Analyzing Character’s Identities in Silver Sparrow Tayari Jones’s, Silver Sparrow, is a capturing novel that incorporates matters such as trust, family, and secrets all throughout the book. The novel tells the lives of two girls, Dana Lynn Yarbor and Chaurisse Witherspoon, who share the same bigamist father, James Witherspoon. The first half of the story is narrated by Dana while the second half is told by Chaurisse. Dana is aware that her bigamist father has another daughter and wife. Unlike Chaurisse who has no idea that she is not James’s only daughter and her mother is not his only wife. Throughout this novel Dana is identified as a beautiful, smart, and dissolute. It is made known from the very beginning of the novel that a beautiful …show more content…
Instances such as her choice in boyfriends and her choice in friends. Dana states, “I had a boyfriend, Marcus McCready, and he was the secret center of everything. He was eighteen and, technically, the things we did were illegal” (61). Marcus called Dana “jailbait” because she was younger than him and also because she was not at the age of consent. Therefore it would be illegal and considered statutory rape if they did anything sexual, which goes back to the quote above. Dana shows how dissolute she has become by staying with Marcus even though he is abusive towards her. Dana explains the abuse when she notes, “Sometimes it was like a shove with a bit of a shake. Yes, there were slaps, but with a slap, the shock was in the sound more than anything else. And I shouldn’t have asked him about Angie” (91-92). Dana tries to make it seem like it’s not a big deal that Marcus hits her and that it’s not his fault. Her poor choice in men is more than likely the result of her issues with her own father. James has not been a good father, but he has been the only father Dana has known and she had to practically fight for is attention. Therefore she could be unknowingly picking boyfriends who are similar to her dad and are not good choices. Dana’s poor judgment in friends is evident in her friendship with Ronalda. Ronalda is in high school and dates a grown man, steals alcohol, drinks underage, and smokes weed. Ronalda offers strawberry wine coolers to Dana and they both drink them. Dana articulates, “She handed me another. We each drank two coolers as quickly as the effervescence would allow” (72). Dana’s underage drinking and bad friend choice exemplifies her immoral
Further, throughout the book, Sadie and Bessie continuously reminds the reader of the strong influence family life had on their entire lives. Their father and mother were college educated and their father was the first black Episcopal priest and vice principal at St. Augustine Co...
Although this story is told in the third person, the reader’s eyes are strictly controlled by the meddling, ever-involved grandmother. She is never given a name; she is just a generic grandmother; she could belong to anyone. O’Connor portrays her as simply annoying, a thorn in her son’s side. As the little girl June Star rudely puts it, “She has to go everywhere we go. She wouldn’t stay at home to be queen for a day” (117-118). As June Star demonstrates, the family treats the grandmother with great reproach. Even as she is driving them all crazy with her constant comments and old-fashioned attitude, the reader is made to feel sorry for her. It is this constant stream of confliction that keeps the story boiling, and eventually overflows into the shocking conclusion. Of course the grandmother meant no harm, but who can help but to blame her? O’Connor puts her readers into a fit of rage as “the horrible thought” comes to the grandmother, “that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee” (125).
The novel Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is one of Tyler’s more complex because it involves not only the growth of the mother, Pearl Tull, but each of her children as well. Pearl must except her faults in raising her children, and her children must all face their own loneliness, jealousy, or imperfection. It is in doing this that they find connections to their family. They find growth through suffering.
...e on her part. Throughout the story, the Mother is portrayed as the dominant figure, which resembled the amount of say that the father and children had on matters. Together, the Father, James, and David strived to maintain equality by helping with the chickens and taking care of Scott; however, despite the effort that they had put in, the Mother refused to be persuaded that Scott was of any value and therefore she felt that selling him would be most beneficial. The Mother’s persona is unsympathetic as she lacks respect and a heart towards her family members. Since the Mother never showed equality, her character had unraveled into the creation of a negative atmosphere in which her family is now cemented in. For the Father, David and James, it is only now the memories of Scott that will hold their bond together.
The characters in his novel all coexist in a familial state, as characters displaced or abandoned find family in unlikely sources in their community. "Haruf's beautifully spare prose is the perfect vehicle for describing the poignancy of their lives, particularly the relationship of Victoria and the McPherson brothers with whom she goes to live. The sharing of these fractured lives in meaningful new family relationships after the old relationships are broken is the heart of this novel" (LaHood). Clearly values are a driving force for the novel as numerous different character's in Victoria's life, break up her family, and through this destruction a new family is born. Values of right and wrong, family values, expectation for the youth, are all clearly present in this novel. It is to the betterment of the reader that we analyze Victoria's life and the surrounding characters' impact on it, so as to draw comparisons to our lives and
The mother-daughter relationship is a common topic throughout many of Jamaica Kincaid's novels. It is particularly prominent in Annie John, Lucy, and Autobiography of my Mother. This essay however will explore the mother-daughter relationship in Lucy. Lucy tells the story of a young woman who escapes a West Indian island to North America to work as an au pair for Mariah and Lewis, a young couple, and their four girls. As in her other books—especially Annie John—Kincaid uses the mother-daughter relationship as a means to expose some of her underlying themes.
Faulkner uses the two primary women of the story to represent the two options open to young Baynard—each is trying to pull him in an opposite direction. Drusilla, Baynard’s stepmother, and his Aunt Jenny represent the two conflicting views and solutions that Baynard must struggle with. Does he challenge Redmond to a duel? or merely walk away from the situation. Both women try to work on Baynard’s emotions and intellect in their attempt to sway him to their conflicting points of view. Either choice could have a lasting or fatal consequence for Baynard and his family.
It was hard for her mother to have a baby at a young age herself and try to make ends meet was not easy. She needed to lean on others for help, which she thought at the time was right thing to do, but got caught up on her new family. This is why Emily had so much resentment towards her mother. This story is a great example of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship. The story does great job showing the mother’s anguish over her daughter, and a depressed teen that needed her mother and is struggling to overcome a very unhappy childhood.
Relationships are often difficult and messy, especially in the world Tayari Jones presents in her 2011 novel Silver Sparrow, chronicling the lives of the two daughters of bigamist father James Witherspoon. Jones depicts the complicated world of Dana Yarboro, the secret daughter, her father’s attempts to hide her from the prying view of the world, and her refusal to stay hidden. While Chaurisse Witherspoon, the public daughter James proudly presents to the world for all to see, enjoys the luxury of suburban life. Throughout the novel Jones’ character, Dana tries to reconcile how she can be part of her father’s family, but not truly a part of his life. While Chaurisse moves through the world with blissful ignorance of the secret life that lies just on the other side of town.
Clarissa Dalloway’s childhood was the foundation on her lavish adult lifestyle. Her childhood influenced her thoughts on social class and standings. Clarissa was raised in a middle class family that always valued social status. As a child Clarissa spent a lot of time with her family. Her experiences at her Uncle William Bourton’s estate exposed Clarissa to the ideas of social norms. (2 Worster) These family influences taught social status was necessary for security and happiness in the future. Unlike most women in her era, Clarissa was aware of the lifestyle paths she could take, when most women of there time period were unaware of choices they had concerning their future lifestyle. (2 Worster ) Clarissa’s upbringing gives her the mind set that you must be rich and have social status in order to be important in life. This is later proven false in the novel, as Clarissa become evident that the comfortable and extravagant lifestyle she chose, is not all its cracked up to be. Worster shows in her literary criticism, “The Self Imprisoned Clarissa Dalloway” that Clarissa struggles with her identity due to the manipulation of truth her own mind. As “Clarissa Dalloway meagerly examines the conditions of her life and resignedly submerges herself beneath the shallow façade of the perfect housewife.”(1 Worster...
As time went on pieces from Emily started to drift away and also the home that she confined herself to. The town grew a great deal of sympathy towards Emily, although she never hears it. She was slightly aware of the faint whispers that began when her presence was near. Gossip and whispers may have been the cause of her hideous behavior. The town couldn’t wait to pity Ms. Emily because of the way she looked down on people because she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and she never thought she would be alone the way her father left her.
The downfall between both characters are developed through their relationships with the violent men. Dana puts herself in danger by involuntarily rescuing Rufus multiple times, and also by her only way of leaving is by putting herself in harm’s way. After many difficult physical encounters, she acknowledges her position as she is torn between saving Rufus, who in return harms Dana (Citation). As she struggles to maintain a normal state of mind, each time she is summoned back to Rufus’s world, she loses parts of her personality, character, and humanity which then leads her to her ultimate downfall of losing her arm. “I was nowhere near the edge of Weylin land. But just for a while, I wanted to be my own master. Before I forgot what it felt like” (221, Butler). In the Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Beli is full of light, personality and energy as a young woman, however, once her relationship with the Gangster begins to flourish, more harm is done than good. She is gossiped about throughout the community, loses her relationship with La Inca, and becomes pregnant with Gangsters baby. As did Dana, Beli lost much of her personality and love after the harsh violent attacks from Gangsters henchmen. Both of these downfalls are contributed bit by bit by the men involved. The violence shown is the main cause of their emotional and mental
The canary and the birdcage are symbolic to Mrs. Wright?s life in the way that the bird represents her, and the cage represents her life and the way she was made to live. Mrs. Hale compares the canary that she and Mrs. Peters discover to Mrs. Wright, when Mrs. Hale refers to Mrs. Wright as ?kind of like a bird herself?real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and?fluttery.? Minnie Foster was a distinctly different woman than Minnie Foster ...
Mrs. Dalloway is portrayed as a woman who is rich, who has a somewhat happy life, and is carefree when it comes to obtaining material things and wealth. She has chosen to marry a wealthy man instead of her long-time friend who she knew loved her so much. She is seen to be content with how things are with her life but knows deep inside that there is more to life than material wealth. The day that is shown in the life of Mrs. Dalloway shows how she has been thinking of what could have happen if things are different and if she had chosen love and adventure rather than wealth and security. The story of Clarissa Dalloway also focuses on the life of Septimus Warren Smith, a World War I veteran who is Mrs. Dalloway’s neighbor. This focus was shown in order to be able to compare the thoughts of Mrs. Dalloway when she saw the ambulance taking away...
Aubery Tanqueray, a self-made man, is a Widower at the age of Forty two with a beautiful teenage daughter, Ellean whom he seems very protective over. His deceased wife, the first Mrs. Tanqueray was "an iceberg," stiff, and assertive, alive as well as dead (13). She had ironically died of a fever "the only warmth, I believe, that ever came to that woman's body" (14). Now alone because his daughter is away at a nunnery he's found someone that can add a little life to his elite, high class existence; a little someone, we learn, that has a past that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of his friends.