Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo Book Analysis Essay Example

In the world that we live in today, many are taught to always color inside the lines. As a child, I remember vividly always tracing a thin line next to the black outline of the image I was coloring. This would create a textured barrier before coloring in the space between to alert me if I was close to coloring outside the lines. This would allow me to make a final product comparable to others using the same technique. When one colors out of the lines, it is as if they are not following the guidelines and stereotypes of what they were taught to follow. In the memoir Crazy Brave, Joy Harjo is receptive to coloring outside the lines. The title itself derives from the name Harjo, meaning "crazy brave," in which the word "brave" can be used as a synonym for courage which we can see Joy poises a lot of. It can also be referred to as the painfully unique shape of an artist's mind, having been driven to the brink by abuse and disappointment through having to endure a difficult life. Harjo's book format is also outside of the lines. She uses poetry to understand her journey and the unpleasant ways her life is different from the stereotypical American lifestyle. Harjo states, "I had no way to translate the journey and what I would find there until I found poetry" (Harjo 25). By drawing outside of the lines, one goes beyond the norms and shows their wildness.

Since Joy was a little girl, strength and braveness have been huge motivators that allow her to keep going. When she was in First grade, she faced scrutiny from her classmates for coloring a ghost green. Her teacher allowed her to continue to be unique, which shows Joy's capacity to be different and go beyond what we are told in a world that tells us how things are. Joy felt very thankful for her teacher that allowed her to explore her ideas rather than oppressing them. Joy's scrutiny experience can be seen in today's society because many students of color usually feel out of place. Unlike in Harjo's case, there is no support from the faculty who have the most control in the classroom. Many of these students have to understand not to give up but to turn their fears and insecurities into wildness as a motivator to keep going. Joy expresses her sense of wildness within this situation because she does not allow herself to lack discipline, but rather, she allows her heart to guide her outside of the lines. Harjo's sense of wildness can also be addressed through her poetry to share her journey.

Harjo embraces her wildness within the many poems that she has written. She wrote, "It was the spirit of poetry who reached out and found me as I stood there at the doorway between panic and love" (Harjo 163). Before poetry came into Joy's life, she endured challenges, most dealing with the abuse she suffered from parental figures and significant others. These challenges and how she dealt with them have made Joy Harjo who she is today. Joy's father was an excessive drinker and was often violent towards her and her mother as a young child. When her mother remarried, Harjo had an abusive stepfather who forbade her to express her love for the arts. Through her wild sense of "knowing," she pushed her mother to enroll her in the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). This moment expresses her wildness because she is leaving her abusive house to invigorate her life with her passions that the abusive people in her life had long since destroyed. Being at this school, Joy felt a sense of belonging, writing, "It was the fires of creativity at the IAIA that my spirit found a place to heal… I belonged." (Harjo 86). Harjo's sense of "knowing" brought her to the right place of belonging, and she realized that her path in life would be vastly different from others. Through Joy's wild journey of leaving her family, she gains strength and braveness to protect herself for whatever lies ahead in her future.

Joy's tale of transformation allows me to understand my understanding of wildness because, at first, my meaning of wildness was having a lack of discipline and ability to control oneself. Through reading the novel, I have come to a new definition of wildness: the ability to renew oneself from living in a state of no authority to doing what your heart guides you to do. Harjo's heart guided her to be unique since she was a young girl, and living in a brutal homestead brought forth her wildness which allowed her to transform into the woman she is today. Ever since I was a young girl, I was always seen as unique, as I would not dress as the stereotypical girl would. Instead, I dressed more like a tomboy, and I received much scrutiny for it. I did not let it get me down, as I felt very comfortable as the person I was, even if I was drawing outside of the lines of how a girl should dress. I am very thankful for staying true to myself when I was young because it has helped me gain confidence and freedom, just as poetry allowed Joy to feel free and comfortable to share her journey. Furthermore, as Joy found poetry to express herself and turn her fears into wildness, I express mine through dance movements. Dance has allowed me to feel a sense of freedom and to share my story through the quality of movements I produce. In the novel, Harjo's wildness and bravery enlist me in my own crazy life to step through the doorway with courage and to know that it is okay to draw outside the lines to express your wildness.