Thoughts on why this book was written...

As I was reading, I was wondering why Shange wrote this book and chose to include the situations that she did. Now that I'm done with the book, I realized that she wrote it to raise awareness and to shed light on how African American women process and deal with certain situations. The themes of rape, domestic violence, and failed relationships are universal themes, and women face these things every day. Shange was just bringing them to life and showing how devastating they can be.

Poetry is condensed language that is packed with emotion and imagery. I feel that poetry may have been one of the only ways in which to deal adequately with these situations and the emotions that they leave behind. The language Shange uses may be harsh and, at times, hard to read, this is the language that is used by people that have been through situations like this. They are angry and upset and confused, and these emotions are seen within the poem. I feel that making these stories into poems was the best way to show how the women dealt with the various tense situations presented.