In the poem “Heaven,” Cathy Song, an Asian writer, delicately recounts a situation between the speaker and her youngster. Her Asian son believes that when he passes, he will enter Chinese heaven where everyone will appear like him, with the exception of his blond hair. The boy’s hand expands out to represent the range between his house and China as they study the map. Their house, which is most likely in Colorado, appears just as a black dot. By invoking recollection and isolation, Song epitomizes the romantic spirit. A woman who is estranged from her Chinese origin longs for her ancestral homeland and has never seen it in the poem. She confesses her skepticism about her current location but wants to envision herself in China, where her family originated.
Since her grandfather worked on the railway, the poet imagines that their household was similar to the untamed West of the past and that he never imagined that this would be the place where he would perish. She even worries if there is a youngster in China who, like her child, wishes to immigrate to the United States. She, like his ancestor, wonders why I’m here and why this location. For the past two generations, no one in her family has considered returning to his birthplace. She and her family members can see the peaks and the clear blue skies from their backyard. Her son, who wishes to visit China, imagines the washing on the hanging as his vessel, complete with sails billowing in the weather, carrying him all the path to heaven.
The poem’s central theme is the significance of relatives and genealogy in forming one’s identity. Throughout the poem, the author expresses her dissatisfaction with her life in America. She ponders her grandfather’s background and how he came to be in this new country. Despite the fact that she resides in America and has never visited China, she considers the nation and its relationship with her parents to be important in her life. She looks to be proud of her ancestors, yet she is perplexed as to why her grandfather made the choices he did.
The protagonist is a Chinese youngster who has lived in the United States for an extended period of time before the writer penned this poem. The protagonist worked at a train station. He “helped to build the railroads for a dollar a day” (Song, 1988). The youngster appears to have just left his birthplace in pursuit of work and wealth, and he constantly intended to return to China; nevertheless, he never did. The following are the arguments in favor of this position: “He had always meant to go back,” and “each mile of track led him further away” from home (Song, 1988, para. 4).
Her grandfather (this Chinese youngster) died in his sleep, according to the authors. “dispossessed,” “having seen Gold Mountain” (Song, 1988, para. 4). The Chinese referred to the western areas of the United States as the Gold Peak. These lines imply that the boy did not depart the United States as an adolescent. However, “this notion of returning” was handed down through the centuries to the author’s son, a blond-haired child who fantasizes about Chinese paradise (Song, 1988, para. 5). It demonstrates that the sentiments that the narrative’s main subject had as a young child were passed down to other brothers and sisters. By employing this literary metaphor, it is reasonable to deduce that Song relates to the remembering of forefathers. At the same time, the central protagonist, a Chinese boy, represents her family’s racial heritage because he gives the family’s ethnocultural identification a start in the new place by surrendering his goal of coming back home.
The narrative’s three concerns are combined in the final stanza. While the goals of different eras change, they all lead to the same conclusion: heaven. While each family member may have a more profound interpretation of what paradise is, they can all agree that utopia can be seen all the way there through those immense peaks and pancake plains. Thus, the poem sums up the entire narrative of the above into a single thought.
To summarize, the Asian author carefully portrays a scene involving the speaker and her child. Her Asian son thinks that after he dies, he will reach Chinese paradise, where everyone will look just like him, apart from his blond hair. Song embodies the amorous essence by evoking reminiscence and solitude. In the poem, a woman who is divorced from her Chinese ancestors’ pines for her ancestral lands, which she has never seen. She admits to being skeptical about her present location but wants to imagine herself in China, where her family comes from. In the final section, the three constraints of the story are united. While various time periods have different purposes, they all lead to the same place: paradise. While each close relative may have a further understanding of what heaven is, they can all accept that perfection can be seen through those massive hills and flatter plains all the distance there.
Work Cited
Song, C. Heaven. 1988. Web.