Poetry-Review 1

1.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hesse, Karen. 2003. ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. Ill. by Evon Zerbetz. New York: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. ISBN 0689861893

2.PLOT SUMMARY
Vera is part of the Kashega Village natives that have occupied part of the Aleutian Islands for thousands of years. This group of islands belongs to the Alaskan territory, and the people are thus United States citizens. Seven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invade these islands. The United States government orders a hasty, complete evacuation of the people who have made their homes there. 5 villages are displaced and left to live in an evacuation camp in Ward Lake, Alaska where the living conditions are injurious: “we get little to eat and no doctoring, and our toilet is an open trough washing into the creek”. For three years the Aleut people are kept away from their homes even though the Japanese invasion only lasted about a year. For three years they endure humiliation and degrading actions and words on behalf of the “whites” living in the towns surrounding their evacuation camp. During this time some of the Aleut natives are forced to assimilate and choose to leave and live in town like the narrating character relates, “My mother was one of the first to leave”. Some choose to escape their sufferings through drinking because “nothing hurts when the body is numb”. Yet many others die from fevers, TB, and boils which are dismissed by the “white” doctor who says the people are “not ill, only “adjusting”. Amidst all of this despair, the elders continue to deliver their lessons and stories to the younger ones who relinquish in remembering the old time when they were free. Finally, Vera and the remaining villagers are allowed to return to their war tarnished homes where they continue to find the will to live a content life again.

3.CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This narrative novel written in free verse style delivers the reader with a fictitious historical insight into the lives of a population strongly affected by the events of 1942, but of which it is not often heard of. The author makes use of figurative language elements throughout the story to provide personification to nature such as in the phrase “rain filling the gray cheeks of the sky”. Although the chapters are free of illustrations aside from the black and white depictions provided at the beginning of each time division, the author is able to portray a mental image of the distinct settings where the Aleutians lived over the course of the novel: “everywhere we turn, green life rubs its moss skin against us. The air steams green, and always the sound of dripping.” Readers can envision a wet, dense forest as the villagers’ new homes.

Karen Hesse grants the reader a vicarious experience as the sentiment of oppression and constant yearning for returned freedom is made known by the main character’s thoughts and comparisons. Following the description of the new land in which they are now forced to live, the author furnishes Vera with the following thoughts: “Always the smell of rot. Always green curtains smothering us.” The pine trees are symbolic for the “green curtain” that is suffocating the Aleutian people by not allowing them to return to their homes. It is also representative of the restraints endured physically, emotionally, and culturally. Another portrayal of the feelings felt can be derived from Vera’s flashback to a time when her people were free and she was catching cod with her friend, Pari: “But as we remember the harvest cod we remember too how the fish flopped on the beach, Desperate to get to the water.” For the reader, this is an indirect simile: Aleutians are like the fish, desperate to go back into their homes. Through this fictitious novel that is based on true events, the point of view presented by Vera delivers a strong theme of discrimination and disparity that is still a reality in our present worlds.

4.REVIEW( EXCERPTS)
Publisher’s Weekly: "The poetic images will linger in the minds of readers."

Horn Book Guide: “Despite some deftly written entries, Hesse's third free-verse novel doesn't provide a clear picture of either the young narrator (Vera, who's half-Aleutian, half-white) or the book's historical events (the relocation of hundreds of Aleuts during World War II). Some of the poems are quite graceful, conveying much in just a few lines, but in general, the format doesn't serve the author well”

5.CONNECTIONS
-Most appropriate for young adult or adult readers.
- Use as part of a study of World War II to analyze different view points.
-Students can analyze literary elements by writing a review of the book.
-Provide a virtual visit to the Aleutian Islands.