When reading the selected poems and section of Jane Jacob’s book entitled The Death and Life of Great American Cities, I could not help but notice that each had an underlying similarity to the Witi Ihimaera novel we read, The Whale Rider. Some of the similarities were more apparent, but as I read deeper into the works I found other ideas and concepts that were generally the same.
The first poem I read was Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall.” Among the other selected works it had a striking similarity to the selection of The Death and Life of Great American Cities in which both were written about physical borders in which each side was different from one another and each side had what the other one was missing. For example, in the poem one side had an apple orchard and the other side had pine trees. In Jane Jacob’s book one side “of the tracks” can be more glamorous and prosperous than the other.
In The Whale Rider, boundaries are also seen. However, these boundaries were not physical, they were mental. The grandparents in the novel, Koro Apirana and Nanny Flowers had two clearly opposite opinions about the role of women in society. Koro Apirana thought of women as inferior and only men can be the leader of a tribe. Nanny Flowers disagreed immensely believing a woman can lead just as well as any man could. This border in opinion caused great trouble for the pair and became clearer and clearer throughout the years. It became very apparent that life may be completely different for them if the borders were not there. The narrator of “Mending Wall” wonders himself why the border is there between him and his neighbor. His neighbor tells him that “good fences make good neighbors,” but he wonders to himself “why?” Life may very well be different for both of them if the wall was not present between them.
The other two poems in the collection of works to read I feel are more directly related to Kahu, the main character of The Whale Rider. Kahu is seen as inferior to her great-grandfather, Koro Apirana, because she is a girl, and he refuses to see her as the next leader of their tribe. The little humpbacked girl in “The Game” is similar to Kahu because they are both seen as inadequate to someone. The humpbacked girl is seen as inadequate because of her physical appearance to her family, just as Kahu is seen as inferior to her grandfather because of her gender. Reading their story we can see that each is perfectly adequate but because of the mental boundaries their loved ones have they can not see them for who they really are.
In “Slam, Dunk, and Hook” I feel the characters are incredibly focused on their ability to play the game of basketball as well as they possibly can. It says how excited the players would get when the girl’s were watching them play, so it shows they try incredibly hard to play well to impress others, namely the girls. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, Kahu’s great-grandfather can not see Kahu as a leader for the future generations. Because of this, Kahu does many things throughout the novel to show him that she can be a leader even if she is a female. Many of these amazing acts that she does goes unnoticed by her great-grandfather, but she never gives up hope, and his stubbornness makes her try even harder. Kahu even does particularly fascinating things that she does not even know are special, just like the basketball players in the poem stated “we had moves we didn’t know we had.” In the moment of proving themselves to someone else, they figure out they are capable of so much more than they knew.
Boundaries and the ability of proving to others who they really are is a theme found in all five of these works. Boundaries can be mental, with stubborn opinions and biases; as well as physical, separating neighborhoods and properties. Being able to break those boundaries can be physical, such as Kahu physically showing her grandfather she can be a leader; or mental/emotional, such as the humpbacked girl who can be a normal child and a good person, even though she may physically be handicapped. Many times when we think boundaries are aiding us, in reality they may be hindering us from whatever else the world has to offer.