LITR 4332 American Minority Literature UHCL 2002 sample midterm answers

Sample Answers from Student Midterms—IDs

Copied below are answers—either complete or excerpted—to the short answer “Identification” questions on the fall 2002 midterm exam. You may assume that longer answers are complete and shorter answers are excerpts. Excerpts are usually marked by ellipses ( . . . ).

The answers are indexed by initials of students in the course e. g., [CW].

At this page's first posting, the excerpts are strictly from email exams. Excerpts from in-class exams will be added later.

These samples are provided so that students in this course may share their work with each other and students in future offerings of the course.

TERMS: Only 1 term is offered and required; you must answer “T1.”

T1 Question. “Minority” as we’re defining the concept in this course, especially in terms of American ethnic groups and the relationship of their story to the immigrant / American Dream narrative.

· Which ethnic groups does this course treat as “minority groups,” and why?

· Define in terms of both history and power relations.

· In regard to power relations, you may also consider how the “minority” relationship appears in other social structures besides ethnicity.

· This answer requires mostly broad cultural references; references to 1 or 2 texts or handouts will be enough for textual references.

T1 Answers

T1. This course specifies three distinct minority groups: African
Americans, American Indians, and Mexican Americans. These groups
correspond with Course objective 1a., which is “Involuntary participation.”
Minorities are not part of the dominant culture. These racial groups did
not choose to come to America; America came to them. African
Americans came to America by the force of slave traders, without
their consent. They were kidnapped from their homes, forced to board
ships to an unknown world, and made slaves. They were forced into
slavery. They were unable to choose their destiny; it was determined for
them, and they were forced to live under the rule of white people. They
were “voiceless and choice-less” in determining the life they would lead.
The white man, or dominant culture forced Native Americans and
Mexican Americans from the soil they lived on for years. The American
Indians and Mexican Americans were not immigrants; immigrants come
from their native land to America on their own terms and by their own
choice. Minorities on the other hand did not have this choice. The Indians
lived here years before the Europeans came to America. Then, they were
forced to give up their land or die. Also, the dominant culture took land
from the Mexican Americans; part of the United States was once Mexico.
Minorities are not just defined by race or ethnicity; a minority is anyone
with lack of power and equality. Other minorities include women and
homosexuals. An African American woman would be considered a
“double minority.” DR pointed out in the 2001 Midterm that as double
minorities, Lena’s mother and grandmother had no voice or choice.
When the Irish priest entered their home their privacy was violated.
If the door had been left unlocked, he would come in as if he were a
welcome neighbor. He would also peek through their windows. The
relationship between the dominant and minority culture mirrors the
master/slave relationship, which is an owner/property relationship.
African Americans sold into slavery were considered property, not
humans. Slaves had no power and were forced to live by the rule of their
master. An example of a powerless, voiceless minority is the black slave
woman in Equiano’s slave narratives who had an iron muzzle to limit her
speech and influence on the dominant culture. In Black Girl Lost, Sandra
is a minority and lacks control; her mother is in control of her life. The
reason why Sandra’s life was so bad is because her mother did not give
her adequate food, clothes, love, and attention. When her mother came
out of the room, Donald Goines stated that that she ignored her daughter
completely, as if she were just another piece of kitchen furniture. [CM]

After all our minority/dominant culture class discussions, I find myself pegging everyone (and all relationships) into circles. A small circle representing the dominant force surrounded by a larger force that represents those oppressed. This course identifies Blacks, Native Americans, and Mexicans as minorities, and distinguishes them from the “immigrant experience,” due to the fact that they did not have a choice/voice in determining their American fate. . . . [TStJ]

Identify and Signify—Quotations

Q1 Question. (from a single text)

“The first object that saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, that was soon converted into terror, which I am yet at a loss to describe, and much more the then feelings of my mind when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I was sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had got into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions, too, differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, which was very different from any I had ever heard, united to confirm me in this belief. Indeed such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment, that if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with the meanest slave in my own country. When I looked round the ship too, and saw . . . a multitude of black people, of every description, changed together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted my fate . . . .

“Soon after we landed, there came to us Africans of all languages. . . . I now totally lost the small remains of comfort I had enjoyed in conversing with my countrymen . . . . We were landed up a river a good way from the sea, about Virginia country, where we saw few of our native Africans, and not one soul who could talk to me. . . . I was now exceedingly miserable, and thought myself worse off than any of the rest of my companions, for they could talk to each other, but I had no person to speak to that I could understand. . . . When I came into the room where [my master] was, I was very much affrighted at some things I saw, and the more so, as I had seen a black woman slave as I came through the house, who was cooking the dinner, and the poor creature was cruelly loaded with various kinds of iron machines; she had one particularly on her head, which locked her mouth so fast that she could scarcely speak . . . which I afterwards learned was called the iron muzzle.”

Q1 Answers.

Q.1.) These sets of quotes are from The Life of Gustavus Vassa by Olaudah Equiano. In the first passage he is beginning to realize what fate has in store for him. Up until this moment, he believed that he would eventually get back home to his family. He has now become an involuntary participant. Once on the ship he sees, “a multitude of black people, of every description, changed together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted my fate . . . .”. He knows that it is not a vacation cruise ship where he can drink martinis on the fiesta deck, but rather is going to take him someplace where he will lead a very unpleasant life. In this experience, he is both voiceless and choiceless. He has no option but to get onto the slave ship where he will witness cruelty and hideous living conditions. At this point, he would rather be anyplace else. He says that, “if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with the meanest slave in my own country.” He does not care if he must stay a slave, but he wants to stay there. He does not want to go far away because he knows he will be mistreated, and worst of all he will have to give up his dream of going home one day. Instead, he will become a part of someone else’s dream. Someone who dreamed of making a fortune with a plantation worked by black slaves. Someone who is getting to live the American dream through his labor.

The second quote is from his first experience with America, and his realization of how bad his situation is. Even though he is experiencing this with a group of people in the same situation, he feels worse off. In this part, he is truly voiceless and choiceless because he has no one with whom he can converse. “they could talk to each other, but I had no person to speak to that I could understand. .” It is also his first dealings with the cruelty that he is up against. [VL]

These passages are found in Olaudah Equiano’s The Life of Gustavus Vassa. In the first passage, having been kidnapped and taken from his homeland by force, Equiano finds himself on a slave ship crowded with a “multitude of black people, of every description…” Within the first few lines objectives 1a and 1b are thrust upon the reader. Equiano clearly is not participating in this ordeal voluntarily (obj 1), but is being forced in a most abrupt manner on a journey that will land him in a life of slavery. Objective 2-(voiceless and choiceless) is evident when Equiano writes, “I was carried on board…[and] immediately handled and tossed up to see if I was sound…” The captive slave finds himself being at the mercy of his captors, all of whom treat him as an object (Obj. 5f) or “cargo” instead of as a man deserving of dignity and respect. He has no choice but to let himself be carried away to an unfamiliar land and people. In addition to having no voice or say in his forced situation, this idea of voiceless is echoed when he describes the other passengers/crew on the ship. Believing himself to be among “evil spirits…[who planned] to kill [him],” he finds himself unable to communicate or converse with any of the others on board. He sees no one like himself, no one with whom he can express his sorrow or fear. At least not until later when he finds ”among the poor chained men, …some from his own nation.” Equiano’s narrative contrasts greatly with that of the immigrant’s and the journey to America, in that the immigrant anticipates a better and more prosperous life at the end of his journey. Conversely, the minority has no choice in the decision to relocate and ultimately no choice in being reduced to a piece of property that is to bought and sold. While the individual in the immigrant narrative typically finds work, begins producing, and then reaping the rewards of his labor, individuals in the minority narrative (such as Equiano and Frederick Douglass), were forced into hard labor and production, but then gained few if any rewards for their service.

In the second passage, Equiano has landed in Barbados where he and the others are “pent up…like sheep” ready to be sold to the highest bidder, voiceless and choiceless. Equiano’s small sense of comfort in being able to converse with some of the other slaves on the ship is soon lost as he finds himself again isolated by his language capabilities. After leaving the ship, he can not find one person with whom he can converse and share his misery. Being able to communicate with someone capable of speaking the same language provided Equiano with some semblance of a connection to his roots or homeland. Michelle Glenn, in her Fall 2000 American Minority Literature Midterm exam, echoes this idea of connecting to one’s people and past as she writes, “The man in the narrative had lost all connection with his people, his life, everything that was important to him…He is no longer able to communicate with anyone.” Again, Equiano finds himself voiceless. It is only later when Equiano learns to speak English, the language of the dominant culture, that he is able to converse with others and feel as though he is part of a group and no longer as isolated. The reference to the black female slave wearing a muzzle on her head also contributes to the idea of the minority being voiceless and choiceless. Her owner, a member of the dominant culture, has taken away her ability to speak by placing the muzzle on her. She can not speak for herself nor make any of her own choices. She is his property purchased and paid for. Only in her spirit and mind can she be free. [VB]

Q2 Question. (from several texts or sources—Don’t spend too much time identifying separate passages; rather, discuss the common subjects raised by these quotations and the different angles developed.)

“My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father.”

“You devil! You yellow devil! . . . you long-legged mulatto devil.”

“I once saw two beautiful children playing together. One was a fair white child; the other was her slave, and also her sister.”

“My grandfather on the paternal side was a white gentleman. What tangled skeins are the genealogies of slavery!”

“Everywhere I found the same manifestations of that cruel prejudice, which so discourages the feelings, and represses the energies of the colored people. . . . I was the only nurse tinged with the blood of Africa.”

Q2 Answers.

Each of the above passages deals with the paradox listed in Objective 4. The involuntary mixing of races in minority situations related to slavery posed an interesting dichotomy to those who were forced to participate whether by birth or by lust. While the dominant culture carried on the facade of the “purity of the race”, it practiced just the opposite. The dominant culture assured the exterior purity by passing laws to bestow upon the children the status of the mother *free or slave.” The white men who controlled the slaves satisfied two aims with this practice: economic in that by “breeding with the female slaves, they could increase their property, and physical in that could satisfy their lust with someone who had no voice to contest or expose the actions. The slaves were forced to keep quiet for fear of their lives, and the owners chose to keep quiet to maintain the exterior of their purity in the community. With this in mind, no child born into slavery could claim a white father, and no person with even a drop of African blood could be accepted into “proper” society as an equal to the whites. The single drop of blood contaminated the entire person, and with this prejudice were the African-Americans continually suppressed. This arrangement also points to objective 6 with alternative families. The children could claim the mother but not the father: they had to live with the speculation that the white owner was their de facto father but could not treat him as such or receive treatment as the owner’s offspring. [JU]

Q2. (TEXT: CSN and Baby of the Family, AUTHOR: Fredrick Douglass, Tina Ansa)

All of the quotes above deal with the same subject being that many American slaves born were a mixture of their African mothers and their American fathers. Dealing directly with Objective 4b and the idea of races and “hybridity”, the quotes all speak of the common practice of the American culture which is really one big mixture of races. Racism often deals with the idea of a pure race created by G-d. What is a pure race in America? The quote dealing with the two children of one girl being white and the other a slave being her sister. Americans dominant culture is a mixture of everyone else… so if we discriminate against the minorities we are in fact discriminating against someone who is of the same blood. And if we are saying that to be pure is better, than the African American race is better in that it is more pure. I know that I in my history I have blood from many regions and countries, as many American “mutts” do and this blood also includes blood from the Native Americans and from a group known as Black Irish. Then I too should be discriminated against for my blood, right? Is purity the main grounds for discrimination? In this respect racism is rather silly. We are all the same blood. And if we weren’t would it matter? [GH]

. . . This passage reminds me of the poem “Failure of an Invention” by Safiya Henderson-Holmes. In the poem, she describes the resistance felt by African Americans as they attempt to assimilate into the dominant culture. Although the slave children are not trying to assimilate, they must deal with the painful fact that they are white as well as black, yet they are still considered slaves. [CM]

Q3 Question. (from one text)

“Sunday was my only leisure time. . . . My sufferings on the plantation seem now life a dream rather than a stern reality.

Our house stood within a few rods of the Chesapeake Bay, whose broad bosom was ever white with sails . . . .

“You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! . . . You are freedom’s swift-winged angels, that fly around the world; . . . O that I could also go! . . . If I could fly! . . . I will run away. . . . I had as well be killed running as die standing. . . It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave. I will take to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom. . . . Meanwhile I will try to bear up under the yoke. I am not the only slave in the world. . . . It may be that my misery in slavery will only increase my happiness when I get free. There is a better day coming.”

Q3 Answers.

Q3. Frederick Douglass wrote these passages in his autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” Like Equiano, Douglass’ words illustrate Objectives 1a and 1c’s forced participation and denial of voice by stating, “Sunday was my only leisure time. . .” and expressing a longing to return to freedom by flying away via clipper ship and the Chesapeake Bay. This passage strongly infers “the dream” (objective 3a) with the last line, “There is a better day coming,” where he is expressing hope for his future freedom. The freedom water symbolizes in this passage reminds me of the freedom water gave Rachel in Baby of the Family and also of Edna Pontillier in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (gender minority issue). [TStJ]

. . . The words of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. hearken back to this concept of being free and the anticipation of the “better day.” When King spoke about his dream, it was one “deeply rooted in the American Dream, that one day” the dream for African-Americans would come true, that they, too, could expect “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Douglass watched the ships on Chesapeake Bay that were free to sail away to where they pleased. He alluded to the flight from slavery in African legends and the brotherhood that bound him to the rest of the slaves. These repeated allusions to flight and the dream deferred have become standards in African American literature and have influenced the writings of successive generations. Douglass’ narrative became one of the primary tools to overcome slavery and the perpetuation thereof. Langston Hughes’ poem takes up this torch and asks, “What happens to a dream deferred?” Dr. King uses these references to remind African-Americans that the dream will come to pass, but at a later day as listed in objective 3. [JU]

. . . Douglass adheres to the idea that “a better day [is] coming.” This passage also correlates to Objective 3a and the quest for group dignity. Douglass tells himself that he is not the “only slave in the world.” Instead of feeling as if he is alone in his misery, Douglass thinks of all the others just like him who yearn for freedom and a voice in society. Those in the dominant society striving for the American Dream tend to be much more individualistic than do those minorities who reach for the Dream. The African-American dream tends to be more group oriented and less focused on only themselves. . . . [VB]

Q4. (from several texts or sources—Don’t spend too much time identifying separate passages; rather, discuss the common subjects raised by these quotations and the different angles developed.)

“When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own.”

“My new mistress . . . had never had a slave under her control previously to myself, and prior to her marriage she had been dependent upon her own industry for a living. . . . She was entirely unlike any other white woman I had ever seen. . . . [Later,] my mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance with the advice and direction of her husband, not only ceased to instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by anyone else. . . . She now commenced to practise her husband’s precepts. She finally became even more violent in her opposition than her husband himself. . . . “

“Shortly after my arrival [in London, my master] sent me to wait upon the Miss Guerins, who had treated me with so much kindness when I was there before, and they sent me to school. While I was attending these ladies, their servants told me I could not go to Heaven, unless I was baptized. . . . I communicated my anxiety to the eldest Miss Guerin . . . and pressed her to have me baptized; when, to my great joy, she told me I should. She had formerly asked my master to let me be baptized, but he had refused; however she now insisted on it; and he, being under some obligation to her bother, complied with her request . . . .”

Q4 Answers

Q4 . . . One major element that these passages have in common is that they all revolve around how women engaged and dealt with slavery. Of course Linda was a slave and had no voice of her own, but the women in the other two passages didn't have much of a say in things either. They too were supposed to listen to men. All three of these passages are about women and how they reacted to slavery, but they looked at it from different angles. Linda knew just what could happen to her baby when she gets older. It hurt her to think that her daughter could be subjected to the kind of life that she herself had lived thus far. She felt helpless. Mrs. Auld was kind to Douglas at first and even was willing to help him learn to read. After her husband told her not to she became a very different woman. She handled the power over Douglas badly. She became worse than her husband. The ladies in the third passage took an interest in Equiano and wanted to have him baptized. Although the master said no, they didn't stop there. They found a way around the man who was in control and that is what had to be done if a woman, even a white woman, wanted anything done in this time. White men were in control and women either had to let them be in full control like Mrs. Auld allowed her husband or find a round about way to make things go their way like Linda and the ladies in passage three. [SD]

Q5 Question. (from a single text)

“And as they led her out of the school the teachers stood around helplessly and watched. Not one asked what the problem was. The rough handling of the girl meant nothing to them, as long as they weren’t involved. The black teachers who watched shook in their shoes because they knew what the white police thought of them all. . . .

“To the white officers who rushed at her, she was not a young black girl anymore—a schoolgirl at that. She was just someone black who had found the nerve to strike back at them. . . .

“As the detectives tossed her unconscious body into the car beside Chink, one of the white detectives muttered, ‘They ain’t no better than a couple of damn animals, the way they act.’

“’No better,” one of his friends commented. “That’s all . . . they are is animals.”

The black officer who had been responsible for the arrest glanced at the two white officers who were speaking. . . . For the first time he was ashamed that he was responsible for the arrest of the young couple. . . . He wondered idly if the white cops who called them animals could have come from such hardships as children and survived as well as this young could had.

Q5 Answers

Q5: (TEXT: Black Girl Lost, AUTHOR: Donald Goines)

This quote from Black Girl Lost first shows the power struggle between the black teachers and the white police. The teachers just know they are “helpless” in the situation. They as Goines states “knew what the white police thought of them all…” In other words, the teacher knew that the white police saw them as lower than them because of the color of their skin and nothing else. Even though teachers are seen as a group with authority, in this their power is stripped because of their ethnicity. And Sandra who is a young black schoolgirl is seen as “someone black who had found the nerve to strike back at them…” So the fact that she was a young girl didn’t factor in to the police because they felt she broke the law and fought in direct defiance of them the white cops. Sandra and Chink were paralleled to “animals” by the cops further showing that they felt they were better than them because of the color of their skin. In this Objective 2b is shown in that race is being used as a class. The teachers, Sandra and Chink, and even their black fellow officer were lower than them in class only because they were black. This fear of the law shown by the teachers and the kids also shows Objective 2c and the idea that “the law” makes things worse for them. The black officer is upset that he is responsible for the arrest because he knows that the kids were merely trying to live out the “Dream” in the best way that they knew how.

. . . The text states, “to the white officers…. She was just someone black who had found the nerve to strike back at them.” This relates to Objective 2c (Quick check on minority status). Here, “the law” is just making things worse for Sandra. Sandra and Chink regard the police as people to avoid. This is shown when Sandra does not report her rape to the police; they dispense their own justice, which is death to the rapists. This passage displays that they are not looked upon as equals, even by their own race. This passage also relates to “The Dream.” Sandra and Chink cannot acquire freedom from the system, although they want to. As Martin Luther King stated, “the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” SC stated in the 1999 Midterm, “The reference towards Sandra and Chink as "damn animals" refers to a Darwinian jungle.” [CM]

. . . As soon as “the law” arrives there is immediate mistrust. There is not the idea “they are here to help” because even the black teachers are afraid. The law makes things worse and so they are not to be trusted. In this story “The Dream” is created by what Sandra and Chink have to do in order to free themselves from the confines of abuse. They create a “dream,” but it is not long lasting. Sandra wants to join the culture that oppresses her, but the only way in seems to be with money. Joining with Chink and selling drugs gets her higher up on the monetary scale. This gives her economic benefits, but because it is illegal it is short lived. This illegal action brings in the dominant-minority relationship. As they are arrested they are seen as objects. They are not human, but animals that can be beaten into submission, much like the slaves were. . . . [LR]

The officer in Black Girl Lost by Donald Goines faced the situation spelled out in objective 4 on whether to assimilate or resist. By joing the dominant culture’s police force, he assimilated but with regrets when he was the arresting officer of Chink and Sandra. He felt remorse for the two members of his race but was compelled by duty as a participant in the structure of the dominant culture. The response of the white officers was ambivilent as they stood next to their fellow officer while disparaging his race as animals. This displays a number of feelings on both parts as the white officers felt comfortable enough to make the statements in his presence AND ignore that he was there at all. His “blackness” had made him invisible and part of their structure at the same time – the same blackness that made Sandra no longer a schoolgirl but an animal. Surely the officer felt anger and shame at the same time: anger for the prejudice against his race in general and shame for his participation in the culture that perpetuated the prejudice. [JU]

Q5. This passage comes from Donald Goines, Black Girl Lost. With vivid and descriptive word choices, Goines successfully captures the soul crushing conditions of ghetto life as experienced by the two protagonists, Sandra and Chink. Readers can easily vicariously share the minority experience in all its violence and struggles (Obj. 5A). In these passages, Sandra and Chink find themselves being arrested for selling drugs. The teachers at the school she attends witness Sandra’s arrest and rough handling by the officers. Though they watch, not one of them asks what she has done or seeks to offer her any type of support. They simply did not want to get involved. To some, this way of thinking sounds callous and cold hearted. To a minority, however, especially an African-American minority, not getting involved is a manifestation of one’s distrust of dominant institutions. Sandra, Chink, nor the African-American teachers have any real confidence or trust in the legal system as it pertains to minorities. Objective 2C relates to this idea of distrust of dominant institutions and minorities’ relationship to the law. The minority teachers “knew what the white police thought of all of them. Knowing “they could and would be handled the same way if they so much as opened their mouths” kept the teachers from offering their help to Sandra.

When Sandra chooses to fight the white officers trying to put her in the car, she is hit with their billy clubs until she loses consciousness. By resisting their restraints, Sandra has overstepped her boundaries, she has forgotten her place in the dominant culture or white society, at least, in the opinion of the white officers. She has attempted to rise up and they mean to prevent that. They “could [not] allow [a] black kid to talk to them in that manner in front of such a large group of people.” Actions such as Sandra’s were seen as being in direct opposition to the dominant culture’s societal rules. This idea of keeping a black person in her place is echoed in the slave narratives as owners attempted to keep their slaves in submission and silence by beating and humiliating them.

As Sandra is tossed into the car, a white detective declares that …”they[are] animals.” Clearly, the white officers regard Sandra and Chink as something less than human. In their eyes, the black teenagers are animals that deserve to be treated as such, something that the officers are all too willing to provide. In this text, Sandra and Chink are viewed as animals struggling to survive in the jungle of the ghetto. Their means of survival are limited in the opportunities they are afforded. Desiring to improve the quality of their existence, yet possessing limited economic opportunities, Chink and Sandra participate in a lifestyle that eventually contributes to their demise. Minorities being viewed and treated as animals are also found frequently and throughout the slave narratives.

In the last part of this passage, the black officer responsible for the couple’s arrest has mixed emotions as he observes the rough treatment and racial slurs delivered at the hands of the white cops. Objective 4 relates to this passage concerning the minority dilemma of choosing to assimilate into or resist the dominant culture. The black officer is caught between two worlds. On one hand, he has crossed the boundary into the dominant culture by achieving employment that places him in an authority position. On the other hand, however, though he has crossed the boundary between the dominant culture and minority culture, he still does not feel as though he actually is a part of it. He does not wholly identify with it or embrace it as his own. He finds himself caught between the right and legal world and the world that recognizes and sympathizes with the anger and frustration many African-Americans possess. Because he, too, is an African-American minority, this officer knows the hardships and struggles to survive that many young black teenagers face daily. This knowledge allows him to have a broader perspective and insight as to the sources of Sandra and Chink’s illegal activities. The minority that crosses the boundary lines between the two cultures must find a balance between economic benefits and personal or cultural sacrifices. [VB]

Q6. (from a single text)

“The urn . . . contained the ashes of Miss Lizzie’s husband, Lena’s grandfather, who died the year Lena was born. Like Lena he had been born in November and, according to Grandmama, whenever a person born in that month dies, another birth takes place in the family the following November. . . . “That’s your granddaddy there . . . .”

“At their table there were as many rules and regulations involved as there seemed to be in any liturgical service. . . .

“After the meal the ritual continued in the kitchen . . . .

“She disrupted two rituals, Lena, that you were lucky to even be connected with. . . . You been scared of what you should have understood.”

Q6 Answers

Q.6.) The passages from Baby of the Family by Tina Ansa discuss the different traditions in their family and culture. Her mother does not adhere to the traditions of the older generation, but she seems to keep some of them. The dinner table ritual and the kitchen ritual afterwards are ones that stay with the family. It could be that since the grandmother is living there, these rituals stay intact. However, they are less imposing than the rituals involved with Lena’s caul. There is an extended family theme in these passages because it is showing that not only does the grandmother live in the house, the grandfather does as well. Although he is dead, he is still spoken about in the family, and still part of the household. Lena’s grandmother still observes the older cultural traditions. She would like to pass these on to Lena such as the belief that “whenever a person born in that month dies, another birth takes place in the family the following November”. She is making sure that Lena’s connection to the past stays intact even though her mother does not believe in them. Since Lena’s understanding of the importance of the caul is very scarce, her grandmother comes back to help her understand it. Her mother did not understand or believe in the magic of the caul, and therefore she destroyed it. She did not want to be tied to that cultural past and wanted to keep Lena from it. In this respect, the mother is making an attempt at assimilation. She wants to lose those parts of her culture and not pass them on to her children. Lena’s grandmother, however, wants to reconnect her to that past and retain that part of her culture. When her grandmother tells her, You been scared of what you should have understood” , she could be referring to those parts of her cultural heritage that her mother would not allow her to recognize. [VL]