A Litany for Survival as a Challenging Concept of Survival - Essay Example

A Litany for Survival Lorde, a great black, female, lesbian writer more of a warrior poet speaks of the issues relating to racism, sexism and injustices to prejudices, in her self-styled writings. The Black Unicorn is a sign of a strong bold black women draped in truth, sincerity and beauty, a mythological and mysterious character though commonly used throughout her writings. Black Unicorn is a symbol of imaginative and ingenious activism lying among one of the Lorde’s models used and discussed by her. She has discussed the feeling of voicelessness right the way through the volume of The Black Unicorn. The pains and voiceless feelings are best communicated through singing, vocalizing, laughing and these kinds of other sounds that are a distinct mean of expression. Lorde has invoked litany as a musical form in her poem (as she had been including other oratorical forms lately in her writings). Litany for survival represents a close connection to the expressive feelings affixed with that of her African culture. This poem is a best reflection of her efforts to overcome the voices of fear, weakness, and silence and to react and respond to the dominant external forces. She forces the audience to identify their rights, use their innate strengths of courage, wisdom and individuality to wipe away their fears, and take voice as a tool to increase their visibility on the up front. The confusions make you weaker leading to lack of decision power and thus emerging feelings of fear and inferiority. She has very well conceptualized the two antagonistic relationships of fear and courage and helped theorizing them through her poem here. Here you can see a vivid intersection of two very distinct cultures – Western and African. The two cultures are referred here so that the two cultures of call and response from African and antiphonal prayer from Western are best contrasted. Lorde has objectively used two fragments one - For Those of Us and the other - For All of Us” and as a form of phrasal repetition, Us and We are used here in this poem as collective pronouns for making you stand among the communal relationships, but a point of discussion arise here that the poet has not referred to any distinct communal organization where the identities are idealized and conceptualized, pointing towards the universal nature. The poet is felt aback when she said bread in children’s mouths in the first stanza she’s pointing towards the fact the people lack the propensity to buy food for children and they lack economical dispensation. She has also invoked a layout of separating spaces when she said “At the Shoreline, Edges of Decision, In Doorways, Looking Inward and Outward” in the first stanza referring to a border line of two extremes, standing in the passage of dilemma, a constant signal to heterosexual repression of the homosexuals (here the lesbians) when pointing towards the line number 4, 5 and 6 of poem. Stanza two “heavy footed” refers to the muscular, heavy built people armed with ammunition or adhered to masculinist or military organizations clearly highlights here pondering point of masculine, gender biased oppression. Lorde has stressed on the concept of Survival that encircles not just a single individual in a single body of animated life version but rather an interspecies phenomenon treated collectively that imposes a challenge to the individual embodiment. In the battling environment of exclusion, A Latiny for Survival is a challenging concept of survival and existence collectively as indicated by the frequent use of Us, We, All, creating collectivism throughout. Here the poet has targeted and hailed all those people who consider themselves as alone and single may be helpless and weak by calling out them as Those of Us collectively. The lines are connected by alliteration as you can see clearly the rhythmic ending lines, which is directly connected to the individual fear of failure and isolation where fear is to produce abjection. ‘Learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk’ here naturalized oppression is narrated by the poet. The observers have analyzed through this phrase the working women in sweetshops have regained their individuality and re-imagined them as close to survival as collective self consciousness. The hailing on Those of Us is analyzed as diasporic, homeless and utopist in the first paragraph, though survival is not made a victorious aim in this poem. When and We are Afraid are contrasted here in response to survival when survival is for life but life is regarded as a persistence of fear attack. But This Instant is used as a sign of triumph and victory. This poem is not written in an attempt to defend survival or even celebrate victory. One of the most astonishing attributes of this poem is that Lorde tried to keep a balance between the two extremes and she did this quite superbly. In order to take the people out of the self-created depression, Lorde has played a marvelous role. Nothing is immortal in this world or in the ongoing time span. To make people understand this, Lord presented the people with various stanzas. By addressing the audience with the words like “We Are Afraid”, Lorde has taught the people a lesson to bring change in their attitudes if they really want to become a part of a prosperous future. She has shown herself as a part of the saddened victims of Africa that always look at the things with the narrow visions. By saying the stanzas like “But when we are silent” and “We Are Still Afraid”, Lorde has enlightened the irresponsive behavior of the African Natives that did not have the passion for the satisfaction. They were used to be dissatisfied all the time no matters what the circumstances were. In the last but surely not the least, this poem can be regarded as a revolutionary step to ignite the sleeping satisfaction of the people that keep themselves in the gloomy paradigm all the time with no reason behind. This poem comes out to be a helping aid for the leaders to bring changes in the thinking of the people to a great extent. One can easily determine the sense of conduct that is required to address the audience with esteem. If one thinks of changing the attitude of the public at large, he is supposed to admit that he is the part of that community. Finally, people have to understand this that by survival, we do not mean the eternal values of the surroundings. Lorde explained the immortal nature of the things we see around us, conditions we are going through, and the thinking that we have developed. To make African individuals understand that their slavery is not going to remain forever, Lorde has quoted great illustrations in the minds of people. Lorde has tried her best level to tell the people keep a balance in celebrations and consolidations. People are neither supposed to celebrate the victory with this thinking that it will remain forever nor they are emphasized to go beyond the limits in their consolidation as things keep on changing. Reference Lorde, Audre. A litany for survival. Blackwells Press, 1981. Read More