In my midterm essay, I examined Ocean Vuong’s book of poetry Time Is a Mother, specifically how the poem “Nothing” contributed to the themes of collective mourning and growth through intergenerational trauma. I focused first on the images of the house and snow, specifically how the idea of the “hungry ghost” in Asian cultures factored into the imagery of the bread baking in the house during a snowstorm of cold memories. I then on how the queer relationship between Vuong and his partner contributes to them finding a new place for themselves in the midst of the difficult histories and ancestral ghosts they carry on their shoulders.
I think my strength in the essay was finding a point to start with the paper and using it to create a well-rounded essay. I wanted to focus on the physical objects (so the snow, the bread, the house) and used those to make the more abstract connections to the themes that Vuong explores.
I struggled most on keeping a focused scope – there was so much content I wanted to cover, that if I had kept all of my outline, I would have likely had several more pages and the paper would have felt disjointed. When I tried to condense my ideas, I had trouble picking what to cut, so I think condensing all the points I wanted to cover ended up making parts of the paper feel all over the place and less focused than I wanted it to be.