Poem Analysis Of 'The Legend' By Garrett Hongo

The Rock Springs Massacre, the Watsonville Riots, the Japanese internment camps, and the countless stereotypes are all parts of the degrading legacy paved for Asians in America. Garrett Hongo, a Japanese-American born in Hawaii in 1951, concludes The River of Heaven with “The Legend.” “The Legend” pays tribute to an Asian-American, Jay Kashiwamura, whose unexpected death from an unknown gunman inspired Hongo to write a poem detailing his death with underlying tones of the disregard of minority deaths in American society. “The Legend” accentuates the conflict between American society and the discrimination of Asian-Americans. This emphatic approach on the exile of Asian-Americans resonates throughout Kashiwamura’s death, which Hongo manipulates

Lines four and five of the first stanza describe an unnamed man carrying “a wrinkled shopping bag / full of neatly folded clothes” (Hongo 4-5). This juxtaposition of wrinkled and folded dissects the the view of Asian-Americans, the wrinkled, disheveled appearance Americans see of Asians and the reality of the folded, composed individuals. Likewise, lines 13 and 14 in the second stanza detail the facts that the unnamed man exists as either Thai or Vietnamese and dresses as one of the poor, lower class individuals (Hongo 13-14). Superficially portraying the man as one of the two ethnicities and meager, the nonchalant disregard given to the man points to the deep-rooted inferiority and inhumanity linked to Asian-Americans. In addition, “The Legend” describes the killing as a bullet entering “the dumbfounded man / who falls forward, / grabbing at his chest” (Hongo 27-29). The man’s dumfounded demeanor and the bullet itself represent something much larger, the aimless discrimination Asian-Americans face often due to their racial background. Additionally, the end of the poem leaves with a sense of camaraderie towards the man as Hongo wishes that the weaver girl crosses heaven’s bridge and take up his cold hand (Hongo 45-46). Seeming as an finale utilized for an allusion to the writer’s culture, the citation of the cultural figure sends a warm

Lines 11 and 12 of the first stanza illustrate the man’s appearance as one with a Rembrandt glow and a last flash of sunset permeating him (Hongo 10-12). The employment of the two details contrast each other in every way, as the Rembrandt glow predicts a happy future while the last flash of sunset foreshadows the man’s inevitable demise, which could be seen as the man’s social and literal demise. Furthermore, The unnamed man’s journey to his car includes the insulting detail of naming the car when he “opens the Fairline’s back door” (Hongo 19). Symbolizing the priorities and pastimes of American society, the inclusion of the Ford Fairlane’s name without the man’s throughout the story centralizes and justifies Hongo’s argument that American society cares more about their own doings than other human beings. Continuing, the man’s death evokes the swarming crowd to gather around him yet hesitate to help or even listen to his last words (Hongo 32-34). This hyperbole of the fact that everything the man says lacks substance to the people stretches to represent the overarching disregard shown to Asians’ pleas for help in America, which Hongo uses to deliberate his larger memorandum without transparency. Moreover, the second-to-last stanza provides the most reflective lines of the