Commitments

Week 3 Question 2 Commitments
The descriptions used in this poem are incredibly vivid. The narrator includes important information on the dissection he is going with the poem within in the first five lines. He sets up the poem with an understanding that before anything we the reader can identify with him as because he too has a family and like families everywhere photos of gatherings can be found. He describes two particular photographs and allows the reader to clearly understand the entire backdrop of the gatherings. In the first photo he and his family seem to be outside somewhere having a family BBQ. This BBQ is no different than what I am used too at a family gathering which helps me understand what is going on and how he is feeling. The second photo includes the same type of gathering but instead is during Thanksgiving time.
My understanding of this poem is that the narrator is expressing how his family is no different anyone elses family. He entire family seems to love him and he seems to love them also. However, there is a large weight that that sits heavy on his shoulders. The burden he holds near to him is his sexuality. I am uncertain if is family was aware of his sexuality, perhaps they are and choice not speak about and this is why he feels invisible or perhaps they do not know and he is ashamed of it knowing that his family is the so called "perfect family" and they would not except it. Either way, the reader does not has to be gay to relate to this poem. A reader may know a family member who is the “black sheep” of the family or very well maybe it themselves, and while they do fit into their family something is different about them. Also, I think that there has been a point in everyone’s life that they themselves have felt out of place within their own family, and just like they narrator and the title of the poem we usually have a unspoken commitment to our family so we all put on a smile and no one assumes anything is wrong.