Alfred Romero
10/17/2022
Professor Frank
Introduction to Literary Theory & Criticism
QCQ#5
From her poem “The Hill We Climb”, American poet and activist Amanda Gorman states that “quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what ‘just’ is isn’t always justice” (Gorman lines 5-6).
This quote from Gorman makes me think of not only political scenarios, but in really any conflict that could involve bystanders, like bullying. I agree that in certain cases, silence isn’t the best answer and it would be our jobs as human beings to stand up for what we believe is morally right. This can be reflected, in a political sense, throughout different social movements that push for this concept of equality being applied within modern society. Conflict such as this doesn’t come as a surprise to me and I feel like it shouldn’t to anyone, considering that we as humans should know how other humans can be.
I might’ve missed the answer to this within the poem, but towards the end, Gorman seems to be rather optimistic about the future of these conflicts being put to rest within the future society of America. Now, I’d like to think of myself as an optimistic person for the most part, but with a situation such as this, how could you see a happy ending?
