13th Floor Window Poem

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Joy Harjo’s “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window”, references a broken woman who is deciding between life and death. The thirteenth floor in this poem is critical because the number 13 is viewed as an unlucky number and here you have an Indian woman who is poor and is dangling on the unluckiest floor of them. In fact, many buildings across this world do not have 13th floors and skip from 12 to 14. It is possible that the woman is mentally ill “The woman hanging from the 13th floor hears voices” (141). The woman hears one side telling her to jump and the other voice wants to help her save her life. The woman hanging from the 13th window displays a lot of emotion with readers as it is implied she is poor, faces racial discrimination,