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 begins 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.
Questionable Quality
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Found on the premises of Johnson-McFarlane and Centennial Halls are what
are supposed to be “convenience” stores. These convenience stores make
their busin...
15 years ago
During Dorothy Allison’s description of her memories with her mother she recalls her favorite times when they looked through pictures together. Mother and daughter would sit and flip through photos as Allison relished listening to her mother’s voice explaining the legacy of each person captured on the shiny paper. One of the pictures was incredibly captivating to Allison and as she asked her mom about it, she invoked a restrained emotion form her mother that conveyed a sense of despair and repressed emotion regarding the people in the picture. Allison appeals to vivid narration to describe her mother’s tight and tender response to the photos. The passage continues to explain how Allison would watch her mother survey the pictures, and know that her request for her mother to write down the stories of all the faces in the photos would never become a reality, that their stories would be left untold to future generations.
ReplyDeleteWithin this passage, Allison utilizes precise imagery to relate the event highlighting the memory of the past and illuminating the pain that such memories can inflict on the living as they reflect on the people they have loved and lost. Allison’s main technique revolves around a thorough description of facial expressions in relation to simple and to the point dialogue. By coupling the response of Allison’s mother “going white while her mouth set in a thin hard line” with the quote “’nothing happened to them…nothing at all’” the pain and repression of memories becomes more evident. Beyond the imagery lies the main narration of the passage that invokes the somber tone of the piece further illuminating the “reality of all those people lost and gone”. The use of such techniques within her narrative to invoke such strength of emotion and visual pictures draws in the reader and connects them to the characters and their emotions in the scene. The main point of Allison’s book thus far is to introduce to the reader to a few of the life lessons and ideas she has developed throughout her life and this passage serves well to illustrate the main point while pulling in the reader through a vivid narration of pain, memories, and the effect of the past on the present.
From the beginning of the book, Dorothy Allison has made it very clear that she narrates the elements of her life with provocative description. When describing her home town, Allison vividly explains to the reader the sights, smells, and sounds of Greenville, South Carolina.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting piece of writing as Allison goes back and fourth from imagery of soothing things, to such things that one would find rather offensive to the ears, eyes, and nose. The powerful description of the smell of "Cut wet grass, split green apples, baby shit and beer bottles, cheap makeup and motor oil" allows the reader to get a good visual of Dorothy Allison's country town. At the end of the passage, Allison continues her trend of saying "Two or three things I know for sure." This is where she can vent on how she feels on the subject at hand. In this case, Allison can comprehend that she is able to both love and hate something that she may not entirely understand. In this case, she has a love/hate relationship with her hometown of Greenville. This passage is effective as it engages the reader by using strong descriptive words in a part of the book where the reader is new to the story and therefore is hungry for plot information. I found this passage to be especially interesting because of the blunt, yet appropriate language used to describe an important and emotional piece of her life.
In my opinion, the beginning of this passage is somewhat of a recap. Dorothy revisits the pleasant times that she shared with her family, specifically her mother. She remembers viewing family photographs and getting reactions to certain family member’s photos that had either died, or that she did not know anything about. She would ask her mother about them, and would get a negative reaction, as if there was something to hide. “Mama’s grip on the photograph tightened, the tips of her fingers going white while her mouth set in a thin hard line. ‘Nothing happened to them,’ she said ‘Nothing at all’”. At this point there is a sense of confusion due to the fact that Dorothy’s grandmother had told her that they had died in an accident. Dorothy never knew true stories about her family members because her mother would try to shelter her from reality. Dorothy tries to relive the things that were never made clear to her as a child. She jumps from many different subjects, which she has no complete thoughts about any of them; no sense of closure.
ReplyDeleteDorothy uses very vivid descriptions of her childhood memories, or even her childhood stories, to portray her point. She goes into detail about various events that she encountered in her childhood. From her telling her sister stories, to her aunt combing her hair, she is very expressive. Dorothy uses short memories to keep the reader intrigued while she gets to the bulk of her story. She speaks about how the women of her family are traditionally viewed by the men in her family. Which leads to her introduction to the things that she wants to forget, but can’t. She narrates through her own personal point of view, as if she was writing a diary, or talking to a friend. It brings you closer to the author, as well as stirs different emotions.
When Dorthy Allison introduces Mattie Lee Gibson in her memoir as a person who “would tell people anything,” Allison starts to weave in how her late mother would tell “an almost true story for half a dollar” as a waitress. Allison tells how her mother knew how to put on a show for customers in order to evoke a tip out of people as her mother states, “’People who recognize you will think twice before walking away and leaving nothing by the plate.’” Allison then goes on to describe her mother as “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.”
ReplyDeleteWhen Allison writes “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,” she uses an indirect metaphor by comparing theater to reality. Describing her mother as a metaphorical actress on the stage of life allows Allison to persuade her audience that ordinary people constantly use impersonations and clownish smiles in order to fulfill basic human desires and needs from putting food on the table with tip money to social acceptance. Ironically, as Allison narrates, she shifts the point of view from first person narrative to second person—from words like “I” to “you”—in order to tug on the audiences emotions, make the argument more personal, and to convey to the audience that everyone shares this innate human characteristic of acting on cue.
Dorothy Allison begins here book with an overview of her childhood, that reflects the woman who she becomes in the future. She places much emphasis on the pictures which she enjoyed looking at as a child, specifically the ones of her mother. Much of the beginning of the book recaps how in her childhood she constantly experienced family being people whom they were not. This is shown through the conversations she has with her mother about waitressing and how she had to fake being who she was by telling fake stories to earn extra money and get people to remember her. This same sort of false perception is given off by her uncle, who was known as a tough, rugged guy and found himself locked into this role of being "a man", although one night she awakes to this tough man breaking down and crying about who he has become and ends the conversion with "I am a man, I can take it." I believe that the most vivid piece of narrative in the beginning of the book is located on page 26, when her mother eplains to her the true meaning of theatre. She tells Dorothy that, "Theatre is going to bars with strangers whose incomes are four times your own; its wearing denim when everyone around you is in silk."
ReplyDeleteThere is a passage in the story where Dorothy painfully tells us about her young childhood and how she was raped at the age of five by her father. As she talks about this she talks about how for a while, this thought and memory was holding her back from living and enjoying herself. It was alway popping up in her mind and for her to be able to forget about it, she had to continuously talk about it. She would cringe and the sound of the words and had to hear them over and over again just to be able to accept the sounds of the word.
ReplyDeleteThe passage is interesting because she narrates it as a struggle into a success in the end. She narrates it first as being younger and describing the painful memory and then explains how this thought haunts her and haunts her until she can finally talk about it. Talking about it out loud helps her to get over the situation but she still can never understand the true meaning behind why. It is interesting to read as she narrates her progression throughout this terrible experience and how she can come to accept it.
Dorothy Allison uses vivid narration which helps a reader follow the stories and be able to visualize a certain event. She describes the reactions of others by facial features or different gestures. She lays out the scene of the settings in stories that she tells. An example of vivid narration used by Dorothy Allison was when Mattie Lee Gibson explains her Mama's death which happens in the early pages of the text. They said their goodbyes to their mother and grieved while they leave the hospital. Wanda, the oldest sister, took on the responsibility of taking care of her younger sisters. With the loss of their mother, they had lost one who could hold the family together and carry out maternalistic ideals. Mattie Lee attempted to appear kept together and maintained over her mother's death. "I imagined myself crisp and efficient, doing what seemed necessary, barely pausing to wipe the tears I could not stop." She and her sisters all were impacted by the death of their mother in a variety of manners. Anne seemed to be the most mournful of the Gibson daughters just as she is described "Anne walked silently through the motions, white-faced and wounded, though the air around her hummed and burned." Dorothy Allison perfectly describes Anne in this section of the text because it is vivid, it stands out in a mental picture. By using the line "walked silently through the motions" it shows how hurt she was by the death and that she is in a shattered emotional state. Even when they are dressing their mother for burial, the clothing used was illustrated to be casual and indifferent. Mama was dressed in "her lucky shirt, loose-fitting cotton trousers, and her most comfortable shoes". Because of such vivid narration used by Dorothy Allison, the reader can feel as if they had lived through the death, funeral, and burial of Mama. After Mama's death, she explains how every character is altered by such a drastic event. In the way Dorothy Allison describes, all of the daughters in a way became Mama. Anne comforted their stepfather while he sobbed to himself, while Wanda cooked and acted as if she were to take the vacant place of Mama.
ReplyDeleteHere's Flora's response:
ReplyDeleteThe passage I picked tells such a story. Daughters were on the way back to see their dead mother, sadly. They put mum’s favorite lucky shirt on as well as a necklace. Everything mum left called their memories. Author just remembered she used to ask mum to tell her the stories of those pictures when she was a little girl, but mum said no more words than nothing. However, from their aunt’s word, they came to know their mum was a pregnant when she was just fifteen. Because of that experience, mum never trust any man anymore because of the broken heart hurt by that silly boy in the picture they never knew.
Dorothy Allison narrates this story consecutivly . What was happening after mum’s dead, what they did step by step like helping mum wear cloths and then sharing mum’s stuff left and finally memorizing more about their mum as seeing the pictures. She uses some conversation to make it easier understood because those conversations can create the sense as real. For example, when Allison and her sister were headed back home, she was very hurry with yelling at a guy “get out of the way!” when Wanda responded her “No need to be rude, sister”. I would say it expresses her emotions stronger. Meanwhile, I think when the quotation mark is used; it can draw readers’ attention on the concept within that quotation.
I admire Allison writing. She has amazing vocabulary that most of them are very beautiful words in terms of mostly adjectives. I found that she prefers to use some adjective before nouns; for instance, the description of mum in the picture of her 15 years-old. “White socks, and A-line skirt, hair in a Kitty Wells cloud, School girl blouse, Peter Pan collar, and the most hesitant smile.” Even though some of them are very simple words, but putting them together creates a vivid portrait of mum. Some other smart verbs also make it vivid like the last sentence “it eats the heart out of her”. I would say “eat “was just a perfect word that knocked out me and exactly feel how sad her mum could be when that silly boy left them alone.
Some other details narrations are very exciting. When she kept asking mother what was going on in those pictures, mum had no idea how to response her with more or less nervousness. It is written as “Mama’s grip on the photograph tightened, the trips of her fingers going white while her mouth set in a thin hard line.” It is a detailed description with some tiny body movements in order to show her nervousness about responding the question because she didn’t know how to give the girl an answer.
I would say she is a writer able to pick up small areas and make them bigger. Namely, through some specific narrations, readers can catch her emotions as well as ideas. Those graceful sentences do impress me a lot.
Here's James' response:
ReplyDeleteThe narrator tell a series of events that have occurred in her family and people in her community, but all throughout out the 48 pages I remained skeptical of where this was all going due to what she said at the beginning: "I'm a storyteller. I'll work to make you believe me." From what I have read, the story begins after the passing of Ruth (the Mother) and leads into how the family is affected along with personal thoughts and obstacles the narrator faces. Wanda who due to a single moment after their mother passed away, is recognized by the narrator as the one who would fill in as the mother.
Dorothy Allison narrates the beginning as if it was meant to prepare who ever was reading for the storries that followed, and the references to the reader makes her stories appeal even more because now we are her audience, as are her sisters. That alone was engaging for me, but the personal dilemmas she explains such as her self-image and sexuality made it possible for me to empathize with what she faced everyday. The narrator for the most part speaks eloquently until she quotes the other women in her family, who maintain a country accent. Her aunt tells her at one point after her mother's passing "Lucky you're smart"; this could be the explanation of why the dialogues between the narrator and her family are different. She uses a writing technique that is not ever settled due to her sudden change of topics, but her style of narration is interesting because of her acknowledgment of the reader and detailed thoughts.
When Allison describes the 'women of the family' after she describes the men of the family, she portrays these women as hard and very unattractive. As an outside reader, it almost appears as though she is talking about them with hatred. She describes them in the most blunt and hard manner possible. There are no frills or soft words used in her description of the women of the family. They are described as 'manlike, sexless, bearers of babies, burden and contempt.’ Her writing style seems to suggest that she resents these women and is trying to be proud of what they are at the same time.
ReplyDeleteAllison uses very harsh language in this description of the women of the family. She leaves out no dirty, brutal detail and forces the audience to become engaged even though it may make them want to turn away and not read about such harsh things. When she states '...solid, stolid, 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, thumbing through magazines full of women so different than us they could have been another species' she describes the women as being born to be ugly, working, baby makers that never had a chance at anything better in life. There is no hope in her writing for these women. They will be and have been destined to be miserable for their whole lives since birth. Her technique in order to grab and hold the audiences' attention is simply by using very harsh language and descriptions of the women. She has certain motifs incorporated into her writing as well. She uses the word 'wide' many times in the same paragraph to talk about the women. It leaves a lasting image in the readers' head. She has a very blunt but also subtle way of using imagery in her writing. It is very a very effective narration and really makes the reader think and see what she is talking about. Her bluntness paired with her imagery techniques enable her to be extremely
The passage that grasped my attention most vividly was the one pages 32-43.
ReplyDeleteThis passage takes place after Allison discusses her childhood, her mother’s death, coping with it, family members and so on. In this passage Allison begins by describing the “ugliness” and, from what I interpreted, insignificance of the women in her family. How they were simply “wide-hipped baby machines”, nothing more. She then continues to describe a memory with her Aunt Dot and explaining how Dorothy is lucky she is smart and beautiful, but after shown a picture of Dot as a young girl, she did not see smarts and beauty, she solely saw “a woman who had never been beautiful and never allowed herself to care”. This conversation quickly led to the arrogance of men and how they treat women “like dogs”, demeaning women and robbing them of their beauty in more ways then shouting; rape. Allison then fades away from the topic of rape, maybe similar to how she had repressed the nightmare, and continued on about Aunt Dot’s husband leaving and coming back again and again. She explains how lies are easier than truths, “behind the story I tell is the one I don’t. Behind the story you hear is the one I wish I could make you hear.” This lead to the blunt, yet bold statement of “The man raped me. It’s the truth. It’s a fact.” She progresses to explain the excruciating mental and physical trauma. And slowly comes back from it, elaborating about how she strives to not be characterized as the weak woman, the one at fault, but how she “need[s] to be the woman who can talk about rape plainly, without being hesitant or self conscious, or vulnerable to what people may say”.
Dorothy Allison narrates this section with great power and strategic devices. She uses almost metaphorical descriptions vividly describing what she is explaining. “I convinced myself I was unbreakable, an animal with an animal strength or something not human at all. Me, I told people I take damage like a wall, a brick wall that never falls down…” She thoroughly gives the reader descriptions, for a realistic feeling and understanding for the reader to obtain, creating and almost empathetic appeal. For example when describing the women of her family, other “popular” girls at her school or even the rape. I think the engagement was almost forced upon the reader. How could you not be engaged with such a story? She captures the reader’s attention easily with her undying passion and expressed illustrations, a picture of words for the audience to imagine. The literal pictures were a bold statement as well. As Allison begins discussing the rape, you are immediately flashed a double page spread of pictures of Allison at a young age, emphasizing the severity and helplessness of the rape’s circumstances.
The passage in which Dorothy Allison describes the man her mother married is descriptive and heartbreaking. The characteristics of the husband and the resulting turmoil that he inflicts on his wife is very emotional, "Her eyes full of hope. And when he ran away...she never trusted any man again-but wanted to, wanted to so badly it ate the heart out of her," (Allison 21). The classic story that everyone knows of a young marriage kindled in the depths of youth, premature and lacking maturity, that results in pregnancy, the relationship that dies out of fear of the unknown.
ReplyDeleteAllison narrates this portion of the text using dialogues between characters and physical descriptors, "That beautiful boy...as skinny as her...that beautiful girl...her skin full of heat," (Allison 20). Her technique is focused on creating a visual representation, a painting or film, that relates in a variety of ways to individual life experiences. Who has not experienced physical attraction or feelings of love and anger? The passage is a very effective example of narration as it conveys an experience everyone can relate to, "She was twelve, thirteen, still a child. She showed me once that snapshot of herself at fifteen; white socks..."(Allison 20), the passage happens in her mother's youth, a time period anyone reading the passage would have experienced themselves.
“The man raped me. It’s the truth. It’s a fact.” said Dorothy Allison. Allison was trying to tell about what happened between her and her stepfather. She tried to tell someone about that inhuman doing by her stepfather when he bluntly raped her while she was five years old. Then she describes the pain of not being able to speak out and put the words “Child” and “Rape” in the same sentence. When Allison finally overpowered her fear about speaking of her rap and talked about it, only her mother believed her and after thirty years one of her aunt told her that she didn’t believe her.
ReplyDeleteAllison in this passage getting through the reader mind with a set of word and strong visual images using words to make the readers feel the pain and torture her heart and soul is filled with. “I would feel the muscle of my back and neck pull as taut as the string of a kite straining against the wind” (Pg 42), in this sentence Allison is describing that when she tries to move forward and forget what happened the ugly moments of her rape always pulls her back in an unending loop of pain and torture.
I truly adore Allison’s bravery by starting her passage with “That man raped me”. She shows such an amazing courage by saying in her book, she doesn’t care what other people would say but by saying that Allison gains her own voice and her confident as women in herself. Allison’s greatness as a writer is the way she makes the readers feel and see what she is writing about, her words are very a live that one can see her story not just read it. Allison’s technique is based on visual and strong descriptive words that move the emotions and draw a very detailed picture of what she’s been through in her experience.
My name is Benjamen Ghebrial; I was born and raised in Egypt specifically in Alexandria which is located on the Mediterranean Sea. Alexandria is an amazing place to grow in; the view in the morning from my window is like a brilliant painting. The sun image reflected on the water and the mixing of the flaming red color of the sun with the calming blue color of the sea is a breath taking. I moved with my family to the USA three years ago, I didn’t know any English at the time. In order to learn English fast I came up with a clever idea, I bought many movies and turned the caption on while watching and repeat what the actors were saying. Surprisingly by using this method my English developed rapidly which made me able to communicate easier with other people. I attended Wasson High School which is located in Colorado Springs; I personally love Colorado Springs because of its wonderful surroundings. Writing is one of my favorite things to do, I don’t write very well but I love to use words to make an image in peoples mind as a painter uses colors to make pictures. I love and adore fictions writers because they don’t just write about some things they actually see, but they make their readers live in a world they imagined in their head by using just simple words. My family consist of my mom, dad, and one older sister, my father was a principal in Egypt and my mother was a teacher. My plans for the future is difficult to reach but with my determination and will is possible to achieve, I want to major in chemistry and minor in music and after that apply for medical school and hopefully get accepted and become a cardiac surgeon.
ReplyDeleteTowards the beginning of Dorothy Allison’s memoir 'Two or Three Things I Know for Sure,' she describes one time when she and her mother sort through some old photographs. At first, it seems as though Mama enjoys reminiscing and delving back into past memories. It isn’t until Allison’s younger self inquires about a bridge accident mentioned once by her granny, Mattie Lee Gibson, do we as the audience glimpse Mama’s hidden secrets.
ReplyDeleteI think that Mama’s vivid and instantaneous transformation is a wonderful example of Allison’s narrative style. By blending simple dialogue and piercing imagery in the form of physical descriptions, she captures Mama’s bi-polar metamorphosis in a few short lines. As she says “Mama’s grip on the photograph tightened, the tips of her fingers going white while her mouth set in a thin hard line,” Allison creates such a dramatic and powerful shift in mood through artfully chosen words following realistic and relatable dialogue (Allison 19). Her charm resides in her blunt and distinctly human narration, supported by compelling word choice.