Gorilla My Love Analysis

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Toni Cade Bambara’s story collection, Gorilla, My Love focuses on the substance of overlooked people in small quiet moments, and “Playin’ with Punjab” in particular is notable in that it observes urban life from the eye of a social worker and not from the perspective of those living those urban lives. Exploring the Harlem backdrop from this outsider point of view allows for a more effective and complete observation of the culture Bambara is trying to present. Notably, Miss Ruby, the social worker, notices and resents that the people living in the area wouldn't vote. She is uniquely able to see this issue, as she is not from there and the apathy is new to her, while others living there already might not notice something so mundane. Miss Ruby Bambara presents solid rational behind a neighbourhood loan shark being a good delegate for the poverty board. He is uniquely familiar with everyone in the area, he knows their problems, their needs, he has an extreme vantage point in regards to understanding the needs of the community, more so than any upper class outsider ever could. Unfortunately, the efforts of the characters to win Punjab the election are for nothing. The people do not vote. Regardless of their support for him, they simply didn't vote. This is a destructive and frustrating moment for Violet, a bright young girl working with Miss Ruby, as her hopes for a life as a secretary are dissolved. The entire ordeal makes it quite blatant that Miss Ruby’s point about the voters was not completely out of line. The people of Harlem did not expect change, so they did not work to make change, they'd given up long ago. However, Bambara develops sympathy for the voters as well, and does not depict them as genuinely apathetic or stupid, but more just unfamiliar with the formal political system and at a loss for real hope within

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