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The Poem 'Heritage' By Linda Hogan

672 Words3 Pages

America has always possessed a rich tradition of racism and inequality. The "land of the free" was really built on killing and racial dominance. In Linda Hogan's poem, "Heritage," the speaker addresses her Caucasian and native American traits acquired from each family member. Readers of the poem might disagree about the influence of the relatives on the speaker, but a closer analysis helps us realize that the speaker's traits resemble her ancestor's past. The author uses descriptive imagery and connections to the past to explain how the speaker came about. We can assume through background research and supporting evidence that the speaker is part Chickasaw Indian. As a Chickasaw herself, Linda Hogan is well-known for writing about her native …show more content…

At first, she uses joyful, welcoming ideas such as "baking bread" and "warm fine hairs" to describe her mother. However, as the poem progresses and she gets to her grandparents, she switches to a more serious tone by using dark words such as "kill" and "black." The reader of the poem develops the idea that the speaker's grandmother plays an important role in the poem from the long stanza and word choice. The speaker uses the word "brown" multiple times to remind the reader of the grandmother’s heritage. The speaker feels humiliation in the presence of her full-blood Chickasaw grandparents, her "whiteness a shame." One also gets the idea that the grandmother is a darker, straight-forward woman based on her actions. An example that stands out is her "spitting into her father's mouth" when he was an infant. This supports the racial divide between the two heritages following the bitter past. The speaker's grandmother tells her about the rough lives of their people and how they never remained in one spot. Finally, the speaker concludes the poem with the thought that the Chickasaw people have never had a home. The last sentence of the poem leads the reader to believe that it will end happily, but she alludes once again to the discrimination against her heritage. After being discriminated against and removed from their land, the ancestors of the speaker pass on their history

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831 Words | 4 Pages

In the poem Heritage by Linda Hogan, Hogan uses the tone of the speaker to demonstrate the shame and hatred she has toward her family, but also her desire to learn about her family’s original heritage. The speaker describes each family member and how they represent their heritage. When describing each member, the speaker’s tone changes based on how she feels about them. The reader can identify the tone by Hogan’s word choices and the positive and negative outlooks on each member of the family.

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783 Words | 4 Pages

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1122 Words | 5 Pages

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Linda Hogan is a Chickasaw poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, and activist. She was born on July 17, 1947 in Denver, Colorado to father Charles Henderson, a Chickasaw from Oklahoma, and Cleo Bower Henderson, a woman of German descent. Since her father was in the military, the family moved often throughout her youth. However, Hogan felt a deep connection to Oklahoma where her father’s family lived, and she considers this her home.

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1116 Words | 5 Pages

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As a woman of both white and Native American cultures, Linda Hogan’s collection of poetry The Book of Medicine, reflects how both sides are affected by white narratives. Her collection is about the illness these narrative cause and how creating new narratives we can heal from them. The first half of the book explains the destruction in the world and in our culture caused by “white” culture of separating from nature. In white culture, there is a clear distinction between “us” and nature and animals. The two, supposedly, cannot co-exist.

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