the “right way” where one day such children would find happiness in life and ultimately also in marriage. However the latter portion, lines 16 through 18 of this poem, emphasize a depiction of loneliness as opposed to the former. The former embraces the youth and the hopes and dreams of their future, whereas the latter contrasts the reality of a life that has for the most part already played itself out. Things are already determined for this man and the hopes and dreams of the parents are not expressed, let alone present to reassure life has turned out well for the son. Additionally, the last line expressing, “…aunts expecting to throw rice at me someday.” comes to show some level of expectation and maybe disappointment. There isn’t a true, blatant strong sense of pride for this son if the poem’s tone is read and taken into context. In the end, the son states that he is “…the invisible son” which implies some sort of neglect and/or shame he experiences. From line 18 on, there is a congruity throughout the poem that I expected to see. There are more references to loneliness and being invisible, however there is also an allusion to “serving a duty” as a son and a man, which caught me off guard. After a bit of thought, I somewhat interpret this part of the poem as a way to nonchalantly reference that in photographs, this son appears to put up a veneer of fulfilling the prototypical “masculine role.” In essence, he may be a man that is working a good job, living life well, with a wife and family. The reality is not the same as the picture however, and he knows this. Yet to other unsuspecting viewers, they are unaware of this reality. The picture may show he is expected to fulfill certain roles, or certain commitments, which in reality he does as a son, with “critical emergencies, graduations, [and] the middle of the night.” Yet we as readers understand he does not fulfill one “commitment” that his aunts hope he would, so they can “throw rice at him.” Something that he cannot fulfill, something that may be socially taboo in a black community or any community, makes him an “invisible son.” This poem throughout meets my expectations in that it builds on what is previously stated. More allusions and examples are provided with each statement. It helps me as a reader because I can look at these holistically to see the overall point of the poem.

5. “The Glass Menagerie” seems to in some ways represent something that can be easily shattered. Something fragile, inanimate, and posing as fake or unreal comes to mind in my personal interpretation of this title. The author, Thomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams seems to have written stories pertaining to the problems people face In life. Things such as depression, and incest were prevalent themes in many of his stories, and this seems to be attributable to his upbringing in some ways. The book states he grew up lonely and fought depression most of his life. He had an alcoholic father and this story is revealed to be about his life. The main character, or one of the main characters is named Tom as well, and this reveals the reflective nature of the story. “The Glass Menagerie” revolves around three characters, the mother Amanda, the daughter Laura, and Tom, who is the son. The story has characters who reveal elements of deception, selfishness, internal familial conflict, which in ways all allude or vaguely shadow the real life experiences of Tennessee Williams. In scene seven references are made to the different glass figurines that Laura owns. Laura tells Jim to “…be careful- if you breathe, it breaks. [And]… to see how the light shines through [the glass figurine]….” This fragility of the figurine may also represent the fragility of the people in this play. Laura in particular lacks much confidence and deals with a case of pleurosis while also having many problems with her mother, Tom also has problems and tells his mother that he is going to the movies, lies about paying bills, while the mother struggles with her selfish nature and the fact that life hasn’t turned out the way she hoped. This family is in essence a set of glass menageries of their own. However under certain conditions, “a light shines through” as Laura shows Jim that can she thrive when she is in comfortable situations. The tone of this portion of the poem also seems to connect back to the author, who had ghosts and skeletons to face in his closet. Although the problems may be different in nature, the fact is everyone still has them. People can all be glass figurines in some respects, fragile and easily breakable. In the same scene a unicorn’s horn is broken and Laura states, “Horn! It doesn’t matter… [smiling] I’ll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less—freakish!” This goes hand in hand with the previous text in that the glass figurine’s fragility is still relevant and also represents Laura specifically. She once felt like an outcast of sorts, but after Jim “broke/molded” the figurine, she feels like he has done the same to her. The glass figurine represents the characters in this story fairly well, however at the end when Jim claims he has another girl. The glass figurines come to represent a broken hope or promise, where the beauty changes with context of the type of “light” that shines on it. The play enables a reader to see that something fragile and broken has different meanings under different lights. Being broken isn’t entirely negative or positive in and of itself; being broken is only negative or positive in context of situation or “…the[type of] light [that] shines through…”