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A literary window or mirror is a device used to explain a person’s relationship to a piece. Literary windows open our understanding to views outside of our own. Windows offer an opportunity to broaden a person’s perspective. Literary mirrors deepen our understanding of ourselves. Mirrors reflect a person’s experience, aiding to express deeper feelings around an experience and potentially helping the reader feel less alone.

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“Quinceañera” by Judith Ortiz Cofer reflected my past self to me like a mirror. It reminded me of my first couple of years of puberty. I felt, and still occasionally feel shame in having a female body. In the line, “I hear myself growing and wake to find my hands drifting of their own will to soothe skin stretched tight over my bones,” I am reminded of the extreme discomfort I felt in my body, the “growing pains” I would have at night and the eating disorder I have since recovered from. I also felt mirrored in the writer’s recognition of the power of her body.

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“The Lake of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats was a mirror for me. It reflected one of my favorite parts of myself. It encapsulates a feeling of peace that I get when I spend time in nature. The details of the landscape helped to bring me there, within me. When Yeats says “While I stand on the roadway...I hear it in the deep heart’s core,” it reflects times I have brought myself to that sense of calm in a stressful situation by meditating on my past experiences on hikes or camping.

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“The Lake of Innisfree” is my favorite work from English Two. Good poetry tends to leave an impression on me that no book or short story can. It is a poem I will probably read again and again throughout my life because it brings me a sense of peace that I associate with divinity. Reading it is a healthy reminder for me to get outside and ground in the feeling it creates.

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I saw myself reflected in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street. I’ve never had a home that I've felt truly comfortable in. I’ve spent a lot of my life living in two places at once and moving a lot. I always feel like I’m waiting to get to the house where I can feel stable, stay and feel at home in the way Esperanza dreams of the same. I also related to Esperanza because most of the women I grew up around were in dire situations I fought from being conditioned into as I got older. I can understand Esperanza’s resistance to accept and desire to escape where she comes from.

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“Biology” by Kevin Wilson felt more like a window to me than a mirror. Although I could see some of my early depression reflected in Patrick, I've never felt his contempt for other people. Like Patrick, I was very uncomfortable with myself in eighth grade, but unlike him, I had a lot of friends. When I read his thoughts about bringing a gun to school, I felt immediately disconnected from him. It was interesting to feel my empathy for Patrick build up until that point, to feel shame in my compassion for him as I read his feelings about the gun, and then allow my ability to empathize for him slowly grow again as I continued to read about his feelings of isolation.

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Reading “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan was more of an exploration than a reflection for me. I did grow up with a sense of perfectionism and had an over-achieving sibling to compare myself to, but I didn’t feel the pressure from my parents to be a prodigy the way Jing Mei Too does. When I wanted to quit violin and ballet, there wasn’t much of a fight. My family has been in the United States for much longer, so my parents don’t have the view of America that Jing Mei’s do. I wonder if I had been forced into acquiring some talent I didn’t want to pursue the way Jing Mei is, if any of my perfectionism would dismantle into rebelliousness. I was a rebellious kid, but if I ever committed to learning something, I always tried my best. I can’t imagine myself having the confidence to go on stage knowing that I didn’t try to give a good performance.

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The television series The Underground Railroad, directed by Barry Jenkins and based on the novel by Colson Whitehead, is one of the most brilliant pieces of film I have ever seen. As a white person, I will never fully understand the experience of being black, especially during the era of slavery in America. Underground Railroad is a masterful window into the true depths of the tragedies of slavery. As difficult as it is to watch the horrors and violence towards African Americans, the directing, cinematography, sound design, and acting are extraordinarily striking and powerful. I think it is important for Americans – especially white Americans – to acknowledge the atrocities of our history. Although some critics don’t like that it is fictionalized (there is a literal underground railroad), I think Jenkins’ choices aid in the aim to create an effectual window into the past in ways that a factual retelling could not.

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THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Official Trailer (HD) Thuso Mbedu