Drey’s Take on Little Dog’s Letter in “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”
“I am thinking of beauty again, how some things are hunted because we have deemed them beautiful. If, relative to the history of our planet, an individual life is so short, a blink, as they say, then to be gorgeous, even from the day you’re born to the day you die, is to be gorgeous only briefly.”
Little Dog in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
A couple of years ago, my friend, Ike, recommended Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” to our book club. Someone had recommended it to her, and she thought it would be a good novel to provoke conversation in our little group of four. This recommendation went in one ear and remained dormant in some part of memory for years! I slept on the recommendation and only remembered it when Audible was having a 2-for-1 sale, and this book was on the list of books. Even though I listened to it in my first round, I will definitely buy the physical copy of this book because it deserves to take up actual space in my physical abode.
I don’t know what I expected, but the book’s blurb was enough to realize that Vuong and I were like-minded individuals. For one, EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE in this book is quotable and poetic. It makes sense, I mean, with an author’s name of Ocean and a book title of “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” what else can you expect? This book also reminded me of my friend’s college thesis that looked at how the mothers of Boston’s Eritrean diaspora invest in their children’s access and performance in education at the expense of their psychological well-being. This neglect of their mental health, formed and fortified through the trauma of war and unrest, not only comes from the stigma of mental illness in Eritrea but also the hidden expectation of Eritrean mothers to uphold patriotic identity and motherly responsibilities. Thanks, Maki, for such thought-provoking work!
All that to say, if you are a fan of poetry or nuanced experiences or coming to terms with how the trauma of your parents/ancestors may be reflected in your upbringing and emotional responses or art that so beautifully holds that humanity lies in the tense contact of heartbreak and beauty, then you have to read this book.
*I will warn you that it is a pretty graphic book, especially with sexual scenes and drug use, so if these are triggers, please choose yourself first.*
Little Dog’s Letter to His Mother
“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” is a letter from Little Dog to his illiterate mother, having prematurely stopped her schooling at seven because of the Vietnam War. Though he knows that his mother may never read his letter, he writes this letter as a way to grasp his life’s story to this point. It almost feels as if he chooses to write this letter to reflect more thoroughly on the trauma and beauty that has shaped and defined his family’s lives.
Little Dog was raised by his mother, Lan, and his grandmother, Rose. Lan grew up in a small village, Go Cong, in Vietnam but was disowned when she left her marriage. She eventually meets Paul, an American GI, whom Little Dog believed was his grandfather, and later finds out that Lan does not know who his grandfather is. When they immigrate to Hartford, Connecticut, Little Dog is bullied at school because of his ethnicity and linguistic barrier. To top matters, he lives in a home where his father domestically abuses his mother leading to his father’s eventual arrest, and his mother repeatedly abuses Little Dog.
During high school, Little Dog begins biking 8 miles away to work a tobacco field alongside Hispanic/Latinx migrant laborers. There, he meets the grandson, Trevor, of the farm owner. Though initially a friendship, eventually, they have a tumultuous relationship marked by violence and drug abuse. Throughout their relationship, they both struggle with their identities and sexuality, with Little Dog also wrestling with the intersection of his ethnic background and sexuality.
Eventually, Little Dog decides to attend community college in Brooklyn. There, he finds out via Facebook post that Trevor died in a car wreck while he was high on a mix of heroin and fentanyl. Lan also receives terminal news; she has late-stage bone cancer and has two weeks to live. His mother and aunt make arrangements for her funeral and they all travel to Go Cong, Vietnam, to spread Lan’s ashes. There, Little Dog witnesses a festival-like funeral with drag performers to bring joy and lightness to the circumstance. It’s through witnessing this scene that Little Dog begins to see the beauty and brevity of his life and the lives of his family. My high school literature days would probably encourage me to extrapolate that it’s probably here that Little Dog decides to write this letter to his mother.
Drey’s Thoughts
Y’all, this book was one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. Vuong’s lyrical novel reminds me of the way that Toni Morrison would dance along her pages with her words. As I mentioned before, it felt like I needed to take every sentence and lock them up in my vault of working memory. I could spend an entire section writing about the beauty of Vuong’s words, but that would not be the highest and best use of this corner of the internet. Instead, I’ll write about the quotes that really shook me and why.
“To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.”
The truth of this statement hit me like a ton of bricks. Think of all the things that we have deemed beautiful and how we have continuously sought that beauty. On the innocuous end of the spectrum, I can think of the fact that when I see a rainbow, if I can, I sit in the same location until the rainbow leaves. Somewhat believing that if I leave, I will forget what it looks like. My eyes drink in the image without ever feeling quenched. It can feel like it’s a hunt. It’s not to say that seeking beauty is evil; in fact, I think the entire human experience can be boiled down to our pursuit of beauty, truth, and goodness. However, there are evil sides to this. Think of colonialism. Various Europeans saw the beauty of the outside lands and different peoples that they allowed their pursuit of beauty to drive their evil actions of conquest and stealth. In the pursuit of beauty, they even convinced others that what they were seeking was actually ugly or undesirable; however, their actions said otherwise. And even though actions can speak louder than words; words have a powerful way of affecting psyches and internal belief/value systems. And even though, within the Black community, we have been going redefining what was once called ugly to be called beautiful, we must now battle others hunting our beauty and making it their own. You can see this from how our music to bodily features have been stolen without credit.
“Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey.”
Another one that became obvious after Vuong said it first. I have never thought of freedom like this, but I can see certain circumstances reinforcing this definition. For example, say you struggle with a particular vice. Freedom looks like the distance between you and that vice, whether it’s where you partook most often of that vice or maybe it was the people or the amount of time since you last fell because just as virtue begets virtue, vice begets vice.
“Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence – but that violence having passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it.”
For me, this is the most powerful quote in this entire book. After looking at his trauma and love of himself and his family, Little Dog can say, my mother, who abused me, and Trevor, who abused opioids, were not the fruits of violence. Yes, his mother grew up in a war and suffered at the hands of his father. Yes, Trevor was prescribed opioids for a minor injury at the hands of an industry that put profit over its patients, and he struggled with his masculinity and sexuality in a culture that leaves boys and men confused about what true masculinity looks like. He can look at these formative figures during his life and say that violence tried to strip them of their humanity and beauty, yet, it failed. It could not rob them of their desire and willingness to love. Violence could not rob them of their pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness. This line really struck me because I think I fall into the trap of confusing how trauma shaped my life with the identity of the traumatized. My name is not Traumatized or Forgotten. My name is Beloved. Trauma and violence has definitely passed through many of our lives of varying degrees; however, the day we begin to identify as those adjectives, we forget the eternal battle that God has fought to reclaim our very identities as Beloved. Though this book was not religious, it had me running to the Father’s arm like the Prodigal Son. Even if you aren’t religions, I hope that you will see that your life experiences have shaped you but they don’t define you. You were already gorgeous before life happened to you and you are gorgeous even after it has happened. Thanks for listening to my motivational soap box.
There are so many more I could spend time analyzing in the context of my life, but time is precious. This would be a great book to use in the AP English Language and Composition exam, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they banned this book… Take that as you will.
Anyways, let me know your thoughts! Also, do you think that Ocean Vuong speaks in poems in his everyday language? I just feel like he must have to practice somewhere in order for his books to be this amazing!!
Love y’all!
Stay Blessed & Stay Sippin’
Drey
Disclaimer: Though influenced by the institutions that formed me, the views expressed here are those of my own at a specific snapshot in time. I make no promises that said ideas will remain constant as I age.
