Commentary #5 - Grade: A PDF

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This essay was written for Sr. Hotz's Native American Literature course....

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Professor Hotz ENGL 230-03 18 November 2019 Apples & Oranges & Raisins In her book When my Brother was an Aztec ( 2012), Natalie Diaz reveals the harrowing story of her brother’s meth addiction and its impact upon her family. Her poems relay the struggles of the Native American reservation, including the racism and starvation they are met by, in order to generate sympathy for her brother’s situation. In part three, she moves away from her brother’s issue to a broader assessment of the nation. During part one, Diaz focuses on the food issues that the Native American community struggles with. Not only is there a lack of any food but there is also a lack of healthy food, resulting in disease. Diaz discusses several characters who have lost their legs to diabetes. Often, those living on reservations are too poor to afford fresh produce and must resort to cheaper, unhealthier options. The poem “Why I Hate Raisins” exemplifies this crisis; a young girl is so hungry that she eats handfuls of raisins, making herself sick. She complains that she “[wants] a sandwich like other kids” (9). Later, she realizes her selfishness. She now hates raisins because she now understands that her “mom was hungry that day too, and [she] ate all the raisins” (10). Her hatred of raisins illuminates the hunger crisis on the reservations, illuminating the desperation of the community. In addition to hunger, part one also discusses the racism of Native Americans. “Hand-Me-Down Halloween” unveils racism towards Native Americans through the perspective of a young girl. When she wears the borrowed costume for Halloween off of the reservation, she is labeled as a “fake Indian” and as a “half-breed” (6). From a young age, degrading comments such as these are directed at Native Americans and cause lasting mental damage to their self-respect. Eventually, she violently tackles one of the boys, lashing out in response to these awful comments. The struggles emphasized in part one generate sympathy for the brother addicted to meth. By creating a full picture of life on the reservation, these problems allow the reader to understand how so many Native Americans suffer from these government frameworks, unable to find their way, succumbing to drugs. Part two focuses on this addiction and the pain caused by it to his family. He destroys their home, making it into a drug den and distorting his family’s care for him. The hunger discussed in part one intensifies, transforming the brother into a monster. The meth has “sucked the beauty from his face. He is a Cheshire cat, a gang of grins” (49). The meth-induced starvation has not only transformed his physical appearance, but it has also been the catalyst for a change in his actions. He now is arrested frequently and he creates a toxic atmosphere in their home. Dismantled and destroyed, the house mirrors this change as it loses light bulbs and becomes a funeral pyre. In this way, the emptiness of their once vibrant home mirrors the shell he has become, completely devoid of emotion and love. Part three moves from the hunger, racism, and addiction in parts one and two, towards the mourning of lost love and the destruction of war. This movement is unexpected; the transition is immediate as her poems move away from the specific struggle of her brother amongst other Native Americans towards these problems. Violence is continuous throughout part three, even the eating of fruit becomes a violent act. A woman “twists the stem, pulls it like the pin of a grenade” and she “lifts the sticker from the skin” leaving the apple bare” (73). She bites into an

apple, “cleaving away a red wing” and “[destroying] an apple, to make the apple bone” (74). The simple act of eating fruit is described violently; the tearing of its sticker and devourment of its flesh invokes the violence described later part three. This subtle violence is followed by Diaz describing the “buzz of burning ozone molecules,” the “debris-dazzled desert,” and the “carnival of bodies” in a war-torn country(75). These harrowing images seem to warn of the danger ahead. Simultaneously, Diaz juxtaposes this violence with love. She describes the intimacy of lovers alongside the destructive nature of war. This violence seems to take the place of the brother in part two as it tears apart relationships and prevents the happiness of the community in the same way that the brother had. While there are now fresh fruits, unlike in part one which was marked by the absence of fresh produce, they are damaged and used to further describe this violence. Nature seems to be the backdrop of human destruction taking place. It may seem unclear that the startling movement from parts one and two to parts three has any significance. The switch seen from part two to part three seems to nearly detract from the storyline completely. However, while she focuses on relaying the hardships that the Native American community endures, explaining her brother’s addiction in parts one and two, her movement to war and surveillance seems to build off of these topics. The war becomes the antagonistic character, eventually claiming him as a soldier. It devours him in the same way that he had once devoured his parents’ hearts. In this way, the war has taken the place of the brother as the monster in the story; it tears families and lovers apart, wreaking havoc and destruction....