Authors Statement - Pōhaku Figueira

The vignettes I wrote were “The Fire and the Forest,” and, “Legacy,” both of which were at least a little inspired by the Hawaiian culture. Throughout these vignettes, the most common literary devices I used were metaphors and anaphora. In my second vignette I use anaphora in the sentences, “It is the legacy of a foreigner and a native. It stepped upon and rolled. I am tied to the end of sticks to throw. I am placed upon my brothers to build walls of war,” ([Figueira] [Legacy]). Another literary device I used in my first vignette was metaphors. An example of this was in my first vignette, when I used seeds as as a metaphor for Hawaiʻi, and fire as a metaphor for the Americans, which was. “Stripped away was the bark of Hawaiʻi, revealing the exfoliated wood, more vulnerable to the oncoming fire from the Northeast. Then after the fire has hopped over the ocean to our islands, and burnt all but eight seeds, leaving its sparks to keep the rest of the seeds and saplings in line,” ([Figueira] [The Fire and the Forest]).

For my artwork I chose to work with Liam and Ethan, and their vignettes of, “Because of Liam Neelson,” by Liam Chattergy, and “The Pool” by Ethan Chun. I took a lot of inspiration from the fact that in Ethan’s vignette, he was a kid, he mentions adrenaline a lot, and, obviously, that he was at the pool. When thinking about adrenaline, I first thought about playing with perspective, because you probably get an adrenaline rush from jumping into a deep pool that feels like five miles away in the air. Then I figured he’d be doing posing in a “childish” way, without a care in the world as he leapt down 20000 feet. For Liam’s artwork I was mostly inspired by the story of his grandfather and how he left his class as a Brahmin for love, and the last line of his vignette, which was, “…the true Brahmin is in your heart.” So, I drew what I interpreted a Brahmin to be, a scholar, holding out his symbol of love with his heart, and leaving behind his study. While still retaining the knowledge and practices he already had. The outburst of color from the lines was also supposed to be representative of breaking the rules, and quite literally, going outside the lines.