—Kevin Chen
I believe that Harjo’s poems are classified as a “great works” text. From the two poetic works of hers, “Everybody Has a Heartache: A Blues” and “An American Sunrise, we realize a lot of Joy Harjo’s background. These two works of writing represented the American culture, specifically the Native-American culture that she takes great pride in. As a result of that, the majority of her works relates back to the notion of a disrupted culture, an obstruction of peace, but as well as the foundation of hope during the times of “the trail of tears” and the invasions of the first American settlers. Joy Harjo really emphasizes on the bigger picture of “hope”. Notice how even in the title of “An American Sunrise”, it sounds hopeful because when we relate to a sunrise, it is the beginning of a new day. A different day that can come full of surprises. Now, just because new beginnings can come with a lot of fruitful experiences, it also comes with a lot of uncertainty as well. That is why in the poems, she tells everyone to not “look down” and instead to look for a brighter future ahead. It is crucial to recognize that not only did the colonizers disrupt their peace as a culture and as a family, they also made them move out of their home territory. Traumatic experiences and forced removals like these are not to be forgotten and should be constantly reminded of the abrupt treatment that was provided to their ancestors. As a result, this message was also reflected through Harjo’s poetry in trying to emphasize that the public should also recognize that and they should have more thought of the current status of the misrepresented Native-American culture. As a result, to use her platform as a Native-American individual through the creative works of poetry, it shows she had meaning in the work that she publishes, resulting in what’s considered a “great work”
