Susan Isaacs's Critique of Ntozake Shange's Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo
Susan Isaacs believes that Ntozake Shange's first novel, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, is mildly entertaining and enjoyable, but her writing, "sometimes loses a thread and makes a mess" (395). Isaacs praises Shange's style, while finding fault with some of the techniques she employs.
The main character that is introduced to the readers in Post Modern American Fiction's excerpt from Shange's novel, Sassafrass Cypress, and Indigo, is Indigo, the youngest of three daughters in the story. Indigo's character borders on the mystical. She has dolls she still talks to, and a fiddle that Sister Mary Louise, a friend of Indigo's, remarks, "Too much of the Holy Ghost came out of Indigo and that fiddle" (Shange, 44). One of Isaacs's criticisms has to do with Indigo's use of magic. Indigo is an avid fiddle player, she, "had mastered the hum of the dusk, the crescendoes of the cicadas, swamp rushes in light winds, thunder at high tide, and her mother's laughter down the hall" (Shange, 45). The technique of mixing magic and fiddle playing does not sit well with Isaacs, who states, "It's an intriguing idea, but it fails because although the author tries to present Indigo as a wise innocent, a mystical power, a joyous embodiment of the black spirit, the rhetoric of her musings is earthbound radical-feminist, predictable and silly..."
Isaacs continues her criticism of the notion that Indigo has any magical abilities, and the use of magic as a story line and as a part of Indigo's character, saying, "And if Indigo's black magic is real,...How can she and her people-a people with such potent magic-tolerate the evils the author catalogues so movingly?" (396). Isaacs wonders about the reason for Indigo's magical, mystical qualities, and continues along this track, wondering if the magic might be a metaphor, a fantasy of Indigo's, or Shange's own portrayal of black folklore. Regardless of the intended portrayal of Indigo's magical qualities, Isaacs believes that, "it is not presented with enough clarity. The reader remains mildly fond of Indigo--people who talk to dolls can be enchanting--but it is nonetheless befuddled about her role in the novel" (394).
Despite Isaacs' problems with the structure of the novel, and some of the devices and techniques Shange used in her character development, she does praise Shange as a novelist, comparing her art to weaving, a skill shared by both the mother and the eldest daughter in Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo.
Although the chosen writer’s style structure is similar in Saint Monkey and “Trilobites,” the writer’s voice and word choice is different. The structure that an author has chosen is important for a author because of the way the story has happened. After reading the biographies of both Breece D’J Pancake and Jacinda Townsend, I realized that even growing up in different parts of the region is different. Both authors’ of Saint Monkey and “Trilobites” grew up in different states and had different lifestyles which has an effect on the writer’s writing
The author uses a lot of description when setting the scene, or writing how someone looks. He also uses a lot of color imagery within the chapters and writes in 3rd person narrative.
The book in it’s entirety deals with multiple subjects ranging from depression to dealing with being an adult but an important subject that goes unnoticed is the subject of grief. Holden throughout the book deals with multiple stages of grief. The stages of grief he deals with are anger, denial, and finally acceptance bringing the book to a
In the book, “Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman,” written by Marjorie Shostak; is a culturally shocking and extremely touching book about a woman who had gone through many struggles and horrific tragedies in her life. This book also emphasizes the perspective of most of the women in the society. There are many striking issues in this book that the people of the !Kung tribe go through.
At one shack they lived in, Anne’s neighbors had a couple of white children, and they would play with her often in the backyard. While going to elementary school, Moody did not have a clear sense of what it meant to be black or white. She only knew people as being people. It was when she was scolded and dragged out of a mo...
Jewett, Sarah Orne. "A White Heron." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. 131-139.
on the gothic genre of the book, and her life is also mirrored in that
While reading through Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye one notices many points of similarity between Holden and other people in the world. Much of what Salinger focuses on in the book, for example the feelings, the experiences, and Holden's wants, are things the reader can relate to and understand. In a sense, Salinger typified the heart and soul of the disillusioned teenager. Yet, it goes deeper than that. Salinger created not just a mish-mash of teenage angst but an archetype that recapitulated every teenager caught between the little games of high school and the fear of adulthood. It's for this reason that I, as with so many other teenagers, can relate to this book.
his life. A prep school student who has just been kicked out of his second school, Holden struggles to find the right path into adulthood. He does not know what road to follow and he uses others as the scapegoat for his puzzlement in life. Harold Bloom explains,
Stein, Karen F. "Amy Tan." Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition (2001): 1-3. Literary Reference Center Plus. EBSCO. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.
Long story short, let me be honest and say that the longer essay stapled to the back of this one is the one I wrote first, because I read the instructions wrong. I thought I would attach that paper also and turn it in, since I took the time to write it, and finished it before realizing it was not what you were looking for. It does, however, relate to this paper, because in this paper I will (indirectly) give the reasons why I wanted to write that paper in the first place.
The idea that resulted in the Little Seamstress leaving the mountain maybe viewed as ironic by the reader. The ideas of being different and individual, that Lou held and put to practice were what communist Leader Chair man Mao Zedong originally feared. This was why the texts were originally banned in the first place, and viewed as revolutionary trash. As it was thought that they may result in an u...
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...elings and portrays them through the main character Elphalba. It is as if he is taking a part of himself, the part filled with rage and frustration, and building the character Elphalba with it. She is the feminine, yet somewhat masculine, part of him revealing itself through the book.
In the 1930s, Alabama author, anthropologist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston returned to her “native village“ of Eatonville, Florida to record the oral histories, sermons and songs dating back to the time of slavery which she remembered hearing as a child. Hurston’s love of African American folklore and her work as an anthropologist are reflected in her novels and short stories – where she employs the rich indigenous dialects of her native rural Florida as well as the African tradition of oral story telling. As Hurston’s deep interest in the folkloric practices of the Southern black folk became the basic of her novels, a close reading of Their Eyes Were Watching God reveals that folklore pervades all the main levels of the novel – the story passed down through words of mouth, characters are stereotypes and plot is repetitive in nature.