Eurydice

If read through the lens of Vuong's identity as a gay man, the poem could be about the experiences of same-sex couples in a heteronormative culture. Heteronormative is a sociological term referring to a belief that heterosexuality is the natural and regular expression of sexuality and any other sexual and romantic identities are deviant. Heteronormative society controls people's sexuality in many different ways. It can manifest as laws either explicitly barring LGBTQ+ people or preventing them from receiving the same opportunities as their straight counterparts, the threat of physical violence, the assumption of heterosexuality, and a lack of representation in media and education.

As a young man in late 20th and early 21st century America, Vuong grew up in a heteronormative culture. The lack of government intervention during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s helped wipe out almost an entire generation of gay men, leaving many young gay men without a sense of history or mentors. In 1998, when Vuong was ten, college student Matthew Shepard was tortured and murdered because of his sexual orientation. Shepard's murder made headlines and left a lasting scar on many young LGBTQ+ people.

In an essay, Vuong recalled when growing up that even small acts of tenderness and care between boys carried an undercurrent of danger. His peers often used “no homo” as a “get-out-of-jail-free card” to touch each other (Vuong, Ocean. “Reimagining Masculinity.” The Paris Review, The Paris Review Magazine, 14 June 2019). He remembers a friend wrapping his injured ankle during a game of war with other teenagers. The connection between violence, conquest, heterosexuality, and accepted American masculinity was clear. To survive, young gay men needed to hide.

In “Eurydice,” the speaker associates, at times, their lover with a mutilated deer corpse. The speaker and their lover press onwards in their journey. However, they do not escape danger. The image of the deer corpse comes from the speaker and companion’s shared expectation and fear of homophobic violence.

Violence against LGBTQ+ people stayed on Vuong’s mind. He wrote the poem, “Seventh Circle of Earth” to memorialize Michael Humphrey and Clayton Capshaw, a gay couple murdered in their home in 2011. LGBTQ+ people in small towns become hypervigilant and guarded to stay safe, Vuong told the news program TODAY (Newcomb, Alyssa. “'Queerness Saved Me': Author Ocean Vuong on Creating a Dream Life He Couldn't Have Imagined.” TODAY.com, NBC, 1 June 2021).

Companionship and visibility became vital too. Vuong discussed his relief at befriending other LGBTQ+ people when he first moved to New York City. He said those connections and New York’s large population allowed him to put down his “weapons” (Newcomb) and be visible on his own terms: "It's like, I'm going to dress myself in a way that today I want to be seen,” Vuong explained. “That's a power that some folks never had (in smaller towns). We never were able to be seen or unseen on our own terms." His experience helps contextualize the stakes for the protagonists’ journey in “Eurydice.” They move together to stay together.

When the magazine The Nation first published "Eurydice" in 2014, marriage equality would not become legalized nationwide until the following year. For LGBTQ+ people living in the United States, the threat of violence and the lack of resources were everyday concerns.

"Eurydice" mirrors these forms of discrimination. At the poem's beginning, the speaker and a companion are traveling somewhere yet seem weary of the time. It seems like they are worried. The speaker equates the sunset with an arrow killing a deer. They later state that they and their companion know the sunset is coming, and violence looms over them. The lines "Gravity breaking / our kneecaps just to show us / the sky" (Lines 20-22) could be read two ways. It could be someone attacking Vuong and his companion for being gay or referring to how society forces people to conform to heterosexuality by limiting their ability to act.