LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Sample Student Final Exam Answers 2001

Question 2. Gender & class as minority.  45 minutes to an hour.

Drawing examples from Bastard Out of Carolina and at least one other text from the course readings, describe how the experiences of class and gender may be regarded as analogous to the experiences of ethnic minorities in American culture. You may also include discussions of other possible minority categories such as class.

    One of the definitions of the "minority concept" is that the individual or group is considered to be "voiceless and choiceless" (Objective 1b) Throughout US history, women have been just as "voiceless and choiceless" as other minorities such as African Americans or Native Americans.  In the novel, Bastard Out of Carolina, it is the absence of the father and not the mother that certifies Bone as a bastard.  The stamp that reads "illegitimate" at the bottom of Bone's birth certificate infuriates her mother.  Each year Bone's mother goes to the courthouse to get a new copy, and each year that stamp it "illegitimate".  Bone's status in society was spoken for from the moment she came into this world.  Because children without fathers are looked down upon in this society, Bone's mother feels it is important to remarry so that her children can have a father figure in their lives.  Before Bone's mother, Anney, marries Daddy Glen, she tells the girls stories.  Yet after her marriage to Daddy Glen she seems to lose her voice all together.  She stops telling stories to the girls, and if she speaks at the dinner table Glen makes a point to speak over her and she stops.  When Anney takes her girls and leaves Daddy Glen for beating Bone, she once again loses her voice.  Bone remarks that it was clear that her mother did not want to talk.  Since Bone's mother had few choices her voice is almost invisible.   

In one part of the novel Bone breaks the walls of race by identifying with her gender.  She describes the other girl as if she is looking in a mirror, they both have high cheekbones and beautiful eyelashes.  It is not until Bone comes to the description of the other girl's skin color that there is a difference.  Bone is white and the girl that she is admiring and describing has "chocolate skin".  Bone at this point does not identify with her race but with her gender. 

Bone many times in the novel is also voiceless and choiceless.  All the times that Daddy Glen is molesting and beating her, she says that she tries to scream, but nothing will come out.  Daddy Glen thinks he knows what is best for her and speaks in her behalf.  Bone longs for her voice to be heard.  This longing leads to her obsession with being a gospel singer.  Bone begins singing all the time.  Daddy Glen complains and scolds Anney for letting Bone carry on the way she does.  Glen tells Annie, "You shouldn't encourage her... Gonna have her thinking she can do any thing she pleases, and then where will she be?" (142).  Once Bone has a voice, she will not be happy in her position.

Class is also an issue that leaves Bone and her family voiceless and choiceless.  The difference of class bothers Bone and her mother immensely.  Bone's mother feels that since Bone's birth certificate is stamped illegitimate, people will call her trash.  Bone explains that "the stamp on that birth certificate burned her like the stamp she knew they'd tried to put on her. No-good, lazy, shiftless" (3).  Bone also hates to be considered trash. Bone hates going to visit Daddy Glen's wealthy family because of the horrible way they treat Bone, her sister Reese and her mother.  Bone and Reese are the only children that are sent outside to drink their tea.  Daddy Glen's sister-in-law corrects Bone's use of language and his nieces and nephews call Bone, Reese and Anney trash.  All of this infuriates Bone, but once again she is voiceless and choiceless in the matter.  She must go with her family and suffer the humiliation.

The issues of class also come up in Sandra Cisneros' novel, The House on Mango Street.  At one point the main character in the book, Esperanza is asked by a passing nun where she lives and immediately the young girl points to her house. The nun looks at the apartment which is in horrible shape and in desperate need of repair and says, "You live there?"  The Esperanza remarks, "The way she said it made me feel like nothing" (5).  Esperanza is choiceless in where she lives, but she vows to herself that one day she will have a house that she can point to and be proud of. [AM 2001]

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