Reading Soldier in the overcast Richmond weather changed my usual focus on structure towards the questions of silence and alertness. Yes, June Jordan often uses short and stilted phrases to pace the reader. She draws them into these sharp phrases and immediately cuts you off. So that you do not feel comfortable. So that you have to move on, quickly. When she says that the point is to be 'x', so means it. We are called to attention this way. But the more I read-and this is perhaps because of the terrible weather and my quiet neighborhood-the more I noticed that often, to be alert was to be silent. So much of what Jordan does as a child is to ask questions in her mind: she wonders without asking; she watches her mother and grandmother laugh without her; she does not scream when she is afraid.
There were two moments of vocalization that struck me in this memoir. The first was the scene in which Jordan is in church, singing her prayers. This is a moment of joy. This is also a moment when those in charge are accessible. In remembering the prayers, she tells us that "I felt safe." Jordan is praying out loud and is singing with her congregation and she feels safe. She is relaxed. And because she does not have to be on alter, she is free to use her voice. The second moment is completely different and much more terrifying. The moment is when her father moves to beat her mother, and Jordan lunges at him to protect her. She is screaming at him and trying to block his blows. She learns that noise-screaming, arguing...is unsafe. Silence is safe. This seems like a simple formula but it bleeds into all language. No one in this novel thus far can speak without terrible consequences. They all have secret conversations and have their words weaponized. They learn to hold their tongues and to mumble. To be alter is to be protected. This meant that Jordan had to keep her mouth shut. The only sound that could break the fear and the need for constant vigilance was laughter, and Jordan makes it a point to note when that actually occurs and when it is craved. Laughter is a precious commodity in this memoir. In a home where "you never took your eyes off your opponent" Jordan was an outsider. She "sat at the table watching them laugh about secret things and never stopping to rest, and if I ever tried to help they'd laugh some more and tell me, 'put your nose back in a book!'" So she never got to try
Welcome to the Blog for Craft of Creative Non-Fiction at Mills, English 226, Fall 2011. Here is where you write your reader responses for the books we are reading this semester. These responses examine the scaffolding of the book in regards to presence and identity of the narrator. Don't forget to respond to your colleagues' blogs as well.
So interesting that a girl who grows up learning that there is safety in silence end up becoming a poet...the vocation of the WORD. Although we sit and read in silence, the words scream, shout, mumble, whisper, laugh off the page but are never silent.
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting and what Shay said is essential to the way this books communicates the way language is a violence as much as it is power. how silence is a refuge as much as it is a release. I particularly held onto this comment from you: "They all have secret conversations and have their words weaponized."
ReplyDeleteThis is true of the culture of parents and of children. e
Silence was Jordan's protection, and actions became her words. When her father threw open her bedroom doors to beat her, she didn't scream out, she simply stowed a knife under her pillow. Also, when Oliver picked a fight with her she didn't try to talk him out of it, she simply went for his heart. In her world where words instigated violence Jordan learned to speak with her actions.
ReplyDelete