Miscegenation Analysis

Miscegenation Analysis

Etymologically, Miscegenation denoted the interbreeding between members of different races (“dicitionary.com”) especially between a black and a white person, in the U.S. The poem of Natasha Trethewey, professor of poetry at Emory University, depicted the difficulty that interracial marriages encompassed in her society at that time, especially for her parents living in Mississippi, one of the sixteen states, where biracial children were illegitimate. Plus, it also talks about the author’s identity crisis due to her biracialism.

Indeed, Trethewey parents living in Mississippi had to live their town to Ohio because of the multiple anti-biracial laws that existed at that time (Poetry daily.) Actually, it was not only illegal in the state of Mississippi for interracial couples to marry, it was also illegal for them to leave the state of Mississippi, and get married somewhere else that allowed it (“NPR.org”.) This statement cleared up her assertions in the poem “They crossed the river into Cincinnati…the train slicing the white glaze of winter, leaving Mississippi”. Through the following passage, she also mentioned “sin, the sound of wrong--mis in Mississippi." This explains the wrong act of her parents in the eyes of society. Indeed, “sin” implies a “mistake,” thus her parents being married and having her is a mistake in the eyes of both the society and the law (Aristotle).

Moreover, the rest of the poem indicates her influence by William Faulkner, particularly his novel Light about a biracial child named Joe Christmas. She believes that their lives share many similarities, including the similarity of their names. “Natasha” is a Russian name that means “Christ’s birth,” even though she was born at Easter time, and Joe Christmas was so named because he was found as a baby on Christmas day. Further, Trethewey talks about how