"Glory Days"

      I wrote my analysis on Hill's "Glory Days" and this is what I took from the piece.

      "Glory Days" deals with the idea of perfection and the consequences it has on an individual. The protagonist, Gloria, has a name that is very similar to a piece of the title. "Glory Days" itself is a term that is meant to bring forth nostalgia about the days where life seemed perfect, as well as when the individual was at their prime. The term "glory days" also shows a disconnect between an individual and their current time and place, such as how Gloria is feeling. Gloria "-is twenty-something running away from her thirtieth birthday-" (44), the age thirty marks the end of what is often called "the best years of your life", and the thirtieth birthday is viewed as the start to a negative period, especially for women. Gloria's fear of how unfulfilling her life has been plays into the fear of the age thirty, which is seen as an undesirable age for women. The stigma of age connects to the worth of life, and Gloria does not feel like she is living in what should be called "her glory days".

      Gloria is trapped in a cycle of mediocrity and mundane actions, and Hill describes Gloria as being "bitter that she isn't drunk enough to promote self-pity and pain" (44). Not only has Gloria not lead a fulfilling life, in her eyes, but she hasn't even led a life that is worthy of talking about. Her writing is described as not being "-shallow enough to pass for deep" (44), and this further enforces the idea of Gloria's life being stagnant and dull. Gloria's frustration stems from both the fact that she is getting older and is isolated from who she feels like she should really be. Her life has been this endless cycle of washed out bars and looking into mirrors, trying to connect with who she is really supposed to be.

    The mirror is a representation of an individual's true self, especially when the individual, in this case, Gloria, is so unsatisfied with her current self/life. Mirrors represent an idea of perfection to Gloria, and she is distracted by that idea of perfection, and she "-gets distracted by a mirror, and the cries for freedom it carries from a woman she wants to know" (44). The woman in the mirror is Gloria herself, and also her reflection represents her untapped potential, the potential Gloria herself feels like she has. The actions in her life reflect her belief in her potential, even though the reactions of people around her do not allow Gloria to follow up on that potential. In Hill's words, "no one has made a request [Gloria] could not accommodate or problem she could not make solvent" (44), and that further supports the idea of Gloria not being able to live up to her potential because those situations and people surrounding her do not challenge her in any way. The mirror represents the Gloria that could be and Gloria is trying to reach that potential by chipping away at the mirror, hoping to grasp herself and her future somehow.

Best,
Dani Rubinstein-Towler

Casey Clabough’s “Show & Tell”

           

Of all the piece we got to read this week, I was most intrigued by “Show & Tell” by Casey Clabough. For me, this piece was the most complete, and well rounded, I’ll explain.

            From the get go we get a deep understanding of the narrators deep attachment to the mother. It is not stated, it is show, “Unless a teacher made me move, I would wait listing until it reached the place half a mile away where the speed changed from 25 to 55mpg. Then I would hear the sudden burst of sound that came when Mama stomped the floor. She didn’t know it, but that was her real daily goodbye to me,” (60). The passage shows the ritual and routine, and therefore the attachment of the child to the mother. This comes after the mother has already said good bye to the child. This also lays the ground work for the connection between the mother and the son.

            Clabough does a excellent  job of show us the perceptions of the society the narrator is growing up in, by once again showing us instead of telling us, or rather having the charades tell us. When it is reviled that the narrators mother is a “homemaker” the perception of what she will show in show in tell is changed and the negative imagery comes through, “There is nothing wrong with being a homemaker, but you should ask your mother if there is anything special about what she does before she shows and tells. A lot of what homemaker do is unremarkable and the same. We don’t want all the mothers visiting mothers to say the same things,” 61. Here it is clear that the role of the homemaker is looked down upon, and Clabough’s use of the word “unremarkable” is very potent in striking a cord for me as the point in that line. It made me want to say out loud all the remarkable things mothers, and fathers for that matter who choose to stay at home with their families do. At this point I was searching for some depth, Clabough delivered in the next section.

            The scene where the mother is teaching a class is my favorite in the whole piece. It is so vivid and full of tension. The pacing of this section is to be noted. “Whispers as she begins the slow descent to the stage, heels clicking steadily on the concrete. About halfway down someone launches a brief, piercing whistle—ancient trumpet sound of male admiration—applauded by sporadic laughs from his fellows. Mama keeps walking,” 62. The line “Mama keeps walking.” Is in its own paragraph and that helps the pace of the piece, as a reader I had a feeling that this wasn’t headed for dread as the first part of the passage suggests. The line meant more than the mother continued to walk down to the stage. It was a symbol for her preserving. Later in the section after the cat calls and repulsive behavior of the men in the class, Clabough again slows the moment down to show the true strength of the mother, “Mama strides across the stage to where the jar lies resting. Hands still on hips, attitude of sensual affectation, she lifts her right foot, arches an eyebrow at her audience, then brings it down suddenly, heavily, air of the room pierced as glass shatters, echoes, jagged irregular pieces sliding across the stage in various directions. Silence, pause, then the lonely sound of Mama’s heels as she walks back to the table, puts on her glasses, and looks up around the lecture hall.” ‘Let’s get to work, gentlemen.’” (63). This sections shows better than any words could say what the mother was before having a child. It shows that she was much more than the homemaker the teacher labeled her as. That simple act of strength in the face of adversity showed the mothers true character. Clabough was able to do this by slowing down the scene to the point where the reader could hear the mothers heels on the concrete.

            I say that this piece is well rounded because it comes full circle to the show and tell in the last section of the piece. In that section we are able to see why the narrator has so much admiration for their mother. The confidence she displays in front of a classroom full of kids and the success she has in her presentation would make any child proud. More than that the narrator gets to see their mother in action, in a role other than mother, this is show in the following lines, “My little classmates, weaving around the skeleton in a frenzy of fascination, quick touches from small forefingers—one girl reaching up to grab a bottom rib, then lifting her shirt to poke at her own. And me, apart from the others with eyes only for my mother; towering above the swirl of motion, commanding the classroom beaming down upon the children, showing them themselves,” (68). Here we can almost see the pedestal the narrator puts their mother on. It comes full circle that the mother did show exactly what she said she was going to show. It shows that there is more to a person than what they are doing in a particular moment. The piece is heartfelt and written with love, but it is not sentimental because the scenes are so vivid and the pace is so purposeful that the actions drive it forward.

Best,

CF Pinto

Mother and Son: Gender in Clabough

I'd like to preface this by saying I am not certain if all my uses of the word 'gender' are appropriate here, please feel free to correct me (discussion and learning is, after all, a purpose of this blog).
_____

“Help me lift him, son” (pg. 66). This is the first indicator of the narrator’s gender and surprisingly it appears quite far into the piece. I am not familiar with the writer so the gender of the narrator came as a shock, I assumed the narrator is female (drawing off my assumptions about the author's first name and my projection of my own gender). The fact that the gender of the narrator is not indicated until this point speaks to the nature of this piece. This story is all about the mother's gender but the gender of the boy remains unclear. The gendering of the narrator could have been avoided entirely or made clear sooner so why did the author choose this moment. This posed a question for me and I wanted to explore how the mother and son’s genders appear throughout the story.

Now there do appear to be some incredibly subtle indicators of the narrator’s gender but they are easy to miss, only upon close examination did I even notice them. I will go through them and the conclusions they could draw. The narrator takes interest in the mother’s car “Her car was an old Mercury Cougar. . . It had a V8 engine, like the drink I liked” (pg. 59) and even plays with a replica of it. Since cars are often considered a masculine toy this could be seen as an indicator. If you consider toys an indicator the basketball in the skeleton could also be interpreted as a masculine object and therefore indicate the narrator’s gender. Another possible clue is the narrator’s mention of college “Later, in college, reading on my own. . . (pg. 63) which is very nonchalant unlike his mother’s college experience which is seen as a huge accomplishment. This could mean that because of his gender he was expect or at least it wasn't surprising that he went to college. These all have potential to show gender but also could be overlooked or explained away. Why then is the narrator gendered at all when it seems so irrelevant to the narrative in the beginning.

It is specifically surprising in a narrative where the mothers gender is so relevant. The gender of the mother is important to both her choice of career and her motherhood. It is interesting to note as well that the mothers gender only becomes increasingly important when her profession is involved. In both instances where the reader sees her being professional her clothing is gendered. The boy expresses surprise at his mothers heels and dress “At first glance I didn’t recognize the woman standing next to the car as mam, the figure in the sleeveless white spring dress and black heels and sunglasses. . .” (pg. 65) indicating that he is not used to seeing her in this kind of gendered attire. We also see her in these clothes when she is in her first classroom and “her heels [click] steadily on the concrete” (pg.61). Perhaps it is only important in these instances because she is not doing what is expected of her. Therefore when she feels the need to be gendered she chooses to gender her son. This displays the divide between what is expected of her, motherhood, and what is not, her career. Her womanhood is threatened by her profession as much as her profession is threatened by her womanhood. This is why she must assert her position as a mother by calling the narrator ‘son’ and why she must gender her clothing when she is participating in her more ‘masculine’ profession. She needs to balance the two and prove that she can be both.

The importance of gender in this story seems to be summed up when  the first question that is asked about the skeleton is “Is it a boy or a girl?” (pg. 67). Gender is so ingrained into society that one of the most important things that children think to ask about the skeleton is about it’s gender.

-Haley Tallent

Impact: Dissatisfaction and Embodiment

First, a housekeeping note - I am not able to access page number in e-books/Kindle. I feel like a total dummy because I can't seem to google my way to a solution on this. I'm sorry! I will attempt to resolve this before my next blog entry.

-

I found a few thematic threads running through Hill, Scott, Clabough, and Chao: discomfort, dissatisfaction, and a confrontation with embodiment.

It was harder to take a close look at Hill and Scott because something about the particular flavor of hopeless resignation in those pieces turned me off and catalyzed judgmental thoughts. Hill's piece was in third person and Scott's was in first. Hill's piece was poetic prose and Scott's prosaic poetry. But the narrative voices were similar in their weight and self-pitying rumination. The reliability of the narrators in each is drawn into question at various moments. Hill's protagonist, Gloria, grapples with reflections of herself, self-medicates with booze, and hears "voices in her head." The moment credibility ruptures in Scott is when he plays with memory/age/time in "Colors of Hardware." It's pretty difficult to give serious consideration to someone who describes his babymama's vagina as "the portal that received my seed" because it implies a level of awe with the penis/heteroprocreative sex that grosses me out majorly. The redeeming elements of Scott's poems are the interplay between embodiment and medical technology.

Clabough and Chao's longer, more subtle pieces held more interest for me than Scott and Hill. Clabough, like the other assigned others, engages with embodiment and mortality rather overtly with the trope of the skeleton and the memento mori it serves as throughout the story and in the classroom. Gender plays an interesting part in Clabough - I implicitly assumed the narrator was female-identified and was startled, halfway through the story, when the mother refers to them as her "son." There is no reason for me to have assumed that the narrator was female-identified, likely it was some socialized crap going on for me about how emotional the narrative was or something.

The overt story driving the plot here is about revealing the secret of the mother's career history, then the reveal of what the classroom visit would entail, culminating in a small social victory for both mother and son. But for me, the real story is encapsulated in the teacher's comment at the beginning that "a lot of what homemakers do is unremarkable." Capitalism, let alone society and social life, couldn't function without the feminized, unwaged, and undervalued labor of the home -- both emotional and material! But rather than provide a plot point that obviously confronts the error in that statement, Clabough reveals that the mother is actually highly educated, resilient, and complicated, whether or not she is a practicing scientist any longer. I would argue, though, that the remark is confronted by what the mother does. She shows the children what they are which is a pretty heavy service and certainly "remarkable."

The narrator's identification with the nonnormative fetuses in jars was a beautiful exhibit of showing rather than telling. In that lovely passage, we discover the gentleness, compassion, and loneliness of the narrator, as well as his identification as a mutant, without being told any of those traits explicitly.


Chao's "Why I Did Not..." was founded on a hilarious premise and in a nontraditional but appropriate/effective format (list). The format allows central facts to be revealed slowly over the course of the piece. Thus you find yourself liking and sympathizing the narrator before even realizing how intelligent, talented, capable, and hardworking she is. By the time you get to the martial arts excuse, you realize you want this person in your life as her friend, and it's not until the end that all her traits and life experience assimilate together into one complex person who did not become a world-famous classical violinist. One standout element to this piece for me was how well and how consistently it conveyed the high level of anxiety and powerlessness that children (and for some of us, adolescents and adults) experience. Since our course focuses on the coming of age aspect of memoir, this was something special to notice.

on Show and Tell

I was taken with Casey Clabaugh’s piece, “Show & Tell” and how close he keeps the reader to the child’s experience—without reflection. 

The setup, in the first section, uses pluperfect (I had to look this tense up), often called past perfect, to let the reader know that this is how it was in the farther-back past. The child is young, missing his mom, maybe in his first year of school or pre-school. The narrator doesn’t reflect on this time, but presents it (or reports it) setting up the time when this one thing, the show and tell, occurred. 

Then quickly, in the second section, it switches to past tense and we are no longer talking about how it was in that time, but what specifically happened on this day. Again, the story is narrated as it happened, without comment or reflection.  The time, the place, the scene, and the characters are vividly, concretely portrayed (I was frustrated with the abstractions of the first two readings). We know the mom's car, "Her car was very loud and rumbled like a faraway storm...an old Mercury Cougar she'd bought years ago, before she quit her job. (p. 60).  We know the boy, "I cried sometimes during naptime because I missed Mama so much. To help with this she had given me a toy version of her car that was exactly like it in every way. I would lie on my mat and run the car over my chest and up and down my arms making a soft low sound like faraway thunder (p. 61)." There’s a lot of emotional context for how the boy feels about his mom and how his classmates feel about him, and then the teacher; it’s a perfect setup for the sexism that’s at the heart of this piece. 

The fourth section is so skillful in how we don’t question the narration of the scene at the university although it’s impossible to imagine that the narrator witnessed it, "As the sound dies, Mama walks to the lab table and sets her chalk down. Then she takes off her glasses and sets them down too. As she looks back up and out over the indistinct audience a slow, warm smile forms on her face— the easy natural smile of a cheerleader or prom court princess, both of which she had been (p. 62)." As the piece fills out, more of the story of these two, the narrator and his mom, it isn’t until the sixth section, the one about the skeleton, when the narrator reflects, casting back from the future. It’s some relief. Recently I heard and have wondered about this idea that the gap between the protagonist’s experience and his or her reflection of the experience is where much of the pleasure of reading is contained. That idea is what made me particularly interested in this piece. 

The final scene, the mom’s slow smile (mirroring the slow smile in the university classroom), the overturning of the both the student’s and the teacher’s expectations—it’s beautiful. But hard to know how the narrator felt. Vindicated? Proud? He doesn’t say. 

- Erica

Life Hack: Be White

Hi classmates! This is the video I mentioned in our first meeting of class, when Elmaz asked us to think about what it means to examine the coming of age trope for women. All of this dudes videos are very on point and worth watching.

Hi folks
first good day. thanks. So you will have your first reader blog due on Sunday. Please note you don't have to respond to all four pieces, although you are welcome to, and you must read all 4. You can look at things across them and you can examine one or two to the max. please sign your blog even though your tag will tell us. It gives us good practice to remember each other's names and ideas. 
Have you met my writing partner?

Syllabus for Non Fiction Prose literature English 184/284 Fall 2014

English 184/184 Fall 2014,  Mills Hall 318  Wednesdays 2:30-5

Elmaz Abinader

Mills Hall 313

Office Hours: Wednesday 1-2, 5-6 and by appointment

 

When a writer creates a coming of age memoir, the decision about perspective and angle of discovery mark the book through the voice, point of view and place of empathy.  The questions of reliability, (can we trust memory?) and scope (what’s this kid know?) are examined. The class is based on thorough reading, vibrant discussion, blogging reading responses, group presentations, and a final project.

http://millsproselit.blogspot.com

The Requirements of The Class Are:

1. Weekly Reading

2. Weekly Reader Response Blog

3. Small Group Presentation

4. Discussion Participation

5. In Class Writing And Exercises

6. Blog Collage Presentation (284 Only)

7. Final Paper/Project

8. Commitment

English 284 participants meet four times together in addition to the class times which are scheduled.

Here are the books that are required for this class.

1. Coco Harris, editor: Impact, Short Memoir

2. June Jordan, Soldier

3. Jeneatte, Winterson, Why Be Happy, When you Can be Normal?

4. Barbara Robinette Moss, Change me into Zeus Daughter

5. Patrick Chamoiseau, School Days

6. Emseralda Santiago, Almost a Woman

7. Alison Bechdel, Fun Home

8. Sophia Al-Maria, The Girl Who Fell to Earth

9. David Small, Stitches

How We Spend Our Time.

Reading is the first order of business. Please complete your assigned reading the Sunday before the class. Here’s where schedule management comes in handy. Assess the book and your reading absorption/speed. Give yourself plenty of time to complete the book. The syllabus will tell you what the focus of the reading is and you can focus on that as well as utter enjoyment of the reading. 

Reading Response/Discussion   THE BLOG is the ignition of the class discussion. On Sunday night you post your reader response to the blog. By Monday night you respond to two other readers. A reader’s response is an examination of the reading based on our topic or other topics discussed in the class. You share your observations of the writing, the social and political impact of the story, and the literary values of the work. I have attached sample blogs. Please do not join the blog as a fan. You will able to create new posts after you are invited. You must accept the invitation to the blog before the 2nd week  http://millsproselit.blogspot.com

Class Discussion is what it’s all about. This is a lively, exciting group of reads and insightful, intelligent readers. The discussion does not focus on what we like and what we dislike, instead we look at these diverse  approaches to the “coming of age’ memoir and mine them for understanding the genre more deeply.  We will discuss literary theory as well as craft elements. Issues of validity, research, connection, omission and more will be discussion. 

Group Work makes our community stronger. You and your group members accomplish in class work and group questions and do also a presentation for the class in the last third of the semester.

The Presentation   is an opportunity for your team to lead the class for a minimum of forty minutes. In that time you create an interaction with the reading. You may use several pedagogical techniques that inform, excite and create lively discussion. The presentation is a chunk of you evaluation. We look at how well you are prepared, how creatively you approach the material, how you use the book and ideas about the book in the presentation, how much you involve the class and how well you spend the time. 

In Class work can be creative or critical but it does happen every week. You will be asked to respond to the writing or ideas about writing creative non-fiction in a creative or critical way. At the beginning of class you will find the prompt on the board when you come into the room, you will have 10-15 minutes from the beginning of class to complete it. 

Commitment to the class means attending, participating, being prepared and active. Be a force, do you best blogs.   Don’t miss class. If you are going to miss, communicate with me .

Final Project will be either a 15 -20 page or a 20-25 page literature paper on some aspect of our reading and our discussions. I will give you a guide to this at mid-semester. 

The College and I do not encourage taking incompletes. In order to qualify for one, you need to have 2/3rds  of the course work done. Also if you absolutely must have one, this must be filed two weeks before the final. 

SOME REALLY IMPORTANT INFORMATION –Procedures and Practices

• the computer may be used for in-class writing and then POW, close it. Cell phones off, no texting. 

• practically, please be on time, attend class, be present 

• breaks are short and prompt. 

• if you need a cigarette, I’m just one person, trying to save your life—so forget it 

• our experiences or our status in the universe or our cultural origins or alliances are not our talent; our talent comes from negotiating ideas and sharing them. No privileges 

• our classroom discussion can feel off course and we’ll try to keep it focused, but please be aware that real writing can touch your fire—please give space for flare-ups and generosity for listening.

• in any case, we are not p.c., we are conscious 

• Be present (oops there it is again) 

• I listen well, come by 

• Important Notices

• A big one: Academic Integrity 

• Plagiarism is a serious breach of academic trust. For purposes of the Mills College Honor Code, plagiarism is defined as intentionally or knowingly using someone else’s ideas, with words or thoughts without crediting the sources. All words or thoughts not cited are presumed to be that of the writer. So here’s the deal: original work only, credit to ideas, writing or words from some other place. Any breach of this will alter your success in this course. 

• Resources, we love resources! 

• ADA Every effort will be provided to make this class universally accessible. Though “reasonable accommodation” is the legal right of people with disabilities, this course is designed for students regardless of disability or other individual categorization. Students with needs for alternate learning materials or strategies should contact SSD in the Cowell Building by calling 430-2130 in order for those accommodations and services to be arranged promptly. 

Writing Center—there are great people at the writing center who can help you write, think, edit, strategize, not just scholarly, but also creatively: Reinhardt Hall, Rms. 251, 252 P: 510.430.3147 E: writing_ctr@mills.edu 

Who you are:  is not defined by records or names or bureaucracies, so if you prefer a name or pronoun other than the one listed/suggested, please let us know. 

In Short:   (This is you speaking)

I am responsible for the following activities for English 184/284

• Reading the materials and composing my blog and responding to two others (as outlined above) 20%

• Participating in the in-class writing every class 15%

• Joining my group for activities and the class presentation (including blog collage, 284) 20%

• Commitment to the class: attendance, participation, community support 20%

• A final project/paper 

• If I am having difficulty meeting these requirements, I’ll make an appointment with Elmaz and work it out. I won’t wait until it’s too late

• l let Elmaz know if I need any accommodations for ADA status

• I meet with the Elmaz when the work is not up to my expectations or I find a stumbling block that prevents me from accomplishing assignments

• I utilize the Writing Center to assist in any work that poses some technical difficulties

• All my work is be original, fresh, come from enthusiasm and honesty

• My participation with my group has integrity, not allowing any personal issues hamper our success

• In class discussions, I speak, as well as, listen. I recognize that sharing the air will make it a better conversation

• My work is never late, but just in case, I’ll let the class know that my blog or writing is on its way.

• In the Blogs, I write as if I am handing the work in --with intelligent thought and standard techniques. In the responses, I may disagree with other writers and discuss their ideas. I don’t need to attack.

THE SUPER SERIOUS SCHEDULE  

Don’t lose me – you won’t be reminded.

Date Reading (done) topic

8/27 http://orelitrev.startlogic.com/v4n2/OLR-grabel.htm

http://solsticelitmag.org/content/memory-fact-imagination-research-memoirs-hybrid-personality/

Memoir? Coming of age? 

9/3 From Impact:  Hill, Chan , Scott and Clabough Agents of voice in childhood

9/10 Torrey, Randall, Serin and Baker Controlling character

9/17 Soldier by Jordan scope

9/24 Why be Happy…. By Wintersen Adult looking back

10/1 Change me….by Moss trauma

10/8 Schooldays by Chamoiseau Controlling time

10/15 -------workshop, writing, reading--- Letting the body provide

10/22 Almost a Woman by Santiago emergence

10/29 ---The graphic-- What represents, what disrupts

11/5 Impact: Poetic Memoir (group 1 chooses reading) What form provides

11/13 Bechdel, Fun home Group 2

11/20 Al Maria—The Girl Who fell Group 3

11/27 Stitches by Small Group 4

Guide for Graduate Students, English 284

To receive graduate credit in the class, you need to demonstrate a graduate level of examination and analysis, research and scholarship, and collaboration and creativity.  This translates to researching contexts and connections, poets and movements, and developing ideas and theories 

This is accomplished by:

• Attending 4 graduate only meetings of this class TBA

• Providing leadership in the reading of at least one writer

• Researching to a deeper level about theories of coming of age

• Developing a final project or paper that is well researched, connects the ideas of our class and is at least 20 pages (10 minutes)

• Your ability to work together is going to be essential here, so find a group dynamic that works for you. If that means a rigid schedule where you take turns presenting, cool; or maybe you volunteer to present according to your strength.

We will break it down in the first meeting which will be planned the first night of class.

Some Topics of Interest that will guide your discussions:

• The validity of memory

• The child’s voice

• Defining place through experiences

• What makes a story of childhood

• Angle of discovery

• Adult perspective

• Looking back at the narrative

• Recreating/embellishing/?ficitonalizing

• Poetic elmeents

 

The blogs need to be developed discussions about the literature and the technique and theories of the work and the field. Use examples from the text, be clear and nuanced in your writing and beat the drum

Sample Blogs

From the opening page the narrator reflects back on her childhood from the age of six to twenty-one. What she remembers, what was important and what would ultimately influence and develop her identity and purpose was her “building full of women (p. 3).” These “fierce attachments” would offer her the most profound pleasure and agonies. These women most notably Gornick’s mother and Nettie would help shape the narrator’s politics, writing and passions to become a feminist.

But before I go into the idea of “the making of a feminist,” I wanted to mention the unconventional form of the memoir written in prose blocks. The memoir is written without chapter headings or section titles which seem to suggest the character of the tenement itself. The reader follows the women through half-way open doors and open windows and the reader begins to imagine women escaping up and down the fire escape into a safe haven, which is “Mama’s” apartment.

The memoir begins with the details of the married women living in the tenement. The struggles these women faced reflect upon many feminist issues of their times (actually it seems not so much has changed since the 1950s): issues of domestic violence, socioeconomics factors, the desire or freedom to have a career other than a housewife or mother, to name a few.

In the first three pages the reader has the inside story of Mrs. Drucker, Mrs. Zimmerman and young Cessa. We learn that Mrs. Zimmerman was force to marry her husband at the age of sixteen, who is sometimes taken by force (raped) and Mrs. Drucker is introduced:

“Remember Drucker? She used to say if she didn’t smoke a cigarette while she was having intercourse with her husband she’d throw herself out the window (p.4).”

And while Mrs. Zimmerman and Mrs. Drucker seem to really hate their husbands, the young and beautiful Cessa is a different story. Cessa’s husband seems sympathetic and kind:

“She didn’t love her husband. She didn’t hate him, either. He was a nice man, actually…I think she had a lover somewhere. Anyway, she had long black hair down to her ass. One day she cut it off. She wanted to be modern. Her husband didn’t say anything to her, but her father came into the house, took one look at her cut hair, and gave her a slap across the face she saw her grandmother from the next world. Then he instructed her husband to lock her in the house for one month. She used to come down the fire escape into my window and out my door. Every afternoon for a month. (p. 5).”

The prose written into detailed blocks seems to mimic the vitality of this community of women. Their confinement in domestic rooms (blocks) or assigned domestic roles which for the most part were not taken too seriously and there would be consequences for their rebellions. But, their actions spoke loudly and there was a quality of openness with each other, their saving grace was perhaps their friendships. Even with the conventional standards and pressures the women face, they still lived LARGE. In the women’s stories there seems to be a definite friendliness, an understanding, a patience they had with one another even when or if they fought with each other. There was vitality in the simple pleasures of being connected with one another that seemed to make the neighborhood vibrant, alive. For example one of my favorite passages on page 14:

“While she was pulling at the line she might also be calling “Berth-a-a. Berth-a-a. Ya home, Bertha?” Friends were scattered throughout the buildings on the alley, and called to one another all during the day to make various arrangements (“What time ya taking Harvey to the doctor?” Or, “Got sugar in the house? I’ll send Marilyn over.” Or, Meetcha on the corner in ten minutes”). So much stir and animation! The clear air, the unshadowed light, the women calling to each other, the sounds of their voices mixed with the smell of clothes drying in the sun, all that texture and color swaying in the open space….I can still taste in my mouth, and that taste is colored a tender and brilliant green.”

The rooms present to the reader what is actually going on in the women’s lives. The rooms seem to represent the psyche and body of the woman. What was important to them, what they cared for or looked after. For example, the following description of Nettie’s apartment:

“Yet to me the apartment, like Nettie herself, was touched with promise and allure. I didn’t know the word beauty, would not have been able to say beauty was missing from our house; “I only knew that small bits of visual pleasure transformed Nettie’s tiny apartment, made me feel happy and expectant when I walked through her door. Motherhood had deranged her, upset her odd and lovely nesting habits, pitched her into chaos, but still: the bed was covered with a paisley spread of thin Ukrainian wool…and on the large windowsill stood a large geranium plant always beautifully trimmed, its earth wet and black, its leaves deep green. On the darkest of days the brilliant red, black, and green of the plant was an excitement. It wasn’t the objects themselves—we had a wonderful brass samovar in our living room I didn’t notice until I was twenty-five – it was the way Nettie placed and arranged things, a way she had to create grace and beauty where there had been none before. (p.51).

On this tour of the tenement the reader is lead to experience the friendships, as well as the daily dramas and betrayals. But this community of women had a tenacity, a strong spirit. They knew when to pull together and when to pull back. They understand a basic, a given, that they need each other. For example, when the narrator’s father dies her neighbors are forever bringing over casseroles. Or the time of Nettie’s husband death or when Nettie gives birth to Richie’s: “My mother was Nettie’s lifeline during that first year of Riche’s life.” (p.50). There is a community spirit, a loyalty, a light-heartiness, laughter and tears, a mutual bond - they understand they can count on each other. I felt nostalgic for that community.

There is a strong thread that carries each block of prose onto the next block. This thread isn’t broken in the narrative. Time is interwoven. I never felt that there was a split between past, present or future. Everything is alive, close, crowded and in your face. If you turn your head there is another window or door to see equally poignant and heartbreaking experiences of the narrator, her mother and Nettie.

The Making of a Feminist

Then we would organize, and carry on. There was more uncomplicated pleasure in her voice when she repeated those words than in any others I have ever heard her speak. (p. 17)

Even though the women have lived full and vibrantly throughout the narrative, the narrator questions her mother living “an intense divided life.” This unsettling, a tension, a contradiction, a yearning of what else is there besides this? The “what if” I didn’t get married and raise my children (the emptiness of a woman’s life” p.16). “So this was her condition: here in the kitchen she knew who she was, here in the kitchen she was restless and bored, here in the kitchen she functioned admirably, here in the kitchen she despised what she did. She would become angry over “the emptiness of a woman’s life” (p. 16). The following paragraphs on page 17 introduce a woman who had ambition to develop into “talented public speaker.”

“I had known since early childhood that my parents were fellow travelers of the Communist Party, and that of the two my mother had been the more politically active. By the time I was born she had stood on soapboxes in the Bronx pleading for economic and social justice. (p. 17).” When the narrator asks her mother what a prostitute is her mother says: “is a person without a home.” The narrator seems to trust her mother as a child and is influenced by her mother’s compassion. Her mother is larger than life. Has a passion and a voice that people look up to. The narrator also seems captivated by her mother’s skill and passion. There is a pride and a respect for her mother. In addition, her mother’s unrequited political ambitions seems to direct her own dreams of becoming a feminist working for social justice. When the daughter gets accepted into UC Berkeley she quickly realizes the limitations for female graduate students. She rebels against the conventional gender roles of the “Marks” and “Joans “ at Berkeley. When she marries she questions why she is responsible for the cooking and washing the dishes and is worried that she cannot make a perfect cup of coffee.

As the story unfolds there is an intense love and hate relationship working with her mother. There is ambiguity and conflicted feelings about her mother. Her mother is jealous and when given the opportunity to praise and accept her daughter the mother refuses. Even through this complicated and passionate “fierce attachment” between mother and daughter I think the daughter’s passion for social justice and equality for women was impacted by her mother and the other women in her life. I feel that the mother modeled the narrator’s ambition and direction to become a writer and a feminist by her mother’s unrequited ambition or because of her mother’s fierceness just to live a passionate life.  (Penina)

June Jordan’s protagonist is an observer. She’s an observer of a real world of violence and a real world of joy. A world full of nice things that she doesn’t know when she’ll get to have: “If I thought she intended to buy them for me, I’d say, “Yes, thank you.” If I thought otherwise, I’d say, “No, thank you”(167) and: “What was worse was when I got all As and still I didn’t get a bicycle”(221).

Her story is a story of familial violence, of survival. It is a story peppered with sweetness, too.

The construction of race and gender beat down on this family, hard. The main revelation Jordan shares with us regarding this comes early: “Probably it seemed easier to change me than to change the meaning and complexion of power”(18). Complexion here means a complex web and also coloring, race. A race-based web of power.

We find out girls are not cowboys (xvii). Girls are a cross to bear (3). Girls “fought dirty because they didn’t know how to fight”(133). “…Little Girls did not want guns. Little girls wanted nice things, pretty things that would not hurt anybody”(168). Girls “tittered”(178). Girls could never keep score (232).

June “got the message that a real man would never strike a woman or a girl. But this was rather confusing to me because my father regularly ‘struck’ me...”(26).

If Jordan’s father was a real man, did that make her not a girl? Using her father’s logic, both June and her father’s genders are made tenuous by the violence June is subjected to from her father’s hands.

June remembers her father referring to her as a boy in a fight with her mother: “…What they do and what they don’t do have nothing to do with my son, woman”…Him dark as you and coming up kinky-headed, too: Very well, let her go! Lock the door behind her!”(151).

Upon finding out June’s father wants to send her to boarding school, her mother retorts: “How you can’ see her own is Black Granville, not white! The child is a Black girl, Granville; she can not change herself to white!”

Granville’s response: “The child him my son! She have a name, Jordan. And him have another name, June! What you mean by Black? You want that she stay in the pits where they t’row us down here?!(153)

Through the perspective of the narrator, we know that June survived this observation, that she is telling the story from the other side of the argument. The narrator experiences so much trauma in the book: walking around scared, the beatings, the scalding of the cats, the barbed wire, the planter’s wart, her mother’s bowels. Things kids remember. There were times I froze on the page. Yet, because this story is being told by her we know the narrator survived.

It’s almost as if the conscience of the protagonist is narrating the story.

June becomes more and more adept at anticipating the violence: “With my mother there was never a second or third attack. I was down it was over”(135). and responding to it in ways that threatened violence: “So when my father rumbled those mahogany doors open and started to beat me in the middle of the night, I pulled out my knife”(137).

I wonder where she learned things she wasn’t taught by her parents. Watching her dad unsuccessfully handle a camera she says, “Nobody ever told him that learning, for example, how to fly a plane or operate a camera, strictly by reading about it was probably a route to failure”(127).

After Uncle Teddy enters the scene, the story brightens. There’s a special dress and piano lessons. There’s camp and Pretty Miss Kitty.

The final chapter alternates between to scenes in small poem-like sections: June’s romance with Herbie Wilson Jr. and her father’s final quest to send her to boarding school. The sweetness of her descriptions of Herbie “One minute I was thinking about the beautiful shape of his head and the next minute he was asking me to dance” soften the harshness of her dad’s the decision: “My mother didn’t argue anymore. And, anyway, my father didn’t need her to agree”. The dreamy abandon with Herbie was a much deserved respite from her life: “I would feel I would think that maybe I should just die right then before something bad could happen to Herbie Wilson Jr., or to me”(258).

This is a story of a child’s resistance to social constructions and internalized oppression. All the way through, June insists on claiming her humanness. (sailor)