It's one thing to explain your life through words but it's another to portray your past through pictures. I believe that Dorothy Allison, the author of Two or Three Things I Know for Sure captures the essence of this portrayal. Allison’s mother was corrupted at such a young age, she tries to prevent her daughter from the same life she lead. However, throughout the pictures and the stories told in this novel, its evident that her mothers restraints on her only causes further rebellion.
Next to a picture of Allison's aunt dot and her mother, it reads, "The women I loved the most in the world horrified me. I did not want to grow up to be them. I made myself proud of their pride, their determination, their stubbornness, but every night I prayed a mans prayer, lord save me from them do not let me become them"(38). This shows that although that she looks up to these women, she still realizes they are trapped in their own sorrow.
Allison wants to escape the norm of her town; getting pregnant with a poor no good man with out a job and basically being a "baby maker". In class, we analyzed a picture on page 33. How once these women were beautiful and glorious. Only for a mere second. "We were all wide-hipped baby machines. We were all wide-hipped and predestined. Wide-faced meant stupid. Wide hands marked workhorses with dull hair and tired eyes..." Allison realizes that she doesn't want to be just another generation of the women in her family, so she decides to take a different route and go to college.
No comments:
Post a Comment