“To Da-duh, In Memoriam”

Fiction Text read by Cristel Ruiz

“The Making of a Writer: From Poets in the Kitchen”

Non-Fiction Text read by Dianna Ruiz

Both texts written by Paule Marshall.

Recorder: Jason Bollich

Authorial Background Information

(Cristel)

Born Valenza Pauline Burke on April 9, 1929, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents recently immigrated from Barbados, Marshall was raised in a close-knit West Indian community.  She attended Brooklyn College and turned to fiction to fight boredom during a two-year, illness-forced break in the middle of her college career.  She graduated in 1953 cum laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.  Marshall worked briefly as a librarian before moving on to write for “Our World,” a popular 1950’s African American magazine.  Marshall had many notable works, including Brown Girl, Brownstones (a 1959 novel), Soul Clap Hands and Sing (a 1961 collection of four novellas), “Reena” (a 1962 short story), The Chosen Place, the Timeless People (a 1969 novel), Praisesong for the Widow (a 1983 novel), Reena and Other Stories (a 1983 short story collection), and Daughters (a 1991 novel).  Marshall taught at Yale, Columbia, Cornell, and Oxford Universities.  She also received many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the MacArthur Prize Fellowship. 

Source: http://www.siu.edu/~carib/Marshall.html

(Dianna)

Marshall was raised in a close-knit West Indian community and gives credit to the women of that community with being her most important teachers.  In her writing, she deals with several major themes that reflect her own issues and obstacles in life.  She feels as though her work serves not only as a career but also as a means of healing for her self.  From this, she is able to work through issues and recurring themes in her own personal journey.  Themes often involve looking at ancestors and heritage to assemble some kind of meaning in one’s present life.  Marshall examines the big issues in life within the context of her Caribbean-American heritage.  She visited her parent’s homeland, Barbados, for the first time at the age of nine.  Her novel, Praise Song for the Widow, is dedicated to her grandmother, Da-duh.  And, as a final detail, the “e” of her first name is silent, so the name is pronounced like the male version – Paul.

Sources: http://ww.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Marshall.html

  http://www.africana.com/Daily Articles/index_20001215.htm

  http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/paulemarshall.html

These texts have no previous web summary, so our information is newly collected.

One interesting reference to previous web information comes from the summer of 1999,  with Richard Reid, on comparing Fiction and Non-fiction, commenting:  “In the fiction piece, Da-duh is a very round character, full of action and life.  The reader can really get involved with her.  In the non-fiction piece, the characters are flat, more like cardboard cutouts.”

Fiction Text: “To Da-duh, In Memoriam” (Cristel)

This text, told from a nine-year-old girl’s memory, employs flashback using first person narration.  The knowledge of the reader is limited to what the narrator relates; the reader has no insight into Da-duh’s thoughts.  This story involves Literary Objective 2, noting (a) the 2^nd generation viewpoint, and involving (b) a journey/return to the homeland.  The narrator’s parents embody Cultural Objective 3 with the mother representing the New Immigrant Model (wanting to return to her homeland and valuing her cultural identity and its link to the past) and the father representing the Old Immigrant Model (feeling returning home is a waste of money and that they should enjoy their American lives).

In researching fictional and nonfictional markers using the final exams available on the course website, I found the following clues:

In “To Da-duh, In Memoriam,” Marshall uses simple language and sentence structure, and after the first scene, focuses on two central characters: the narrator and Da-duh.  One fictional marker present in this text is the use of vivid details, like in the description of Da-duh on page 352:

It was as stark and fleshless as a death mask, that face.  The maggots might have already done their work, leaving only the framework of bone beneath the ruined skin and deep wells at the temple and jaw.  But her eyes were alive, unnervingly so for one so old, with a sharp light that flicked out of the dim clouded depths like a lizard’s tongue to snap up all in her view.

Though the initial image is a bit disturbing, Marshall’s use of language draws the reader into the story and lets us “see” Da-duh as the narrator does.

Another fictional marker present in “To Da-duh, In Memoriam,” is the use of stock characters.  When the narrator’s family arrives in Barbados, the St. Andrews relatives “[laugh] in awed bursts: ‘But look Adry got big-big children!’ / ‘And see the nice things they wearing, wrist watch and all!’…” (353), almost like “country folk” who fawn over “city folk” and their fancy possessions on old American stories.  Da-duh realizes their ignorance and feels “ashamed at their wonder, embarrassed for them” and admonishes them, saying, “You all ain’t been colonized” (353). 

Another fictional marker present in the text is its storytelling quality that draws the reader into the world of Da-duh’s Barbados.  On page 357, we read:

One morning toward the end of our stay, Da-duh led me into part of the gully that we had never visited before, and area darker and more thickly overgrown than the rest, almost impenetrable.  There in a small clearing amid the dens bush, she stopped before an incredibly tall royal palm which rose cleanly out of the ground, and drawing the eye up with it, soared high above the trees around it into the sky.  It appeared to be touching the blue dome of sky, to be flaunting its dark crown of fronds right in the blinding white face of the late morning sun.

This beautiful description paints a mental image of the tree Da-duh feels can out-do any of the technology in New York, and draws the reader into the text again.  This is one of the great pleasures of the story: it reads like a good novel, even though it is only a short story.  Marshall has masterfully written “To Da-duh, In Memoriam” and draws the reader into the story with beautiful descriptions and authentic dialogue.

Because the same author writes both of our texts, some interesting similarities and discrepancies occur.  Da-duh’s clothing with her “ugly rolled-brim brown felt hat” and long white dress mirrors the clothing of the women leaving to find work in “The Making of a Writer […].”  The discrepancy occurs when the author in “The Making of a Writer” says that she wanted, as a child, to write of apple trees, though she had never seen one (89).  Marshall speaks in “To Da-duh” of seeing the sugar apple trees in Barbados (355), which we find out from Dianna actually happened.

Pointing out the nonfiction in fiction: (Dianna)

The most intriguing thing about fiction is wondering how much of it holds truth.  What aspects are mirrored from reality?  Already we know from biography two characteristics of non-fiction in “To Da-duh”: she was nine years old when she went to Barbados and her encounter with her Da-duh influenced her so much she felt compelled to write about her and to dedicate one of her novels to her.  Also, on page 354, Paule tells she longed for the street in Brooklyn and the brownstone house.  These are mentioned in “The Making of a Writer” (nonfiction text). 

Also, notice how Marshall narrates in a child’s voice in “Da-duh,” yet in “The Making” she narrates in past tense, never using a child’s voice to explain her experience as a child in the kitchen.

Dates and historical references tend appear in nonfiction, however on page 356 of “To Da-duh,” there is a reference to songs and dances popular in the 1930’s.  Then on page 357, there are numerous references to the modern period: towering world of steel and concrete, machines and appliances; and my personal favorite is Da-duh’s reaction, which encompasses the essences of that period:  “Oh, the lord, the world’s changing up so I can scarce recognize it anymore”.

Fiction Discussion Question: (Cristel)

The image of Da-duh trying to triumph over New York and its technology, which surpasses anything she has in Barbados, is implied to have led to her decline and eventual death.  The passage on page 358 where Da-duh realizes her huge palm tree is second to the Empire State Building and is “defeated” seems strange to me.  Do you see this as a fiction or nonfiction element of the story and why do you think the author chose to end the story in this way?

Discussion:

Dr. White asked, “Do I buy it?” relating to the passage and how we can try to interpret fiction from nonfiction.

Julie said the fictional passage could capture reality, that the behavior may be symbolic of the death of the old ways.

Lynn said that from the beginning, the girl is identified with Da-duh and all the love Da-duh held for Barbados.  Da-duh is trying to teach the new generation this love for the island, gives the girl all she can, and it isn’t enough.  The girl still says New York is better.

Julie commented on the element of change.  Da-duh has to come face to face with change.

Naomi said this shows the defeat of Grandma.  The story is fiction because it drew her in and the narrator detaches herself from the present.

Dr. White said that it is fiction because we are caught up in the girl’s point of view, the child’s point of view can’t be distanced yet from fiction.

Cristel said that although the story is told from the child’s complete perspective, if you read closely, you can see an older narrator reading over the child’s voice (like the passage about Da-duh’s “defeat”—would a child realize the complexity of the emotions at the time or would it be in looking back from adulthood?)

Nonfiction Text: “The Making of a Writer: From Poets in the Kitchen”(Dianna)

More of the obvious relation between the two texts is that we see Marshall using in the fiction text what she talks about in the nonfiction text.  The irony of this is that the fictional work seems to inhibit quiet a few elements of nonfiction, while the nonfiction piece seems to reflect traits of fiction.  The title, “In Memoriam,” suggests the reader will receive an account of one’s past life, which usually falls under the classification of a personal narrative, and the title, “From the Poets in the Kitchen,” creates the feeling of story telling since poets are not usually associated with being in the kitchen.  Also, the setting for “To Da-duh” occurs in the homeland, unfamiliar territory to most, while the setting for “The Making” begins in the classroom, and later moves to the kitchen.

Nonfiction, inhabiting information to be learned, reflects importance of remembering experiences in order to find understanding so that we can learn from the things we remember.  It allows one to connect to the past and re-evaluate old attitudes and beliefs.  Through a personal narrative, moments can be explored and placed into perspective.  Paule Marshall does this in “The Making of a Writer,” she reflects on her childhood experiences and identifies what made her the writer she has become.  (See paragraphs two and five on p83 and the last paragraph on p89). 

As nonfiction traditionally has a message, in “The Making,” the message is there is importance in continuing, or reconnecting to one’s heritage.  Of course, by immigrating, there is the necessity of speaking Standard American English, but in Marshall’s story there is the desire to hold on to immigrant speech (L.Obj.4a). 

The American dream for the families, in “The Making of a Writer,” is more realistic.  (See third paragraph on p85).  In “The Making,” the desire is to buy a brownstone house and see the children through.  This is not a universal dream; it is their dream.  This is an indicator of nonfiction.  And, deviating from this is Marshall’s own personal dream:  “that I might some day write, and with something of the power with words my mother and her friends possessed” (89).

Pointing out the fiction in nonfiction: (Cristel)

In “The Making of a Writer…” the elements of fiction are challenging to find.  However, several come through in the text, such as one scene standing for many with the women leaving daily for work (pages 83-84).  Another fictional element is the characters’ ideas expressed through their dialectic dialogue, like on page 84 when they discuss war and the politicians’ role in such matters.  And while this passage is more technical and brings in ideas, in the form of quotes, from others, Marshall’s storytelling quality present in her fiction text is present in this nonfiction text as well.  An example of this is on page 86 when the women are discussing their homeland.

Nonfiction Discussion: (Dianna)

Dr. White said that Dianna asked about nonfiction patterns, some of which resemble the immigrant narrative.  Like on page 85, there is a distance in “poor, but sweet”, though the actual representation is like fiction because of the dialogue.  The speech out of quotes is general speech.

Angela said that dialogue/tone is implied.

Dr. White discussed on page 86 the distance in the nonfiction.  Though the narrator is trapped in a child’s mind and the narrator keeps a distance, at this point a grown-up is speaking.  The speech is alive making you feel like you are there (fiction), but two paragraphs later, there is a distance achieved and an analysis, bringing in nonfiction.

Indicators of nonfiction pointed out by Dr. White:

§         Historical reference to FDR and Marcus Garvey (in the fifth paragraph on page 84)

§         Distance for analysis occurs when Marshall talks about transferring the Standard English language into idioms (p86).

Fiction is a direct representation.

Nonfiction is a direct experience.