June Jordan Many Rivers To Cross Analysis

In June Jordan's essay “Many Rivers to Cross,” Jordan explains how multiple events in her life, including her mother’s death, led her to realize that women should “stand up” and not allow men to control them. The title of the essay is very indicative of the process that she had to go through before she came to this epiphany. Jordan’s husband is a man who is a part of the patriarchy that disrespects women. Her father is another example of a man who doesn’t know better than to oppress women, while Mrs. Hazel Griffin is the antithesis to his misogynistic ideology. Mrs. Griffin is a strong, independent women who doesn't need a man to be happy or successful. Jordan believes that women should be strong, like Hazel Griffin, and not give up when they are being persecuted, rather than being weak and submitting to oppression, like Jordan’s mother.

But before Jordan decides to be strong and resist subjugation, she had to cross many rivers. The first river was her husband abandoning her. After he left her, he was

ordered to pay child support but not compelled. According to the law, the courts could do nothing besides request that he pay the support. This shows how women were oppressed even in the legal system. Jordan remarks, “According to the law, what a father owes to his child is not serious compared to what a man owes to the bank for a car or a vacation.” She thinks that it is ironic that our society does not respect women enough to allow their children to be supported.
After Jordan’s unfortunate divorce from her husband, she could not afford to stay in the apartment in which she had lived.

Her only option was to move back into her childhood home with her parents. Her father was very disapproving of Jordan because she was once again an unmarried woman, and, to make matters even worse, she was pregnant. This abuse from her father is the second river that she must cross. Her father believes that women should marry and stay married, serving their husbands and taking care of the children.

A neighbor, Mrs. Hazel Griffin, shows mercy and helps June Jordan move into her parents’ house even as Jordan’s mother lay ill. But while this neighbor helped a needy woman, Jordan’s father stood by and disapprovingly watched. He felt threatened by Mrs. Griffin because she was a single mother with a successful business who had not completed her education. Jordan’s father thought that women should adhere to strict gender roles and not be

independent.
After June Jordan moves back into her parents’ house, her mother’s health progressively worsens. In this situation, Jordan’s father once again shows his ignorance to the needs of the women in his life. He leaves his wife to sleep alone downstairs, acting like he barely even knows his wife. He is not sensitive enough to ask her what she needs. Jordan even says, “I think [my father] was scared; who would take care of him?” His number one concern is not his wife’s condition; it is his selfish worries about who will care for him. This is once again something that reinforces Jordan’s evolving views on women’s rights.
Jordan’s last “substantial” conversation with her mother was about Jordan’s job search. Even her mother thinks that Jordan shouldn’t strive for greatness, showing that even women in this society accept the discrimination and the idea that they shouldn’t strive to be more than simple house-wives. Jordan thinks that it is messed up that her society depresses women so much that they can’t even dream to be successes in their lives.
Jordan’s father’s neglect of his wife eventually indirectly leads to Jordan’s mother committing suicide.