In Joy Harjo\u2019s poem, \u201cThe Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window\u201d, the author portrays an unnamed female character contemplating to commit suicide by falling off the thirteenth floor of a tenement building in East Chicago. Looking at the poem through a disability lens, a crucial key passage shows the character\u2019s feelings in the environment around them at present, morph together to create a person that is struggling with decisions of suicide and severe depression. The key passage is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the woman hanging from the 13th floor window<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0hears other voices. Some of them scream out from below <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 for her to jump, they would push her over. Others cry softly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 from the sidewalks, pull their children up like flowers and gather<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 them into their arms. They would help her, like themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But she is the woman hanging from the 13th floor window, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and she knows she is hanging by her own fingers, her<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0own skin, her own thread of indecision. (l.41-48) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The author states that the woman can hear voices from below. Some call \u201cfor her to jump\u201d and some say they will \u201cpush her over\u201d to her death, while others \u201ccry softly\u201d and pled that they \u201cwould help her\u201d (l.43,45). \u00a0These people at the bottom can be interpreted as the able-bodied people of society and their reactions to this woman\u2019s disability. On one hand, people are condoning her suicide because having a disability a hardship or a difficult for which helping her end her life might be a way of escaping that burden. As the author addresses, \u201cShe thinks she will be set free\u201d (l. 7). On the other hand, there are people who see her suffering and are compassionate. They are supportive and want to help her. When they say \u201cthey would help her like themselves\u201d (l. 45), it could the interpreted as those in the community who suffer from disability if not from depression like the character. Whether the people want her to jump or not, it is still not their decision in the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0 Towards the end of this passage, it is stated \u201cbut she is the woman hanging from the 13th-floor window\u201d indicating the decision to end her life or live with her depression is ultimately up to her, not society, she is the only one hanging from the window. With the lines, \u201cshe knows she is hanging by her own fingers, her\/ own skin, her own thread of indecision\u201d (l. 47-48) The character understands that it is not the effects of the society below that are hanging her in the balance of her indecision, it is her own fingers, her own choice to allow her to fall or not. It goes to show that the disabled individual or any disabled person has the capability to make the decision for themselves, not anyone else. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall, this passage put to questions some aspects that can be applied to disability studies, these being the concept of society\u2019s influence on the disabled individual and the capability of a disabled individual to make a decision for themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Works Cited<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harjo, Joy. The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window<\/em>, 19 Feb. 2019, www.amerinda.org\/newsletter\/13-3\/harjo.html.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Word Count: 524<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Joy Harjo\u2019s poem, \u201cThe Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window\u201d, the author portrays an unnamed female character contemplating to commit suicide by falling off the thirteenth floor of a tenement building in East Chicago. Looking at the poem through a disability lens, a crucial key passage shows the character\u2019s feelings in the environment … Continue reading “Amanda\u2019s Response to Joy Harjo\u2019s \u201cThe Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window\u201d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papJgd-hB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1092,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/1092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}