Writing Voice: Going it Alone by Rahawa Haile

Writing Voice; Reaction Paper
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Writing Voice; Reaction Paper
When I read Rahawa Haile’s memoir “Going it Alone,” I got surprised that this composition discussed more details about race than it did about nature. A second read, however, offered me reasons why my surprise was justified. In this piece, Haile exposes the differential uncertainties, to the unusually mixed realities as well as the significantly complicated fulminations that queer black women like herself face as opposed to straight white women, face as they navigate through the woods. The writing comes out as a beautiful musical, and a silent criticism against the generally accepted manner of presenting the Americans’ interactions with outdoor activities.
After her conversation with a white day hiker who stops her for some interrogation, she says, “I’m tired of this man. His from-froms and black-blacks…He means it, too; he isn’t malicious. To him, there’s nothing abnormal about our conversation. He has categorized me, and the world makes sense again.” Here Haile uses repetition to emphasize how the white community views the black people. The man in question would not take it that a black woman would hike. To him, and the entire white fraternity, hiking is a white-only outdoor activity. When Haile responds to him that she is from Miami, the man, discontented, asks again, “Where are you from from?” this use of repetition brings out the emphasis of the level of discontent in the man and adds to Haile’s use of dialogue to bring out the white man’s opinions, unadulterated, right from his mouth. By repeating ‘from,’ the white man indir...