Audre Lorde’s poem “Hanging Fire” focuses on many issues that show up in a teenager’s life. Contemplating death, problems with a sexist society, and the fear of isolation in her home. She is a fourteen-year-old black girl, thinking the world is against her in a lot of ways. She thinks her life is dull and boring. In the beginning of the poem, she just sounds like a whinny little girl, but as you get further into the poem the girl is actually looking for some attention.
Audre Lorde’s “Hanging Fire,” is about a teenager with a longing for adult guidance. Lorde’s tone is kind of like a young woman who is frustrated by her aloneness and need for support. The titles gives a clue, calling it hanging fire; she is stuck and has no clue what to do about her problems. She is full of anxiety and this shows dominantly in this poem. This teenager is full of insecurities, like most teenage girls. All she want is for people to think she is good and care about her, even if it was something bad. Because she keeps mentioning about her death and how people would react. The girl just wants somebody’s attention
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This is the only time in the poem that this happens in the middle of a stanza, suggesting that the sentence is of some importance, and the sentence proves to have large implications. On the surface, it is just a statement that the speaker has nothing she wants to do while at the same time she has too much she has to do. It could be a common teenager's complaint about having to do unwanted chores while at the same time feeling bored and aimless, but it seems a moment when the poem is emphasizing a more widespread human condition, about restlessness and dissatisfaction with one's goals combined with a sense of being overwhelmed by responsibilities. The second stanza then ends with the repetition of the speaker's mother being in the bedroom behind a closed