The short story, “A Rock Trying to be a Stone”, written by Sergio Troncoso in 1999, and the poem, “What’s it Like being a Black Girl”, written Patricia Smith in 1991, each shows their cultural environment with their respective tensions and conflicts. In the case of Troncoso’s short story, the conflicts originate from the misdemeanors perpetrated by the three teenage friends which accidentally led to the death of their neighbor kidnap victim; while for Smith the conflicts revolve around the personal and social struggles of a pre-teen African American female who is slowly realizing the actual cultural implications of being a Black female in a predominantly White American society. In both of these cases, what is significantly observable is the characters’ struggle to conform to the expectations set by the society on the proper decorum of their respective race and gender: hegemonic masculinity for Troncoso’s story and Black femininity in the case of Smith’s poem. In this regard, it can be ascertained that the main causes for the conflicts in the said literary works are the social expectations for males to be dominant and authoritarian to a certain violent degree, and the female minority’s longing to be accepted and viewed outside of her ethnicity, both socially and in a sexual manner.
Conflicts
The main conflict in the story “A Rock Trying to be a Stone” involves the type, ‘individual versus individual’. This is characterized in the said story by a presence of a desire to dominate or at least to control. As such, in the said story it can be observed that Joe, Fernandez and Turi’s decision to kidnap Chuy is not simply an innocent attempt at exerting their strong bond of friendship, but rather of expressing their dominance over what they perceive to be a hapless victim. More so, this expression of dominance may be considered as ‘hegemonic masculinity’, which is a form of masculinity which dominantly signifies leadership and authority (Connell, 1996, p. 209). This aspect of masculinity is true despite of Chuy being male, for the reason that he can be considered as genderless due to his mental retardation, thus lacking of strong masculine qualities commonly socially attributed to the male gender. However, the conflict ‘individual versus individual’ may also be manifested internally, wherein the urge is not to control other non-masculine person but one’s own urgency to express his superiority. This is likewise observable in Troncoso’s story, specifically in the boys’ non-intent to kill Chuy but simply to scare him, thus implying dominance over the other.
On the other hand, somewhat comparable to the prevailing conflict in Troncoso’s short story as discussed in the preceding paragraph, Smith’s poem, “What’s it Like to be a Black Girl” also exhibits conflicts on a person’s desire to conform to his or her social environment. Specifically, the conflicts in this poem are ‘individual versus individual’ and ‘individual versus society’. In this regard, the former can be evidenced in the speaker’s sentiment that her personal qualities seem to be lacking, or at the very least do not conform to what and how she wanted to look like physically. As such, there are many instances wherein the speaker acts progressively to correct what she perceives as mistakes in the way she looks, such as the lines, “everything, wrong. It’s dropping food / coloring in your eyes to make them blue” (Smith, 1991, lines 4-5), and likewise in the lines, “it’s popping a bleached / white mophead over the kinks of your hair and / priming in front of the mirrors that deny your / reflection” (Smith, 1999, lines 6-9). Based on these lines, what becomes evident is the speaker’s expression of internal conflicts basically in being Black. The author, Iman Hanafy, expresses this same sentiment in her observation that “the negative images of black American culture reflect the new generation’s alienation” (Hanafy, 2010, p. 489). As such, there seems to be an aspect of self-hatred prevailing in the speaker, given her discontentment on how her eyes are colored or the kinky hair common in African Americans, both of which epitomize the ‘individual versus individual’ conflict.
Other than the type of conflict mentioned in the previous paragraph, the poem also exhibits a sexually-related ‘individual versus society’ conflict. This can be based on the premise that the speaker finds a necessity for her to look a certain way in order to be acceptable to the male population. This can be seen in her desire to grow tall and wear white clothes (lines 13-14), and her belief that she must develop the skill to “say fuck with / grace but learning to fuck without it (lines 15-16). This last line is indeed very sexual just as it is societal in nature, given that despite of the speaker’s young age of nine years old, she is already aware of her female role as a ‘giver’ of sexual pleasures to the male gender, as what can be seen in the words “caving in / around his fingers” (Smith, 1991, lines 18-19), regardless if this were a morally correct or an erroneous belief. As such, the ‘individual versus society’ conflict in Smith’s poem is conveyed using sexual themes. This has been achieved both by the speaker’s self-proclaimed need to look a certain way and on how to properly conduct herself sexually that will be pleasing to the male gender.
Literary Techniques
Literary techniques are used by authors and poets to define and emphasize the conflicts in order for the readers to know the purpose of the story. The author or poet chooses a particular technique, or a combination of techniques, in conveying messages across the readers. In this regard, the short story “A Rock Trying to be a Stone” uses the first person point-of-view, rising action, and situational irony, while the poem “What it’s Like to be a Black Girl” uses metaphor, objective point-of-view, and tone.
In the case of “A Rock Trying to be a Stone”, it can be observed that the first person point-of-view is prevalent in almost the entirety of the story, particularly in instances where the narrator attempts to explain the events according to his own perspective. This is true in the lines, “It must have burned his writs ‘cause as soon as Joe yanked on the square knot Chuy yelped and started blubbering in the way he does when he is hungry, but I know he wasn’t hungry” (Troncoso, 1997, p. 1), whereby the narrator has expressed the events based on what he saw and on how the other characters behaved during the incident.
Another literary technique used in Troncoso’s short story is ‘rising action’, which is observable in many instances such as in: “Chuy fell right on top of the blaze outside the car doorthe poor bastard wiggled crazilyuntil his burned-up flesh stunk so much” (Troncoso, 1997, p. 6). Form this example, it can be observed that the author deliberately intended for the readers to feel the rising tension in the story. This is achieved by strategically and chronologically placing the words ‘blaze’, ‘wiggled crazily’, and ‘burned-up flesh’, all of which suggest the horrible pain suffered by Chuy.
Other than the two literary techniques mentioned, Troncoso’s short story also exhibits situational irony specifically by the fact that the three boys went as far as kidnap Chuy without intending to kill him. This can be seen in the part where it states “We’re gonna tie the re-tard to the BuickJoe slapped Chuy on top of his head, but it wasn’t a hard slap” (Troncoso, 1997, p. 2), strongly suggesting that the boys really intended no harm on the part of Chuy.
Consequently, Smith’s poem used several literary techniques to convey its theme. One of these is metaphor, which can be seen in the part where connections are used between food coloring and making the eyes blue, and the bleached mophead to straighten the kinks of the hair (lines 4-7). With regards to the objective point of view, the poem has no other character other than the speaker, who merely expresses her observation in the entirety of the poem. Accordingly, the tone of the poem expresses intense passion, specifically with regards to the speaker’s perception on sexual roles of Black women to the male gender.
Lastly, the most evident similarity involves choice, wherein the three boys in the story had a mutual choice to kidnap Chuy, while the speaker’s choice in the poem involved only a personal choice to grow up according to the dictates of the society. Another similarity between the two literary works is their failure to address the conflicts, in that the short story ended with no clear outcome for the characters involved, while the speaker of the poem did not really resolve the conflicts inside her. On the other hand, perhaps the most evident difference between the story and the poem is that Troncoso ends the story with an angry punch in the face, while Smith’s poem’s ending is more submissive and tranquil.
Conclusion
Troncoso’s short story and Smith’s poem convey its own conflict in the forms of the societal expectation on men to act aggressively, and the racial preconception on Black women to abandon their true ethnicity by changing their appearance and by sexually being inferior to the male. In this regard, the literary techniques employed in the said works enhance the delivery of thematic appeals, so much so that the readers easily understand the gravity of actions and thought of the characters involved. As such, it can be understood that the boys were only victims of circumstance, and the girl in the poem only desires to be accepted she grows up.
References
Connell, R.W. (1996). Teaching the boys: new research on masculinity, and gender strategies for schools. Teachers College Record, 98(2), 206-235.
Hanafy, I.A. (2010). Cultures in conflict: an interpretation of Alice Walker’s ‘Everyday Use’. Human and Social Sciences, 37(2), 495-502.
Smith, P. (1991). What’s it like to be Black girl (for those of you who aren’t). Spokenwordacademy.tumblr.com. Retrieved from <http://spokenwordacademy.tumblr.com/post/35719312252/what-its-like-to-be-a-black-girl-for-those-of>
Troncoso, S. (1997). A rock trying to be a stone. AZ: University of Arizona Press.
