June Jordan Narrative Structure

There are so many incredible things about June Jordan’s Soldier. I absolutely love reading  memoirs written by poets. The fact that I’ve read her other work and know that she’s a poet made me think about the structure of the text on the page more than I normally would for a memoir. She often has short, severe lines separated from a paragraph from text, ex. “Well, then, would my mother care to give him a little kiss? / She would not” (Jordan 58), “So I never got to try” (54), and “She held on to me” (164). These very direct expressions from the speaker are already quite powerful, and even more so with their spatial structure.

There’s a lot of commentary about the power of words in Soldier. Even though her father is horribly abusive, she values him for introducing her to literature and having her memorize poems and prayers. She was enchanted with prayers, even though her introduction to them was through a strict family structure and of course, religion. But it wasn’t necessarily the content of the prayers that piqued her interest; it was the sound and power of words. “It was stunning to consider that one word—for example, the very name Jesus could make the mighty bow down” (62). From a very young age she understands the power of words, and is fascinated with that power. These young experiences become the foundation for her future identity as a poet, a poet of color, and a female identified poet in her world we she only is taught the dominant white cannon.

Not only is she interested in the power of a single word or a single line, she also looks to the sounds of words within prayer. “What mattered was the magical language and its repetition that left you feeling united and taken care of, and happy, “in the Lord” (61). For her, listening to prayer was an experience that physically resonated with her, she was always the first to get down on her knees during church and embrace this listening experience.

She’s either 5 or 6 in this section of the book, which is telling about the narrator’s voice. It seems like there is a somewhat childish tone and being uncertainty / unknowing of what is out there in the world. However, the use of adult language and critical thoughts about why she liked prayers so much makes the narrator seem like she is using a child’s perspective, with mostly adult language, and is both reflecting and re-experiencing the story. Soldier is an enjoyable book to read, but that certainly does not undermine the complexity of its narrative structure.

-Andrea