In the poem, “Heritage” by, Linda Hogan, how does the use of imagery
help to emphasize the fact that the speaker is ashamed of her white heritage and proud of her Native American heritage? I am writing an analysis of this poem and would appreciate any examples and explanations.
Here is the poem:
From my mother, the antique mirror
where I watch my face take on her lines.
She left me the smell of baking bread
to warm fine hairs in my nostrils,
she left the large white breasts that weigh down
my body.
From my father I take his brown eyes,
the plague of locusts that leveled our crops,
they flew in formation like buzzards.
From my uncle the whittled wood
that rattles like bones
and is white
and smells like all our old houses
that are no longer there. He was the man
who sang old chants to me, the words
my father was told not to remember.
From my grandfather who never spoke
I learned to fear silence.
I learned to kill a snake
when you’re begging for rain.
And grandmother, blue-eyed woman
whose skin was brown,
she used snuff.
When her coffee can full of black saliva
spilled on me
it was like the brown cloud of grasshoppers
that leveled her fields.
It was the brown stain
that covered my white shirt,
my whiteness a shame.
That sweet black liquid like the food
she chewed up and spit into my father’s mouth
when he was an infant.
It was the brown earth of Oklahoma
stained with oil.
She said tobacco would purge your body of poisons.
It has more medicine than stones and knives
against your enemies.
That tobacco is the dark night that covers me.
She said it is wise to eat the flesh of deer
so you will be swift and travel over many miles.
She told me how our tribe has always followed a stick
that pointed west
that pointed east.
From my family I have learned the secrets
of never having a home.
The Correct Answer and Explanation is :
In Linda Hogan’s poem Heritage, the use of vivid imagery helps to explore the speaker’s internal struggle with her white heritage and her pride in her Native American heritage. The imagery is particularly potent in expressing the tension between these two aspects of her identity, emphasizing her connection to the Native American side while conveying a sense of shame and discomfort regarding her white lineage.
One powerful example is the description of the grandmother: “blue-eyed woman / whose skin was brown.” The imagery of “blue-eyed” and “brown skin” evokes a stark contrast, symbolizing the hybrid nature of the speaker’s heritage. The grandmother’s skin being brown suggests her Native American roots, while the blue eyes—a characteristic often associated with whiteness—highlight the duality the speaker feels. The brown saliva in the coffee can spilling on the speaker is described as “like the brown cloud of grasshoppers / that leveled her fields,” further linking her heritage to the land, the natural world, and her Native American ancestry. This brown stain on the speaker’s white shirt becomes a metaphor for the shame she feels about her white identity. Her “whiteness” is literally stained by her Native heritage, representing both the physical and emotional complexity of her background.
Additionally, the “whittled wood” that “rattles like bones” and smells like old houses evokes a sense of death and displacement, a theme linked to the forced erasure of Native American culture. The use of imagery like “the plague of locusts” and “the brown earth of Oklahoma stained with oil” highlights the devastating effects of colonization and environmental destruction on the Native American community, contrasting with the more detached, civilized imagery associated with her white heritage.
Ultimately, through these vivid images, Hogan uses the physical and sensory experiences passed down through generations to explore the internal conflict of the speaker, who is simultaneously proud of and ashamed of her heritage. The imagery reinforces how the speaker grapples with her dual identity and the historical trauma associated with her family’s Native American roots.