FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF(1977) BY NTOZAKE SHANGE - Essay Example

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf is a choreopoem, i.e., it is not only meant to be read but also to be performed in song and dance. The poem delves into social issues that affect African American women, including violence, unplanned pregnancies, rape, murder, and abortion among many others. Shange’s poem has attracted its fair share of criticism from her audience, especially men.

Some approve of it while others condemn it completely. Although the book is literally women-centered, it receives destructive and constructive responses from men. This paper critically analyzes Shange’s poem by identifying passages that might have provoked men’s wrath or support for her work. “Metal horses gnawing my womb… I really didn’t mean to… I cdnt have people looking at me pregnant” (Shange 36). The statement highlights the issue of abortion and unwanted pregnancy. The lady is not in a position to let other people see her when pregnant; hence, she goes abort the fetus.

This passage probably elicits anger from men. In the aftermath of the abortion, men are angry on the experience of alienation in decision making on issues regarding paternity. On the other hand, some men push women to have abortions especially when they are not ready to bring up the child or commit to the relationship. In such a condition, the initial reaction is relief. In both situations, the man and woman’s relationship has low chances of survival as the man feel powerless while the woman feels abandoned respectively.

The lady in orange evokes emotions of hurt, tenderness, heartbreak, anger, and sadness when she says “i get tired & i haveta come offa the floor & then theres that woman who hurt you / who you left / three of four times / & just went back/ after you put my heart in the bottom of yr shoe / you just walked back to where you hurt / & i didn’t have nothing / so i went to where somebody had somethin for me / but he waznt you” (Shange 57). The passage portrays men as promiscuous, moving from one woman to the next and dealing with multiple women at the same time.

The man is not satisfied with the colored woman’s love. He breaks her heart and even has the audacity to go back to a previous relationship – to someone he had previously hurt. As a result, the colored woman seeks for a more loving partner to escape the anger, hurt, and rejection. The lady in green proclaims “somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff not my poems or a dance i gave up in the street … waz a man whose ego walked round like Rodan’s shadow / waz a man fastern my innocence / waz a lover / I made too much room for.

i didn’t know i would give it up so quik / & the one runnin wit it / don’t know he got it… my stuff is the anonymous ripped off treasure of the year” (Shange 63–64). The woman indicates that a man took her innocence by breaking her virginity. This action cost the woman her dignity – something she treasures a lot. The passage depicts men as beings whose only aim is to use women without regard for their needs. Although they may not know it, by doing this they disrespect the woman and cause her much pain.

As a result, the woman rushes out to the man to claim her self-respect in order to regain her independence and womanhood.Works CitedShange, Ntozake. For Colored Girls Who Have Experienced Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf: A Choreopoem. Paw Prints, 2008. Print.