Summary Of On Earth We Re Briefly Gorgeous

Ocean Vuong’s blend of fiction and memoir, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”, follows a series of letters the narrator, Little Dog, writes to his Vietnamese mother, who cannot read. Letters he never intended for her to read, but rather a collection of everything he wished he were able to share with her. The letters also serve as a reflection of his childhood, as he wrote them in his late twenties. Throughout the novel, we get insight into the hardships of growing up as a second-generation child. More importantly, he explores the intricate relationship between an abusive mother and the effects it has on a child. I found the novel endearing, but also extremely heartbreaking. Vuong’s poetic and elegant writing style made the reading experience

For my quote, I chose, “You once told me that the human eye is God’s loneliest creation. How so much passes through the pupil and still it holds nothing” (12). I wrote the quote to outline an eye to match the main subject of the quote. Eyes hold significance since they represent how the whole novel is, the narrator showing America through his perspective. I purposely made the quote not go through the actual eye and instead leave it blank to add the quality of the eye looking lonesome, “holding [holds] nothing.” The eye expresses this sadness by then forming a tear, which turns into the river. For my core question, I came up with, “How important is language for connection?” I have written fairly noticeable across the page in order for it to catch your eye among everything on the page. Language plays a leading role in the novel, more so the barrier of language. I showed this barrier of language by making it dotted, symbolizing the gap the language barrier creates between Little Dog and his

Lastly, you are probably wondering the meaning of my array of symbols. In the bottom left corner, we have a dog collar. Little Dog reveals to us the many different ways he faces abuse from his mother. The collar is supposed to represent how his mother has control over him and how he’s unable to escape this control. He can try to run, but he can only get so far. It also symbolizes the phoniness of their relationship. That little dog is bound to her, even if that’s not necessarily what he wants. Little Dog desperately wants to escape this cycle of abuse, hence why there’s a feather right by the collar. Feathers can often signify freedom and transcendence. The feather just out of reach of the collar shows how freedom is so close, yet so far. It’s drawn as white and wispy to represent the purity and heavenliness he sees freedom as. Moving over to the other side of the river, lies a cracked mirror. The mirror cracks symbolize his insecurity within himself, causing a warped vision of his identity. The rigidness of the mirror and missing shards also represent the violence in his life since his mom came to America from a