i'm obsessed with structure...

I think that Soldier: A Poet’s Childhood is a story about a young girl losing her innocence and gaining an understanding of the world and its pleasures, restrictions, and terrors as she grows up.

One of the first things that caught my attention about Soldier was its structure. June Jordan tells us her story in quick little flashes of scene that range anywhere from a few pages to a single sentence, like on page 23 when the entire moment we get is:

“I never wanted and I never got a Shirley Temple doll.”

I think that this structure works really well for a memoir, since the short little scenes very much mimic the way that memory works in real life. I’m very drawn to this type of structure in prose, somehow it makes it easier for me to get into and stay with the story. Jordan also played with structure on page 23 when she writes:

“Why did the Ugly Duckling lose its mother?
How could a duck turn into a swan?
Why would that be a happy ending for a duck?
The Ugly Duckling was depicted as a black baby duck.
The swan was white.
How did the black baby duck turn white?
Why was that a happy ending?”

I think this type of structure does two things. One: it makes the actual physical words on the page visually interesting. And, more importantly, two: by putting each sentence on its own line, it emphasizes the importance of those thoughts to Jordan. I think in this instance, it also captures the voice of a child well: in the sense that there are constant questions as they explore their world; short, precise sentences; and often deep, complicated questions that a child innocently asks. Jordan repeats this type of structure throughout the novel in crucial moments of her story where she really wants to drive the point home. We as readers notice the moments – the structure forces you to pay attention and to really contemplate what she is telling us. Just another example of this is on page 42:

“The point was to stay on alert.
The point was not to be beaten.”

In Part Three: Deep Sea Fishing and The Beach, Jordan introduces yet another different type of structure – she weaves the two different stories together, alternating back and forth between them. The juxtaposition between the more upbeat storyline of the trip to the beach, and the darker, more taxing story of the fishing trip really played up the two aspects of June Jordan’s life – the more childish, fun side, and the more serious, terrifying one of living with her overbearing father. The fishing trip represents everything her father is to her, while the beach trip signified her mother, even when it means rescuing June from her father.

Another important structural choice worth noting (and then I think I’ll be done geeking about the structure!) is the use of poetry throughout the memoir. One example of this is on page 74:

“Daddy at the table reading
all about the Fiji Islanders or childhood
in Brazil
his favorite National Geographic research
into life beyod our
neighborhood
my mother looking into
the refrigerator.”

I don’t really know very much about poetry and its structures, and I also am not really sure why Jordan made the decision to use poetry (and this specific structure of it) rather than prose at these moments in her memoir, and that intrigues me. All I can say is that it really makes the moments where it’s used stand out.
I also find myself being incredibly intrigued by the father character. I think he’s a really rich and complex character. On one side he is wild and abusive and unpredictable, and on the other he is always trying to better himself by being well-read (after teaching himself to read), moving his family into a better neighborhood, pushing June into camp and good schools and trying to get her involved in things that will also better her. I really appreciate how he has these redeeming qualities. Although I dislike him as a person, I feel as though I can understand why he makes some of the decisions that he does. I think the dialect her father uses is also worth noting, as it adds another layer to his complexity and really shows his connection with his roots. This connection through his language and accent he cannot deny or change, as hard as he is trying to in other ways. He’s also a really sad character that I feel sorry for at some moments – like how he seems to be in denial about his daughter being a DAUGHTER and also how he seems so ashamed of being black. Or if ashamed is maybe the wrong word, then perhaps striving to have the advantages that he believes white people have. On page 153-154, this is even addressed:

“…Why you must love white people so?”
“Me! Love the white people?
I love what the white people have!...”


I think that really speaks for Jordan’s writing – that she can write a character (especially one whom she intimately knows in her real life), and let us see him in many different lights and feel different emotions towards him, as I’m sure she herself must have.


Another way we really see all sides of the characters in this family, is by seeing the way they act around other characters such as Teddy and his family. I like that Teddy stands up for June and is a positive energy around the household (with his singing and playing blues piano and bringing friends over), but am mystified by the relationship he has with his own daughter.

I think by the end of the memoir Jordan has gained an understanding of her world and all of the dangers and joys it posses.


-kris