Blu's Hanging

Blu's Hanging by Lois-Ann Yamanaka is a novel that contains so many different types of abuse that it makes me glad that I grew up with the parents I had. Almost everyone who reads this probably feels this way. Not only is there both physical and verbal child abuse taking place, but child neglect was very present in the story. I felt Poppy was such a horrible person. I realize that it is difficult when we lose someone we love, but one needs to pick themselves up and do what is right or at the very least do the best they can, especially when there are children involved. Where does Poppy get off putting all the responsibility on Ivah, and if that wasn't enough he blamed her for many things? It wasn't her fault Blu was raped or that her mother died. One can see how isolated and trapped that Ivah, Blu, and Maise must of felt, and Poppy constantly being in his own world made life more horrible for his children. Yamanaka made it clear to readers with her first couple of sentences that the family was extremely poor and this was shown with the descriptions of what they ate on a regular basis. Adding to this was the part that told how they were no longer able to charge food at the Friendly Market. Poor Ivah had so much responsibility at such a young age. The things that these children endured mad me sad. Child abuse was not the only abuse taking place in the neighborhood. The descriptions of the things that happened to the cats and dogs is horrible. Locking poor dogs up until they die is terrible and why anyone would want to do this is beyond me. Uncle Paulo needed to be locked up or at the very least in a pyche ward. I liked how Maise wrote the horrible things on his house because I felt everyone in the neighborhood should know what he really was. The sad thing here is that I think everyone in the neighborhood realized this, yet no one did nothing. Anyone that tortures both animals (cats) and children is a terrible person and has something seriously wrong with them, or at least one would think so. The repeating of only phrases by Maise perhaps suggest how tormented and withdrawn that she was. She was constantly stating the words, "mama, and scared." This shows what a dark place Maise must of been in. Obviously Maise had some problems expressing herself and one of the high points in the novel is when she is able to read and communicate with others. Ivah finally gets some sort of resolution in the end with her going off to school, no thanks to Poppy though. Overall, I enjoyed this book even though there were so many upsetting things that happened to Ivah, Maise, and Blu.