Literature Core (1080-01 S2022)
In Nalo Hopkinson’s ‘Shift’, the author uses split dialogue perspectives for Ariel and Caliban in order to highlight the differences in how each character views themselves in the context of their African heritage. While Ariel chooses to embrace her African heritage through her dialect and adherence to her mother’s influence, Caliban turns away from his…
Brownies, by ZZ Packer, follows the story of a girl scout troop of African American girls plotting revenge against Troop 909, a troop of white girls, because of the misconception created and spread by Arnetta that a girl from Troop 909 called Daphne a racial slur. Deeper than a narrative solely about race and racism,…
Ntozake Shange “Oh she gotta head full of hair” can be seen as a discussion of the association between black women and their hair. By following Allegra’s actions and examining the imagery Shange uses, we see the value Allegra places on her hair, ultimately depicting a black woman who’s identity-past her appearance- is heavily rooted…
In “Gorilla, My Love” by Toni Cade Bambara, the narrator expresses her distrust towards adults and how if they say something, “they outta mean it”. Her experiences of not being able to trust the adult figures in her life represent the inability of African American people to trust authority who give them their word, but…
In Toni Cade Bambara’s “Gorilla, My Love,” the narrator, a young black girl, suffers great sadness after repeatedly being deceived by the adults she encounters her life. These disappointments the narrator experiences can be interpreted as parallel to the experiences of blacks in the post-Civil War era. Due to the framing of the story from…
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,…
The short story “The First Day,” written by Edward P. Jones, details the experience of a young African-American girl and her mother on their way to the first day of school. However, their first day does not go so smoothly. Throughout the course of the story, the girl and her mother encounter multiple challenges that…
In the fictional short story, “The First Day”, an African American woman takes her daughter to sign up for school the very first day. The first school they visit is right by the church which the mother attends.They are rejected instantly by the woman at the front desk because they don’t belong to the district.…
In “Oh she gotta head fulla hair” by Ntozake Shange, the protagonist Allegra uses her hair for a sense of comfort by escaping to an alternate reality. The author depicts Allegra’s action of brushing her hair to cause objects such as a brick house and fancy soap to come out of her head. These objects…
In A Butterfly on F Street, by Edward P. Jones, there is a stark contrast in the living conditions between two families in the story. On one hand, Mildred and her children lived in a well off neighborhood in the Northeast quadrant of D.C. Mildred’s ex-husband and his new wife lived in the Southeast quadrant…