Squeaky In Toni Cade Bambara Raymond's Run

2276 Words5 Pages

Most people have probably heard the phrase nurture vs. nature. This is related to psychopaths, or on a smaller scale, bullies; it is referring to someone's parents and bloodline versus how someone is raised to believe This short story by Toni Cade Bambara, called “Raymond’s Run”, shows perfectly that even people who seem tough, mean, and surly,deserve empathy. Squeaky, the main character, seems tough on the outside, however it is just a shield, or a mask to hide that she is hurt. There are many reasons for Squeaky to be hurt; her brother is mentally disabled or challenged, she is facing poverty, and she does not think her mother accepts and supports who she is as a person. However Squeaky has much more depth than what people see on the outside--her …show more content…

Once again to protect herself from the negative energy she acts like she doesn’t care what others think of her; even though she wishes society accepted for who she is and didn’t have to have the bad girl reputation.At this point in time Squeaky is still telling us about her homelife and community, however now instead of narrating she is more of thinking to herself. She tells how her mother does not understand her passion for running and thinks that it makes her seem uncivilized--or unlady like. She feels that she can show everybody her value through being the best at running, unfortunately her mother feels that she should be doing girly activities and showing she can be classy and gentle-- which is how society saw girls in history. She must feel tired of having to consider herself different and acting like she does not care what others think-- and wishes that her mother would accept her. She also must feel disappointed considering that if her mother feels this way about Squeaky she must feel this way about herself as well; their for she wishes her mother believe that she ( her mother ) can run and do “boyish” things.This is shown in the text on page 28 and lines 69 to 76 she shows how she

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