Shange incorporates Indigo’s personal reflections, entries, and written moments throughout the story so that the reader can see the world through this young woman’s eyes. Indigo is very in touch with her emotions and she uses magical realism and imagination to translate these feelings into the small snippets of poetry, jotted numbers, and experiences. These notes are embedded in the text to create a more personal connection between the reader and Indigo as an individual separate from the story that is told about her. Shange uses Indigo’s inner thoughts and writings to strike a contrast between how Indigo views the world and how others view her. Through this contrast, we see that Indigo channels her energy via the wonder/magic that her mother views as childish.
“Suitors with the Moon’s Blessing” and two entries that follow are reflections and routines Indigo writes based on her own lived experience. After she sees Uncle John and Mrs. Yancey during their intimate dinner, Indigo leaves, thinking that “there was too much magic out in the night” (26). Indigo leaves as if she cannot comprehend the situation, which makes her seem young and naive. However, the journaling she does after shows that she has her own, less traditional way of understanding the world, which includes the interpretation of the physical world.
These writings help the reader understand how Indigo copes with the events with her life, as well as portraying her in a secretly more mature way than Shange portrays Indigo to her family. The thoughtful writing and descriptiveness: “Fill a glass that sparkles in sunlight with pure spring water…. Close your eyes. Let your beloved fill your heart. Bring the glass to your lips. Drink the gladness that shall be yours” (18). The different tone that is displayed in Indigo’s private writings and thoughts demonstrates her maturity hidden within the text. A young girl in a boyish friend group with a fiddle does not echo the same worldly comprehension as the Indigo that writes about methods of self-reflection and navigating her complicated youth.
Question: How do Indigo’s private thoughts separate her from the youthful image she represents?