Skewed Views

Throughout Thomas Glave’s story And Love Them, the narrator is close minded and judges the black people in her life based off of preconceived stereotypes. Her close mindedness leads her to make inaccurate generalizations, seen when she deems a black man to be threatening in a safe situation. Through the narrator’s conscience, language and setting,…

Anime vs Reality

Throughout Heads of The Colored People, written by Nafissa Thompson-Spires, police officers assume that fighting between two black characters is gang-related. A fist fight between two avid anime fans turned deadly after two racially motivated cops used excessive force in their arrest attempt. While some relate the fight to a scene in the famous anime…

A Mother’s Regret

Throughout Toni Morrison’s short story Sweetness, the narrator breaks the fourth wall and asks the reader questions throughout her narrative. In multiple instances, the narrator asks the reader questions to either validate, exaggerate, or emphasize her point of view regarding her disappointment with her daughter’s dark complexion, as well as her parenting style. One in…

Mother Knows Best

As Toni Morrison writes from a mother’s point of view throughout Sweetness, she uses repetition to reflect the mother’s conscience. The reader can feel the repetition’s impact when the mother says “But It’s not my fault. It’s not my fault. It’s not.”(Morrison).  Throughout Sweetness, the mother rejects responsibility for her daughter’s darker skin and even…

“Blackness” and Identity

In the first paragraph of “Blackness” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator describes a sense of blackness that she feels around her at all times. She begins to describe this phenomenon by saying that it is something that “can not be separated from her but she can often stand outside of it”. This blackness causes the…

Family is Family

Désirée’s Baby, written by Kate Chopin, follows the story of an orphan who grows up to marry a plantation owner in Louisiana, sometime before the Civil War. Désirée grows up with Madame Valmonde, and when she is old enough, she marries lifelong friend Armand Augbiny. Armand and Désirée move on to have a baby and…

Unknown Origins

The short story, Désirée’s Baby by Kate Chopin was published in 1892. The story is set in the time before the Civil War, somewhere in Louisiana on a plantation. It begins when the main character, Désirée, is found abandoned next to a big stone pillar by Madame Valmonde. She raises Désirée and when Désirée is…

Désirée’s Baby

Kate Chopin’s Désirée’s Baby, published in 1892, follows the story of Désirée and is intended towards an upper class white audience. Désirée was abandoned as a baby, but then adopted by Madame Valmonde and her husband. Years later, Armand Aubingy, a plantation owner, falls in love with Desiree. The couple gets married and have a…