As you read and prepare for the next two class meetings, take note of the passages from this text that you find especially engaging, provocative, or even offensive or alienating. Underline or mark them as a reminder of what captured your attention. Sketch out brief notes, as well, about what you were thinking as you read. Use these notes to help you generate your responses to the prompts below.
Before class meets on Wednesday, January 6, please identify a passage from the first half of Two or Three Things I Know for Sure that uses vivid narration. In a paragraph, summarize the passage. At what point in the story does it take place? What happens in it? In a second paragraph, explain how Dorothy Allison narrates this section of the text. What does she do as a writer to engage the reader? What kind of language does she use? How would you characterize her technique as a writer? Why is this passage an effective or interesting example of narration? Incorporate key quotations to help you illustrate your explanation.
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Pg. 27 "Mama always said...changing all the time"
ReplyDeleteThese two paragraphs are symbolic of Allison's childhood and how she learned. Allison illustrates that in their world, they must act to succeed. Not act in an actual theater, but act in the theater of the society. Allison lists a few activities or situations that people like her need to pretend to be a part of in order to be successful.
Dorothy Allison narrates this section with quick points that are assertive and describes how her mother's ideals taught Dorothy to succeed. "Theater is what Mama knew and I learned," she wrote. Dorothy uses situations that are somewhat common or similar to other situations that the reader is able to relate. For example, we all know what theater is and we all know how it feels to stick out in a crowd. "Theater is pretending you know what you're doing when you don't know anything for certain and what you do know seems to be changing all the time." The final sentence in the paragraph sums the entire passage perfectly. Dorothy is showing how people can live lives that need adaptation to surroundings and being successful at it.
The passage I chose starts on page 38 with the line, “let me tell you the mean story”. This short passage precedes the passage where the author, Dorothy Allison, explains how her stepfather raped her when she was five years old. In this passage, the author sets the stage for the horrible story she is about to unleash. She describes herself as a woman who is able to handle anything but also a woman who carries the stories of many other women. From writing these stories down, the author believes that she was finally able to sort them out. She was able to see that she can't lie to herself or try to hide anymore, because behind the stories there is a lot of pain. Dorothy states that, “every writing course I ever heard of said the same thing. Take one story, follow it through, beginning, middle, end. I don't do that. I never do”(39). She describes the difficulty of making the reader truly hear and understand her story. From here the author begins the story of what happened to her, “The man raped me. It's the truth. It's a fact”(39).
ReplyDeleteIn this passage as in the rest of the book so far, the author doesn't organize her writing chronologically. Instead of events flowing into one another it seems that her feelings behind the events flow into one another. For example, the feelings of pride, strength, and stubbornness that consume the women in her family from the previous passage translates into her inability to express her feelings about her rape in this current passage. Dorothy uses vivid imagery to give the reader a window into viewing her feelings. She uses metaphors such as, “I convinced myself that I was unbreakable, an animal with an animal strength or something not human at all”(38) and similes such as “I take damage like a wall, a brick wall that never falls down, never feels anything, never flinches or remembers”(38). She could have simply said something like “I was a strong woman,” but by comparing herself to an animal's strength or a brick wall, we can imagine how she feels stronger than herself. We imagine that in fact she feels so strong that she can feel no pain, until her wall comes crashing down. Dorothy uses juxtapositions in the last paragraph of this passage to show how there is more behind the story that she tells us and she wants us to see beyond what we think we understand. She states, “behind my carefully buttoned collar is my nakedness, the struggle to find clean clothes... Behind sex is rage behind anger is love, behind this moment is silence, years of silence”(39). By putting contrasting words together such as sex and rage, anger and love we as the reader must take a step back and see how these two things that are not usually related have helped make up the reality of the author's life in a way we wouldn't normally expect.
Pg. 32 “The women of my family…they could have been another species”
ReplyDeleteThis passage explains the feelings of men, especially men in her family in regards to the women in her family. It is clear that throughout Dorothy’s life she was seen as a plain and ugly girl with no credibility. Up to this point in the story she is beginning to be able to talk about the abuse that she suffered when she was a child even when the only person who believed her was her mother. In this passage the women in her family were illustrated as “manlike, sexless, bearers of babies, burdens, and contempt”. It has been drilled into her head from the beginning that she was ugly and good for doing work and having babies. When she compares the women in the magazines to the type of woman in her family it is sad that this thought process has been ingrained into her.
Dorothy Allison narrates this section with blunt words that are straight to the point and illustrative of exactly the type of woman that she was seen as. Her sentences are short and straight to the point, for example, “Wide-faced meant stupid”. This shows that she accepted that the males in the family considered themselves superior to the women, and the women in turn had no say in the matter. Dorothy engages the reader by allowing us to actually picture the women in her family, a picture of an old and ugly woman with her mouth open staring into the distance. She makes no attempt to even allow the notion that the women in magazines held some similarities to the women in her family and seemed to just accept her fate. This passage is interesting to me because she so willingly puts herself down and accepts the fact that she is seen in this way. She does nothing to try to counteract the opinions of the men in her family and shows it in the style of her writing.
“The women I loved most in the world horrified me…she had chosen to believe what she needed more than what she knew” (38-43)
ReplyDeleteIn this passage, as the narrator continues her journey of discovering herself, she reveals a haunting secret. When she was five years old, she was raped by her step-father of eight months. For years after that incident, she sought for freedom and herself. As much as she wanted to face the truth and talk about it, she was hesitant and vulnerable to the topic. The only person that could possibly make a difference was her mother, and that was the person she was most reluctant to tell. As Dorothy Allison said, “behind the story I tell is the one I don’t” (39) She knew that telling her story to her mom would only bring more pain to her mom’s story.
Even though Dorothy Allison wanted to let go of her past for a better future her diction was still very negative toward letting go, since she knows that all the women in her life could not just let it go as easily. Dorothy Allison states, “I am one woman but I carry in my body all the stories I have ever been told, women I have known, women who have taken damage until they tell themselves they can feel no pain at all.” (38) Saying that freeing herself is more than forgetting about her lingering childhood, it’s about coping with generations of stories and pain. In this passage, her sense of struggling can felt through her words. Within half a page she has referred the rape of a child as old tearing awful words twice. But when she’s trying to free herself she uses words like taut, persistent, cruelly, loose. As much as she wants to free herself, there are all of those other women in her life still suffering. She said “every night I prayed a man’s prayer: Lord, save me from them. Do not let me become them.” (38) This passage is interesting in terms that Dorothy Allison has taken solitude in the midst of being surrounded by people.
"After, I kept thinking...like the closing of a book." (Page 13)
ReplyDeleteThis paragraph is part of the passage that serves as the introduction to Dorothy Allison's mother. The paragraph describes her Allison's final moments as she dies, while the author races to get home to see her one last time.
Allison narrates the passage with a sadness that her mother has passed on and a longing to have seen her alive one more time. The author is able to convey the emotions that she feels in order to engage the reader in the passage and involve the reader in the event. In order to achieve this Allison uses language that is able to cause the reader to conjure up the emotions that she feels about her mother's final breaths, which she was not present for. Her technique of using emotions to engage the reader is effective and the passage is engaging and interesting because of this.
Pg. 39 "The man raped me. It's the truth. It's a fact."
ReplyDeleteI believe that this passage had the most vivid narration because it finally explained the first half of the book. In the passage, Allison explains her life with her mother and her step father. In the beginning, she tells us about her life and and everyone in her family, but when it gets to the part where she explains that her step father raped her at the age of five, which turns her into a lesbian, the audience is drawn into the story even more with Allison's narration. Her feelings of anger and resentment towards her step father practically jump off of the page. Finally, she talks about the consequences of her rape, and its effect on her sexuality.
The way Allison is able to engage the reader is by expressing the pain she felt through her voice and expressing that she is a survivor because she suffered at the hands of her step father, and was able to move on. The language she uses is quite provocative because it seems that she just wants her story out. For example, in the passage on page 44 Alyson states, "My theory is that talking about it makes a difference... I was five and the man was big." In conclusion, Allison's technique as a writer is effective and emotional because it wasn't written to make money, or make people like her. She wrote it solely because she felt that her story needed to be told, and maybe it could help someone else.
Pg 47-48 “I know. I’m not supposed to talk about sex like that…there would come a time in my life when desire did not resonate with fury”
ReplyDeleteIn these four paragraphs, the author is describing the affects of her physical and sexual assaults in her life. She describes how “good anger” helped her through it and mentions how she always pictured her stepfather when she learned how to shoot a rifle. She then describes how when making love with women, it always reminded her of her stepfather. Every time she thought about him, she would wonder how long it was going to take to forget about him.
In this section of her book, Dorothy Allison uses the phrase, “I’m not supposed to talk about…” twice. This technique engages the reader because it makes them curious about what they are not supposed to know. She also uses questions such as “is it male? Is it mean? Did you get off on it?” to get the reader thinking about the answers, to get the reader involved in her story. Dorothy Allison uses very informal language throughout this passage. She describes her sexual situations vividly and also does not leave anything untold in her story. I would characterize her technique as a writer as being very blunt but also not ashamed of anything. She always says things like “I know I’m not supposed to tell you…” but after each time she writes that, she tells you anyway. This shows the reader that she is not afraid to tell her story, leaving nothing out. This passage is an effective example of narration because it intrigues the reader to know what they are not supposed to know, to feel as if they are talking to a friend because Dorothy Allison writes so informally, and because the reader trusts the author to be telling the truth without leaving the gruesome details out.
“People might get confused…But then, neither did I”(45-46).
ReplyDeleteThis passage in Two or Three Things I Know for Sure occurs just after Allison illustrates her childhood rape and abuse by her stepfather. This specific passage describes an encounter Allison had as an adult with a therapist. In the passage the idea that some people believe rape is a cause for homosexuality in women due to their abuse from the men in their lives. Allison confronts societies issue with homosexuality by saying “if people really believed that rape made lesbians, and brutal fathers made dykes, wouldn’t they be more eager to do something about it?”
Allison’s use of dialogue in her recollection of the events makes it so moving and offensive. The fact that Allison actually said that to a therapist can be offensive to many; the therapists rage to the statement is shown through a simile as “she opened her mouth like a fish caught on a razor sharp line.” Allison’s voice in this passage is very blunt, captivating the reader as she holds nothing back.
A point in the story that exhibits vivid narration starts in a paragraph on page 6. This is early in the story when the narrator is describing where she was born. She speaks very fondly of the town of Greenville, South Carolina. However, while she speaks fondly of all the great things that make up Greenville, she also makes sure to put in various terrible things that also exist in the town.
ReplyDeleteDorothy Allison engages the reader in this section by using concrete and descriptive adjectives to everything being listed. Items such as “cut wet grass” or “split green apples” allow the reader to imagine an image of this town as if they were really there. Another aspect of her writing that engages the reader is her use of contradicting items. Descriptions such as “split green apples…the most beautiful place…baby shit and beer bottles…and the country of my nightmares” seem so opposite. How can such awful things be parallel with such things of beauty and happiness? This gets the reader to think and analyze the point of contradiction that she is trying to get across.
“LET ME TELL TOU about what I have never been allowed to be…but I prayed a man’s prayer: Lord, save me from them. Do not let me become them.” (Pg.32-38)
ReplyDeleteIn this passage, she gives the introduction of the women in her family and divides it into two sides. The first side is talking about the lamentableners of their family’s females who are measured, manlike, sexless, bearers of babies, burdens and contempt. On the other side, the females in their family are proud, determinate and stubborn. But the men in her family only pay attention to the first side and ignore the second one. The statuses of those women are very low in such kind of family.
Dorothy Allison used the experience that happened around her to support her opinion of what kind of status quo of the females in her family. It makes the whole passage more persuasive because all of these is what she saw and what she listen. Also this is the way that she engages the reader. The language she used is pretty ironical, which she uses the men’s thought to illustrate those women’s poor status and woeful. I really love the last paragraph a lot “ The women I loved most in the world horrified me.…. but every night I prayed a man’s prayer: Lord, save me from them.” This definitely figures out the spirit of author’s thought. They are pathetic but they deserved. This makes the whole passage objective and interesting.
Page 33
ReplyDeleteIn this part of the story the narrator describes the women that she has known over her life. All of the women in her family were hard workers that were disrespected by men. She describes the plain cloths they would where, how the shapes of their bodies were formed from all the babies they had and their old, tired, worn out and ugly faces. This takes place after she has to deal with seeing her uncle cry over the loss of the woman that he loved.
Dorothy Allison narrates this passage angrily. The emotion that a readers feels in her words is what makes it interesting to read. She was able to make me feel her pain. Understand the hardships the women in her life have seen, and that she is afraid that she will end up old, ugly and unappreciated as those women have been She states “We are the ones in the background with our mouths open, in print dresses or drawsting pants and collarless smocks, ugly and old and exhausted.” Her words are very simple, but intense. When she quotes her uncles calling her aunts “You ugly bitch,” you can feel the hurt someone would feel hearing that. A very simple statement that. It is little things like this the can hurt someone so much, and the narrator makes us feel the pain with her. She uses lots of lists to help the audience easily paint a picture of what she has seen. The description and the passion is what make it so effective in delivering her message
"Mattie Lee Gibson would tell people anything...what was hidden behind the artfully applied makeup and carefully pinned hairnet" (Pgs. 25-26)
ReplyDeleteIn this passage, the narrator begins by describing her grandmother and the stark honesty with which she tells stories – vivid stories of her family; an uncle who killed his wife after walking in on her affair with another man, how her mother had been married three times, and the many other hardships and struggles of her mother.
This passage caught my attention for its very unique way of presenting the struggles of the mother: “”My mama worked forty years as a waitress, teasing quarters out of truckers, and dimes out of hairdressers, pouring extra coffee for a nickel, or telling an almost true story for half a dollar”. The narration of the passage is very symmetrical – she uses specific situations each identical (ending in the receipt of a given amount of money) to illustrate the endless work and struggling endured by her mother. Another portion of the passage stood out for its blunt narrative of her mother’s inner hardship: “…but few of Mama’s customers knew how stubbornly she had to put on that smile for them. She was an actress in the theater of true life, so good that no one suspected what was hidden behind the artfully applied makeup and carefully pinned hairnet.” Dorothy Allison likens the life of her mother to that of an actor, that she must hide her inner struggles and conflicts, and she skillfully explains the hardship of her life by providing the reader with an effective analogy to which anyone can identify.
p. 20 “That beautiful boy mama loved…it ate the heart out of her.”
ReplyDeleteDorothy Allison narrates about her mothers first “love” which resulted in her birth and the view toward men that the women in the family hold. Her mama was a young and innocent girl and her beauty brought her into troubled waters. Left with a baby girl and hopelessness for the male sex, her attitude about men is heavily reflected in much of Dorothy’s narration.
In order to engage the reader, the passage is a portal to the past. The reader is intrigued at this point in the book to find out what affects Dorothy’s perspective. In many instances throughout the first half of the book women are depicted by their physical characteristics. The boy she fell in love with was described, “That beautiful boy my mama loved, as skinny as her, as ignorant and hungry, as proud as he could be to have that beautiful girl.” It is evident that Dorothy did not believe that the beautiful boy loved her mother and that is reflection of her broader feelings about men. Her mother had hope, lost it, and then wished for it eternally afterwards. Ultimately, though, “it ate the heart out of her.” The reader is engaged through this sense of lost hope and wants to understand how Dorothy’s mother will affect the course of Dorothy’s life and choices. The reader will find the answer as the “story” unfolds.
"My mother was beautiful...that silly boy" (20)
ReplyDeleteThis passage is after her mother's death. The passage has three parts to it, though, all take place as Dorothy goes through old pictures with her Aunt Dot. The first part of this passage is Dorothy reflecting apon her mother, beauty. The second part is a flashback Dorothy has and it is looking over one of the same pictures with her mother and she remembers her mother's lack of concern with her beauty. Then the final part of the passage is after Dorothy finishes the flashback, and her Aunt Dot telling her things she did not know about her mother. At this point Dorothy and the audience discovers she was pregnant at 15 and we finally hear of Dorothy's birth father.
The narration of this passage is interesting because it is not chronological. This is consistant with how she does the first part of this book: Allison reveals different details of her life in what seems to be a random order, not in the order in which they occur in her life. This could be for a number of reasons. I believe she does this because some experiences in her life, such as the rape, affected her extremely and loved one's did not believe her. This made her feel insecure that others would not believe her story so she could not start out by saying she was raped, even though it happened early on, she worked her way up to that.