The Woman Hanging From The 13th Floor Window

This poem was published 8 years after the tragedy and harjo may have begun working on it after seeing this photograph though i m totally speculating here.

The woman hanging from the 13th floor window.

When reading this poem i thought of the famous photograph of a baby sitter falling to her death when a fire escape collapsed during a building fire in boston in 1975. She is all the women of the apartment. The woman hanging from the 13th floor window on the east side of chicago is not alone. The woman hanging from the thirteenth floor window is set in east chicago the indian side of town where native americans are isolated from their culture and trapped in an endless cycle of.

While this woman is hanging there she starts to have flashbacks about her life starting from her childhood up until now. She is several pieces between the two husbands she has had. She is a woman of children of the baby carlos and of margaret and of jimmy who is the oldest. Commentary one of the impressive qualities of this poem is its continuous present tense the woman is hanging and feeling and thinking while she is trying to decide whether or not she will let go.

The poem ends with the either or choice still not made either she will fall to her death or she will climb back in the window and reclaim her life. She is her mother s daughter and her father s son. Analysis of the woman hanging from the 13th floor window. In the poem the woman hanging from the 13th floor window you open with a woman hanging on for her life while contemplating suicide.