Analysis Of Everybody Has A Heartache By Joy Harjo

In life all humanity faces a struggle or heartbreak that seems almost impossible to make it through. In the poem Everybody Has a Heartache the author Joy Harjo discusses and introduces the opinion that everyone faces a heartache or blues. The author goes into detail about the different kinds of heartbreak that goes on in a variety of peoples’ everyday life. This poem was very interesting to me because the author chose very diverse and out of the normal heartbreaks for her characters to face rather than the normal heartbreaks that everyone can see. The author used several literary devices to establish an emotional connection with the readers.

As a reader I felt that the poem had a combination of both a cultural and social framework. Our society

is made of up humanity, such as you, me, him, her, and we. All of humanity faces a certain battle at least once in their life, possibly way more than one. In this poem the author introduces several different heartaches that people may relate to as if they live their own in their everyday life. In this example of heartache, Harjo is expressing her own personal feelings she was facing while deciding to write this poem. “We will never get to where we are going and there’s no way back to where we’ve been.” (lines 3-4). The author is waiting in an airport terminal at five on a Friday evening, while she decides to analyze and depict possible struggles all the people around her may be facing. The author decided to write this poem in a social environment, which in turn made the poem a sociably addressed piece of literature. The author also uses a cultural appeal to the framework of this poem. With society, we face cultural issues, such as others having more money than they need and others not having enough money to make it by. In our American culture, we do not give money to everyone which leaves most jobs only offering minimum wage. In the poem the author states, “I laugh as he hands me back my ticket, then he turns to charm the next customer, his feet tired in his minimum wage shoes. Everybody has a heartache- “(lines 11-13). This statement refers to a zookeeper who spends all day on his feet, entertaining customers, and taking care of several animals only to find himself getting paid the least amount of money possible. As a culture, we are a country of giving but only if we are willing to give and that reflects on our society and how we allow others to live with the issue of not being able to provide for themselves or their family.
The author’s purpose of this poem is to express the feeling of heartbreak different people have to experience at very different variances and levels. The author wants to allow the reader to feel the experience of heartbreak or allow them to reminisce on a heartbreak the reader has experienced in the past. Joy Harjo wants to inform the readers that everybody has a heartache, and heartache is experienced in several different ways. In the poem Harjo wants to make it known to the reader that everyone is damaged, so no one should ever feel alone. In an interview with the Indian poet Joy Harjo she states, “You either have to slay your demons, or make friends with them, feed them, and send them on their way.” (Barnes, Joshua.) In this quote Harjo is supporting her reason for writing the kinds of poems she chooses to write. She also states that “Words are vehicles for bringing something into being: A vision of peace, a vision of connection, a vision of telling a story of who we are, what we’ve done, where we’ve been, where we’re going.” (Barnes, Joshua.) Here in this statement she is supporting her claim that our society has a major affect on everything, including the other struggles humanity has to face. In the poem, Joy Harjo states “Where she was no beauty queen, and was never seen, Always in the back of someplace in the back. She holds the newest baby.” (lines 19-21) The author is in the poem stating the fact that the female only feels this way about herself because of how society has made her view herself, along with her cultural value of being a woman taking care of a child all on her own. I strongly agree with the message Joy Harjo is trying to get across while writing this poem, as the reader I can feel the emotions being expressed and the emotions help me understand why humanity faces so many struggles.
Writing a poem about heartache required mostly the ability to acknowledge emotion and ethical concepts.

In the poem the author introduces an emotional appeal by stating, “Whimpering: its’ okay baby, please don’t cry. Don’t cry. Baby don’t cry. And he never cries again” (lines 31-33). In this quote the author is introducing the man going through an emotional childhood dealing with his mother coming home with torn clothing and he uses alcohol to cope with his pain. The author wants the reader to put themselves into the position of the man with a damaged mother who was no liable to care for her own son, so as he grew older he used alcohol to cure the heartache he was having to face. Although the author uses almost entirely an emotional appeal to this poem she uses an ethical appeal by stating, “Good-looking girl-woman taps this on her screen”(line 42). The author is describing the character as being attractive and female, while character description is a very important role to play in the use of the literary device imagery Harjo is using. Lastly, and the most uncommonly used appeal is the author’s logical appeal, “I don’t know exactly where I’m going; I only know where I’ve been,”(line 74). In this line Harjo is stating the facts of the character along with every other human logically not being able to predict the future but we know where we have been before. The author ends the poem with a balance of all emotional, ethical, and logical appeals by stating, “we will all find our way, no matter fire leaping through holes in jump time, no matter earthquake, or the breaking of love spilling over the drek of matter In the ether, stacking one burden Against the other. We have heartache.” (lines 79-83) The author uses an emotional appeal to allow the reader to feel the reality of many people feel the same heartache in many varying ways. The author uses an ethical appeal by describing all the different experiences the individual might have to face, we still face a

heartache. Lastly, the author uses a logical appeal by differentiating all the logical and natural earthly possibilities that are causes of heartache.
I feel the author completed her mission as a reader of this poem. Joy Harjo, the author, uses very detailed imagery allowing myself and other readers to be able to feel and imagine the different sorrows introduced in the poem. Harjo also depicts very popular grief that most people can see or depict out of our society, but also uses some very diverse and not easy to recognize struggles that people face in their everyday life. The author uses all three parts of the rhetorical triangle allowing all different types of readers to understand the purpose of the poem. The author is clear about what she is trying to make the reader feel and uses this poem to inform readers that heartbreak and depression are very common, and several different types of people face them every day and no one is alone in the battles we all face. Does all of humanity face variations of struggle in their everyday life?