Tiaira Walker
Our Social Place
“Let
us strive to improve ourselves, for we cannot remain stationary; one either
progresses or retrogrades.” A quote by Madame Du Deffand explains that change
is inevitable; it can be for the better or for the worst. Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, in addition to three other literary
works, demonstrates a spectrum of people finding their place socially. “The
Mending Wall” by Robert Frost, “Slam, Dunk, and Hook” by Yusef Komunyakaa, “Common
Ground” by Judith Cofer, and “The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice
in Jesuit Higher Education” by Kolvenbach recognizes that we must break down
social barriers, believe in ourselves while facing adversity, the fact that we
will always have a genealogical connection to our past, and that we are
responsible for the future.
You
will never get to know a person until you break down barriers or “walls.” In “The
Mending Wall,” Frost does a good job at showing the reader, in entirety, how
much harder it is to have barriers between yourself and others. A harsh tone is
created throughout the poem with the frequent use of the word stones. Keeping
the walls up between the neighbor and the narrator proves to be tedious, for
they have to rebuild it every “spring-mending time” (line11). In line 20, the
narrator articulates to us that they “wear our fingers rough with handling
them. The boundaries that people subject themselves to socially hinder any
potential for a fruitful relationship, for both parties. This is obviously not
the case, symbolically, for the neighbor yet, whose enclosed trees bear pines.
The narrator illustrates a yearning for a relationship. We see this through the
author’s use of light ambiguous humor in the narrator’s attempts to make
conversation (line 25-26). The universal social issue is presented when the
neighbor says “Good fences make good neighbors” (line 27). We protect ourselves
by putting our guards up and sticking to our own values so we never have to
encounter problems.
In Whale Rider, Koro is a spitting image of the neighbor from the poem who
believes that the barriers are for the best. He is cruel to Kahu because she is
a girl; everyone else seems to have the ability to look past that and love her
anyway, but not Koro. His perception on the role of a female in the tribe won’t
allow it, she is “of no use” to him.
We
need to believe in ourselves in order to overcome obstacles. “Slam, Dunk, and
Hook” submerges us in what we thought was a scene of enjoyment and happiness.
The imagery drawn appeals to the reads sense of sight creating an image of
basketball, with “fast breaks and layups,” that we didn’t know we could
understand without actually being there. Komunyakaa even mentions the girls who
“cheered on the sidelines” (line 19). We then arrive to a dark undertone in the
poem when it is revealed that “Sonny boy’s mama died” (line24). The whole
wording of the poem changes, “the backboard splintered” and “trouble was there
slapping a blackjack” (line 26-30). Yet he still plays: he plays to escape the
pain; he plays to regain that joy he once felt. Basketball is an outlet for him
and it successfully allows him to overcome such overpowering emotions.
Kahu,
constantly rejected by the person she loved the most, never gave up. She was
never discouraged to the point of quitting, only to the point of trying harder
which is what we witness with the basketball player in the poem. This only
makes you wonder, what was Kahu’s outlet? Was it the unconditional love she had
for her family and joy she brought to their hearts? It never took Nanny Flowers
or Rawiri much to console her after a scolding from Koro. Yes she wept, as the
player probably did, but she prevailed. We, as a society, can learn a lot from
the confidence and perseverance of an 8-year old, as I can imagine was intended
by Ihimaera.
We
all have connections to our past that are inescapable and long to be accepted. By
this I mean that our genealogy has a lot to do with who we are and who we
become. You can allow it to make you better…or worse. We have a choice. You can
allow a bad past to haunt you or motivate you. In “Common Grounds,” the
narrator inherits not only physical traits of her family members, but personality
traits, her grandmothers “stern lips” and fathers “disdainful brow” (line
10-14). Through figurative language, it is evident that attitudes are adopted
along with these traits. “Blood tells the story of your life” (line 1), but that’s
just it, it “tells,” not rules. I believe it is possible to find common ground
with the past, as well as with others.
Ihimaera
keeps Kahu connected to her genealogy in a very touching way. It is the wishes
of her mother to give her the Maori name. Kahu develops into, what I think is,
the perfect equilibrium of modernity and tradition. Her female gender and love
for Maori culture clash in the eyes of Koro. She represents a new social way of
thinking that must be accepted. Moreover, her destiny reminds the Maori people
that they must remain connected to the land, the sea, and most importantly the
whales.
Kolvenbachs
“Service of Faith through Promotion of Justice” conveys that the motives behind
the service of faith and promotion of justice, together, rest in the fact that
Jesus gave his life for the salvation of all and that there must be an initiative
to meet the needs of all people. In comparison to Whale Rider, Kahu gave her life for the salvation of the Maori
people. This had to be done to preserve their bond with nature. This event and
the return of Kahu definitely was a reality check for the village. It caused a
change in Koro and probably the Maori people in regards to importance of
preserving culture, which we see was a constant struggle for Koro and his
visits to other tribes. We see that there is hope for the future.
These are all themes of choice that we have control
over and can change for the better.
Cite:
Whale
Rider by Witi Ihimaera
The
Mending Wall by Robert Frost
Slam,
Dunk, and Hook by Yusef Komunyataa
Common
Ground by Judith Ortiz
The
Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice by Peter-Hans Kolvenbach
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