Javelina by Joy Harjo
"Javelina" by Joy Harjo is a prose poem that explores themes of displacement, survival, and cultural resilience through the lens of a young Native American woman and the wild javelina, a type of wild boar. The poem consists of four sections, interspersed with a two-line stanza, effectively drawing parallels between the experiences of the woman and the javelina. Set against the backdrop of South Tucson, the work reflects on the encroachment of urbanization on natural habitats and the struggles faced by marginalized communities.
Harjo aligns herself with individuals who have fought for freedom and navigated a challenging societal landscape. Both the javelina and the young woman are depicted as scavengers, adapting to an environment that has been altered by colonization and social inequities. The poet evokes a sense of kinship with them, recognizing their shared experience of loss and disillusionment. She reflects on her desire to offer hope to the young woman but acknowledges the harsh realities that have diminished her spirit.
Through vivid imagery and metaphor, Harjo emphasizes the importance of cultural identity and the strength found within Native American communities. The poem concludes with a voice of wisdom from the elder javelina, suggesting a deep connection to the land and a longing for a harmonious existence, highlighting both the challenges and the enduring spirit of those who navigate life on the margins of society.
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Javelina by Joy Harjo
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1990 (collected in In Mad Love and War, 1990)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
“Javelina” is an example of Harjo’s prose poetry. The poem consists of four “paragraphs,” with a two-line stanza appearing between the second and third. Harjo aligns herself firmly with those “born of a blood/ who wrestled the whites for freedom” and who have “lived dangerously in/ a diminished system.” Comparing a young woman with the wild boar, the javelina, Harjo tells the story of a displaced young American Indian couple coming to the city.
Harjo introduces the javelina in the first stanza. At dusk, the animal comes out to feed. History, though, has violated the natural order of things. Housing developments have encroached upon the desert, so the javelina has learned to live and forage among the trappings of civilization. The setting then switches to the city. The poet describes driving the streets of South Tucson, an area of poor housing and ethnic minorities, where she identifies with a young Indian woman who is standing at a pay phone holding a baby. The poet imagines why the woman may be there: Perhaps her car has broken down, or perhaps she needs a job. Like the wild boar, the woman seeks sustenance in an alien environment. The poet feels a kinship with both the animal and the woman. Both know the displacement of the natural ways by the white civilization, which does not allow them room to grow.
The poet wishes that she could stop the car and tell the young woman that all will be well for her and her child, that “the mythic world will enter” and the “wounded spirit” will turn into a beautiful butterfly. Yet the poet knows better. The young woman has lost hope and would not believe such dreams of a happy future.
The poet leaves as the woman’s husband arrives with more change for the phone. The poet remembers the years that she has prayed for life-giving rain, which symbolically brings hope for the beaten spirit of the Native American as it does literally for the dry crops and waiting animals in the desert. The poet then turns her thoughts again to the javelinas, imagining the animals speaking of “the coolest promise of spiny leaves.” This dream is tempered by reality: “Their prevalent nightmare has entered recent genetic memory, as the/ smell of gunpowder mixed with human sweat.” The poem ends with a comment from an elder javelina “with thick tusks of wisdom.” He knows the desert without the white presence: “It is sweeter than the/ blooms of prickly pear. It is sweeter than rain.”
Into the words of the animal, Harjo puts her passionate feelings about the ways in which the balance of nature has been destroyed by a system that forces people to become scavengers. Like the javelina foraging for food, the Native American skirts the edges of a wealthy society. Like the javelina, which is unseen by most people, the talents of the young Native American girl go unnoticed; she has been made to think that she has nothing worthwhile to say. The vitality that she could bring to society is lost. Like the javelina, however, Native American culture and people are tough. As the poem illustrates this truth, it also asserts the right to an orderly society open to all people.
Bibliography
Adamson, Joni. “And the Ground Spoke: Joy Harjo and the Struggle for a Land-Based Language.” In American Indian Literature, Environmental Justice, and Ecocriticism: The Middle Place. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2001.
Bryson, J. Scott. “Finding the Way Back: Place and Space in the Ecological Poetry of Joy Harjo.” MELUS 27 (Fall, 2002): 169-196.
Keyes, Claire. “Between Ruin and Celebration: Joy Harjo’s In Mad Love and War.” Borderlines: Studies in American Culture 3, no. 4 (1996): 389-395.
Lobo, Susan, and Kurt Peters, eds. American Indians and the Urban Experience. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Altamira Press, 2001.
Riley, Jeannette, Kathleen Torrens, and Susan Krumholz. “Contemporary Feminist Writers: Envisioning a Just World.” Contemporary Justice Review 8 (March, 2005): 91-106.
Scarry, John. “Representing Real Worlds: The Evolving Poetry of Joy Harjo.” World Literature Today 66 (Spring, 1992): 286-291.