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…
appearance is an important asset to have and Dana possess that asset. From a young age she took pride in bettering her appearance. Dana was missing some of her front teeth, so she attempted to slide a piece of paper between the gap. This action showed how desperate Dana was for her father, James’s, love and attention. She believed James would love her more if she had all her teeth like Chaurisse did. When Dana’s mother, Gwendolyn, asked what she was doing Dana replied, “I am improving my appearance” (12). Gwendolyn responded, “Your appearance is perfect,…you have beautiful skin, shiny eyes, and pretty hair” (12). Unlike Gwendolyn, Dana didn’t see herself as beautiful when she was a little girl. She was envious of what she thought Chaurisse looked like, until one day Gwendolyn took her to go see what Chaurisse really looked like. Dana saw that Chaurisse was chubby and barely had any hair and this assured Dana that she was the beautiful daughter. Another instance when Dana is identified as beautiful is when James said no to letting her attend The Saturday Science Academy that Chaurisse was also attending. Gwendolyn correlates James saying no too Dana’s looks by asking, “Why not? Is it because she’s a pretty girl? I have read that parents don’t make the same investment in the minds of their good-looking daughters” (32-33). This quote not only shows that Gwendolyn knows Dana is beautiful, but it also reassures the earlier statement that Dana is the beautiful daughter. Illustrations of Dana being identified as smart can be found all throughout the first part of this novel. Her intellect is one of the most prominent and steady traits that she possess. Dana has a passion for biology and jumps at any opportunity she gets to learn more. Gwendolyn knows Dana is smart and expresses this by saying, “Dana is an intellectual, you know” (33). Gwendolyn says this to James when she is trying to convince him to let Dana attended, The Saturday Science Academy. James doesn’t doubt Dana’s intelligence he blames her not being able to attend because Chaurisse is attending there and financial reasons. James’s decision to not let Dana attend the academy implies that her education is not as important to James as Chaurisse’s education is. As Dana grows older and is in her last year of middle school she spends all her time studying to past the acceptance exam to get into the math-and-science magnet school, Mays High School. This studious conduct shows how dedicated she is to her school work. Dana believes that she is smart and assures her belief when she declares, “In my heart, I was a nice girl, and a smart one, eager to study biology” (39). Dana has a very difficult high school experience, but she still tries to stay true to what is in her heart. She still tries to keep her focus on her school work up until the end. There are quite a few instances in this novel where Dana can be identified as dissolute.
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
conduct. Tayari Jone’s incorporates numerous ways to identify the character Dana, in her captivating novel, Silver Sparrow. Some of the ways Dana can be identified as beautiful, smart, and dissolute. These are not all the ways she can be identified, these are only the more prominent ones. Dana begins life as a sweet and innocent girl, but her character soon changes for the worst. She begins to make poor choices and therefore has to deal with the consequences.
The book by Faith Ringgold entitled Faith Ringgold, explains the story of a mother and daughter during the Harlem Renaissance era in New York. According to the book, the series deals with many generational issues of a middle class black family and focuses on the drama, and tension between a mother and daughter who are profoundly different. The series represents a relationship much like the relationship between Faith Ringgold and her two daughters. The story follows a daughter named, Celia Cleopatra Price, a graduate of Howard University, who graduated first in her class. She is unable to identify with her mother, CeeCee. CeeCee had only finished the 8th grade and dropped out due to her pregnancy with Celia. CeeCee is a very creative individual and makes bags; she is married to”the dentist”, who a young CeeCee meets in the first quilt Love in the School Yard. CeeCee thinks Celia has develope...
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...
...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.
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).
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.
Amanda Wingfield is mother of Tom and Laura. She is a middle-aged southern belle whose husband has abandoned her. She spends her time reminiscing about the past and nagging her children. Amanda is completely dependent on her son Tom for finical security and holds him fully responsible for her daughter Laura's future. Amanda is obsessed with her past as she constantly reminds Tom and Laura of that " one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain when she once received seventeen gentlemen callers" (pg.32). The reader cannot even be sure that this actually happened. However, it is clear that despite its possible falsity, Amanda has come to believe it. Amanda also refuses to acknowledge that her daughter Laura is crippled and refers to her handicap as " a little defect-hardly noticeable" (pg.45). Only for brief moments does she ever admit that her daughter is crippled and then she resorts back into to her world of denial and delusion. Amanda puts the weight of Laura's success in life on her son Tom's shoulders. When Tom finally finds a man to come over to the house for diner and meet Laura, Amanda blows the situation way out of proportion. She believes that this gentlemen caller, Jim, is going to be the man to rescue Laura. When in fact neither herself nor Laura has even met this man Jim yet. She tries to explain to Laura how to entertain a gentleman caller; she says-talking about her past " They knew how to entertain their gentlemen callers. It wasn't enough for a girl to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure although I wasn't slighted in either respect.
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 ...
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 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.
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.
A breathtaking saga of a young girl’s tragic memories of her childhood. As with Ellen, Gibbons’ parents both died before she was twelve-years-old, forming the family. basis of the plot and themes of this novel. The fond memories she possessed of her mother and the harsh ones of her father are reflected in the thoughts and actions of Ellen. The simplistic and humble attitude that both Gibbons and Ellen epitomizes in the novel is portrayed through diction and dialogue.
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.
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...