In life, it is important to reflect on all things, the good and bad included. Reflection for each person is incredibly unique due to a person’s specific background and experiences. If I were to reflect on my Thanksgiving, for instance, my reflection would consist of family, food, and unbearably cold weather. However, if another person were to reflect on their Thanksgiving, their thoughts on the day would likely be different from mine.
In class, we specifically discussed how reflection can be similar on a surface level, but the deeper you go, the more personal reflection becomes. In Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem, “Facing It”, the topic of reflection emerges in both a literal and figurative sense. In the poem, Komunyakaa describes a person’s visit to the Vietnam War Memorial. The memorial is a long, granite wall with the names of war veterans etched into it. The wall itself is incredibly reflective, to the extent that if you stand in front of it reading names, you can see your own face.
The poem begins with, “My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite. I said I wouldn’t dammit: No tears. I’m stone. I’m flesh.” This reaction to the wall is very common. When people visit a memorial or a graveyard, the common feeling shared by humankind is one of sadness due to loss of people. In this poem, the speaker tries his best not to cry and contain his emotions because of his reflection on war.
However, as you move into the poem, readers see that it becomes a more personal reflection. While this wall is universally understood as something sad, it is also a different experience for each person. Komunyakaa continues his poem writing “A white vet’s image floats closer to me, then his pale eyes look through mine. I’m a window. He’s lost his right arm inside the stone.” In this specific instance, the main character of the poem sees a veteran, a person who has experienced the tragedies of this specific war, approach the wall. The veteran is also missing a limb. After understanding this man’s background, readers can conclude that this veteran’s experiences most likely lead him to feel something far different when he visits this wall in comparison to those who did not partake in the war. Unlike others, the war veteran probably has flashbacks and feels immense pain and sorrow.
Immediately after analyzing the veteran, the main character notices a lady next to him. The poem states, “In the black mirror a woman’s trying to erase names: No, she’s brushing a boy’s hair.” While the poem is up to interpretation, it seems likely that this woman did not fight in the war, but instead, had a loved one in the war. By rubbing her fingers onto the memorial, she conveys that she cared for someone who passed away. In fact, the poem hints that the person could’ve been her son since it was “boy’s hair” which she was brushing. Like the war veteran, this lady’s reflection on the war is specific to herself due to her background and experiences. While reflection can be surface level, it can also be deeply personal.
It is important to understand the individuality of reflection. Although this is a rather complex idea, Disney was able to convey this message through their creation of the strong Disney princess, Mulan, and send the message out to children. In the movie’s song, “Reflection”, Mulan discovers the difference between how others perceive her, and how she sees herself. Again, this emphasizes the difference between literal and figurative reflection. While the characters in the movie see her solely as a female and judge her based off her gender, Mulan knows that she is more than what society labels and stereotypes her as. In the song “Reflection”, Mulan sings, “Must I pretend that I am someone else for all time? When will my reflection show, who I am inside?” In a simpler way, the movie Mulan conveys the same message as “Facing it.” Others will never understand how you, yourself, reflect on something deeper than surface level. People’s reflections, either on war or on their own identity, are incredibly personal and unique to the individual.