In Marilyn Chin’s “Elegy for Chloe Nguyen (1955-1988),” she speaks about the life of her friend that has passed away at the age of 33. She compares their lives side by side, with Chin growing up poor and Nguyen growing up wealthy. Both women grew up in a similar cultural background, but a different class background. It’s almost as if Chin admired how intelligent and well-rounded Nguyen appeared to be, despite Nguyen experiencing moods of emptiness throughout her life. As the poem progresses, it’s evident that there is a shift in Nguyen’s mood, thus shifting the poem. Throughout “Elegy for Chloe Nguyen (1955-1988),” Chin describes the impact of stereotypes of Asian Americans through her use of literary devices such as setting, diction, and juxtaposition; through each stanza, Chin demonstrates what led to Nguyen’s unstated suicide.
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This could have something to do with the title of the poem: “Elegy for Chloe Nguyen.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, elegy means “a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.” This could suggest that Chin wrote this poem for it to read at the funeral of her friend, which could explain why most of the diction in her poem was simple for her audience to understand. Regardless of her use of simple words, she still establishes a strong poem that gives the audience an understanding of who Chloe grew up to
This could have something to do with the title of the poem: “Elegy for Chloe Nguyen.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, elegy means “a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.” This could suggest that Chin wrote this poem for it to read at the funeral of her friend, which could explain why most of the diction in her poem was simple for her audience to understand. Regardless of her use of simple words, she still establishes a strong poem that gives the audience an understanding of who Chloe grew up to