Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

 

BOOKER'S SEVEN BASIC PLOTS 

- Overcoming the Monster

Overcoming the monster is a good plot for this book because Gibson suffers from depression. Throughout a lot of her poems, she discusses some of the struggles she faces including, thoughts of suicide, and self-harm. This is shown through quotes such as "I am frantically hiding my scars,/'cause the last thing I want these kids to know/ is that I ever thought my life was too hard." and "Cause I don't wanna be a witness to this life,/I want to be charged and convicted. " These are just two of the examples. Although she uses the people in her life to assist in the matter. For example, her girlfriend Heather was a reason she started to love herself again because she was able to love someone else. She wanted to be who she wanted to be and did it. Gibson uses her work as an escape from those feelings as well. This book was published to fight the demons head on. Although, this is her psychological monster. There is another monster she tackles and that would be the judgement and prejudice she faces for being a lesbian. She writes about how all she wants is equal rights. At the time, gay marriage was not legal so all they could hope for was "an ucivil union in Vermont." When she went out she couldn't hold her girlfriends hand without being stared at. In the beginning, it was hard but ultimately a good thing because it helped open her eyes to what needs to be done with her work. She writes what she does in an attempt to make a difference. A really interesting element to this book is that the reader connects with her words and feels how she does and goes through the process of overcoming their own monsters. Gibson's work is very relatable which is why most readers often join in her fight or begin their own in an attempt to overcome the figuative monster.