“only so much i can do” in The Sweet Breath of Life by Ntozake Shange and Kamoinge.
On Monday, the class spoke about some of their favorite pieces from The Sweet Breath of Life by Shange and Kamoinge. One of my favorite image and text pairings from The Sweet Breath of Life (pictured above) depicts a wall—layered by an aged striped wallpaper, pictures of the Lord, a torn out book page covered by a straw hat, and a family photo collage. The title: only so much i can do suggests the narrator finds something on the wall that is in need of fixing and/or attention, but it seems there are only limited approaches to remedying the problem. Considering the suggestive quality of the title, and the reiteration of the fixed thing/circumstance via the wall as physical space and title of the piece, themes of compromise and agency become central.
While the title, only so much i can do, is indicative of the narrator’s limited and/or lack of agency, the text suggest that there is indeed a lot that can be done by the narrator to change the circumstance—the circumstance at hand being the Lord’s gaze erroneously falling in the direction opposite that of the family photos. The narrator’s concern with the Lord’s gaze and re-arrangement of the family photos serves as metaphor for laboring to bring oneself and one’s loved ones into a blessed place/space. It is in that place that we find the extraordinary in the mundane—miracle.