Blu's Hanging

I’ll be honest, I almost didn’t make it through all of Blu’s Hanging. The casual way that sexual abuse goes unnoticed and the heart wrenching plight of all the children in this story almost made me toss the book and take a shower. I know it is a realistic picture of what children in an impoverished settings do experience, but some of the details made me feel physically ill.

My heart broke for Ivah-she is in charge of the family at the age of 13 with no one to really explain to her how one really takes care of a family or herself for that matter. She has to watch her father’s mental stability waver, her brothers perversion bloom in his search for companionship and the love he lost when his mother died, and Massie’s future unfold as she is destined to follow in Ivah’s worn footsteps. Massie’s future is sealed, she is bound to repeat the cycle and see what Ivah has seen and hurt like Ivah has been hurt. I think the author is trying to give an illusion to this with the imagery brought about with the hand me down clothes. Ivah puts on her mother’s sweater while Massie slides into one of Ivah’s hand me downs. The cycle of sadness continues on through the passing down of these articles of clothing.

The use of poetry within the novel is intriguing. Poetry seems to be one of those universally binding elements that no language barrier can interfere with. When someone is speaking in poetry they are speaking to a mass audience that can be touched simply by the cadence and the meter of what is being said. I think the language barrier that kept the children from being as clearly understood by the school authorities and those around them is a connection to the theme going on within this course of being a misunderstood minority trying to survive amongst a majority class with its own recognized language regarded as being superior. I had a hard time understanding what some of the characters dialogue meant and had to go back and read some of the passages over a few times, but when the thoughts and emotions of the characters came out in poetry it seemed to crystallize what they were trying to say-not just in one passage, but throughout the entire story.