In “The Legend,” Garrett Hongo intertwines the story of the death of Jay Kashiwamura with the perspective of an onlooker to highlight the overarching message of the importance of compassion and empathy. By incorporating allegory, allusions, suggestive diction, and sharp contrasts in tone and imagery into the poem, Hongo conveys a theme of alienation and the dehumanization of immigrants in order to warn against the dangers of indifference and apathy.
During the post World War II era, the Asian American Movement was characterized by Asian writers and artists mass producing works that shed light on the racial injustices and economic issues that plagued their communities and individual lives (Courturier). Inspired by the constant battle sparked by anti-Asian sentiment, many of Hongo’s works address the cultural alienation of immigrants and the history of prejudice (“Garrett Hongo”). “The Legend” is one of his various poems that emphasize the importance of being empathetic towards people of all cultures, and it provides insight into one of the common struggles faced by many Asian immigrants: dehumanization.
Throughout the first stanza of the poem, Hongo primarily focuses on imagery and foreshadowing without really describing the man that the poem observes. He portrays the scene as “Rembrandt” (9) and illustrates a “last flash of sunset” (10), which serves as an allusion to Rembrandt’s famous paintings encapsulating light and space (Liedtke). This description adds a sense of otherworldliness, in which the man seems like a fictional character rather than a real person, contributing to Hongo’s theme of apathy. However, this vivid portrayal of the man additionally serves as foreshadowing: there is a hint of an underlying ominous tone, as the picturesque scene additionally symbolizes the man’s last moments of life and happiness. In lines 13-16 of the second stanza, Hongo officially introduces and describes the unidentified man with diction highlighting the message of dehumanization. He’s described as “Asian, Thai, or Vietnamese” (13) and dressed in clothing that is “dingy and too large” (16). These are the first and only lines in the entirety of the poem that give the man some sort of identity. Yet, the diction used is too broad to accurately describe him; the inability to specify his race denies the man of his heritage, stripping him of his identity and ultimately dehumanizing him. The only specified details about him are his clothes, which provide the reader an understanding of the man’s low economic status. However, this dehumanizing, weak portrayal of the man makes it easier to empathize with him and makes him a relatable character to the audience, which is why the sudden contrast in tone and mood in the second half of the stanza is more shocking to the readers.
The second half of the stanza is a major contrast to the peaceful tone that Hongo establishes throughout the beginning of the passage. Hongo uses concise, brief words to describe the gruesome scene of the man getting shot, and the entire scene is carried out in only 6 lines. The brevity of this scene demonstrates how the man’s death is seemingly insignificant, portraying his life as a subplot rather than one of a real human. Furthermore, Hongo doesn’t describe any genuine emotions or aspects of what the man feels. This is present throughout the entire poem, but is more striking when there are still no emotions described even as the man’s life is ending. The only description Hongo offers is that the man was “dumbfounded” (27). This technique maintains an emotional barrier distancing the reader and the man, and further dehumanizes him, as the audience doesn’t even know what emotions he was experiencing up to his death.
While the second stanza describes the moments leading up to the man’s death, the third stanza is about the man’s final moments, and the emotion evoked from the readers shifts from shock to mourning. Even on the brink of death, Hongo continues to utilize suggestive diction contributing to the man’s dehumanization by describing his speech as “a babbling no one understands” (31) and the people surrounding him as “bewildered by his speech” (33). This specific moment is when the entire story of the man turns into an allegory and symbolizes a broader theme: the relationship between dehumanization and apathy. Up to his last moments, Hongo robs the man of his heritage, identity, and even his last words, characterizing the experience of alienation typical to many Asian immigrants in America (Courturier).
Furthermore, the second half of the third stanza and the rest of the poem serve as a reflection upon the man’s death. The perspective shifts during lines 37 and 38, as the poem shifts from a retelling of the story of Jay Kashiwamura to the point of view of an outsider who has witnessed his death. The narrator references “Descartes’ / grand courage to doubt everything / except his own miraculous existence” (38-40), which serves as another allusion to Descartes’ famous principle, “I think, therefore I am,” the philosophy that served as the foundation for radical doubt (Sidali). The narrator is aware that his ability to relate to Descartes’ distanced way of thinking prohibits him from empathizing with the old man, making him no different from the pedestrians who stood by and let the man die, leading to the final line of the stanza “I am ashamed” (43). This inability to empathize or relate to people of other backgrounds highlights the importance of compassion, and Hongo consequently wants to emphasize the dangers of apathy that plagues present day society.
The final stanza is brief, only 3 lines, which is a stark contrast to the rest of the poem’s lengthy nature. It serves as a eulogy towards the dead man and is worded similar to that of a prayer, demonstrated with the anaphora of “Let the” in lines 44 and 45. The stanza’s brief nature is ambiguous; the audience can interpret it as out of shame or out of respect. The tone shifts away from the narrator’s worldly thoughts, and instead serves as the narrator’s final act of remembrance; yet it’s extremely brief, which hints towards the narrator’s shame of his indifference. However, there’s still an attempt to develop a connection to the unidentified man. Hongo references “the weaver girl” (45), which is a powerful allusion to Asian mythology. The myth tells the story of a cowherd and weaver girl separated by the Milky Way. Once a year, the heavens form a bridge to allow the lovers to meet (Liwei). This reference can be interpreted as a brief connection the poet establishes with the man, as he acknowledges that the man is destined to rest in heaven. It’s a method of humanizing him, the only time this is done throughout the poem.
Through the interconnection between Jay Kashiwamura’s story and the narrator’s reflection, Hongo utilizes various literary devices focusing on structure to maintain a storytelling element while highlighting a broader theme of dehumanization relevant to present society. By retelling stories similar to Kashiwamura through his writing, Hongo’s poem is an attempt to make the trials and tribulations of Asian Americans live on as a message of the importance of compassion and the ability to relate to people of other identities — thus the title, “The Legend.”
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