TheThesis

In the poem titled "The Thesis" the author Gizelle Gajelonia borrows the form of her poem from poet John Ashbery's "The Instruction Manual." This borrowing may point to a lack of individuality and originality from Gajelonia, but at a second glance her poem encompasses different issues than Ashbery's. She speaks of people of different backgrounds all mingling in the urban city of New York, and she describes each individual on their appearance: "black girls," "Jewish boys," "sick-ass motherfucker clothed in fubu." The people that she describes come from backgrounds that are as different from hers as they are to each other's. The reader has to remember that this scene is a day dream of the author's (who is also narrating) who is on a bus in Hawaii. The way that she imagines America is a mash-up of different races. Once her daydream reaches the halls of Columbia university she is no longer surrounded by beat-boxers, black girls dating Jewish boys, or people on the bus with her. She asks for directions for the bathroom from a "lady" and when she is given directions, she perceives the smile she is given as a sign of condescention. This part of the poem is the most interesting to me because even in her day dream, she is "not good enough" for the scholars at Columbia University. The woman that gave her directions was only a figment of her imagination, yet she was imagined as being condescending on account of the narrator's race/ethnicity/age? It is most likely a mixture of those three factors. The way that she is imagining Columbia University is similar to the way in which the Hawaiian social classes are set up in various texts throughout this course. Everyone within the University has a higher social status than those on the outside, and entrance into such a prestigious club is difficult for people of humble backgrounds and or minorities. In the texts that we have read, white people are seen as the upper class, Asians as middle or upper class, Filipinos as middle or lower class, and Hawaiians as minorities. Is Gizelle's daydream an accurate portrait of social classes and race relations in our country? Obviously it doesn't encompass all every facet of the issue, but I believe that her poem evokes a lot of thought on not only race relaions in Hawaii,but class distinction in regard to race as well.

Brandon