Love and Acceptance

While reading the anthology Black Like Us and the intriguing novel Giovanni’s Room, many things caught my attention. Characters, villains and situations kept me wanting to read more. Two things that caught my attention the most were the characters and messages in these stories.

Among the diverse characters I encountered in the anthology Black Like Us, the character that stood out for me was Phelia from “Bird of Paradise” by Alexis DeVeax. The reason Phelia stood out from the rest of the characters was because she had a different response to her daughter’s sexuality than the other characters in the book. I admire he ability to see past her daughter’s lesbian label and accepts her for who she truly is. I liked that she was able to do this because most parents would have turned their back on their son or daughter and avoid the subject. Others think that homosexuality is an option and try to fix their son or daughter’s sexuality. I also enjoyed reading about her reaction because I thin kit was good to see a parent who approved and accepted her daughter’s sexuality. We often read about parents who disapprove and refuse to accept the facts and assume that all parents react this way. I believe Phelia serves as and example as to how parents can react to their child coming out. I like how she shows us that keeping an open mind is important in order to love. Another thing that stood out for me was the messages that most of the authors told us in their stories.

Out of all the messages the authors told us through their stories the one that captured my attention was the message of accepting and loving ourselves. I think this was the most important message I received from the stories because when we don’t love ourselves, we sometimes don’t allow others to love us as well. This message can be found in many the stories from Black Like Us but it’s mostly found throughout the book Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. I believe that if David could have loved himself in his true skin he would have allowed Giovanni to love him as well. I really like this message because it appeals to heterosexuals and homosexuals alike. I think we can all learn from this book and the other stories to love ourselves. This is important because We need to appreciate who we are in order for others to appreciate us and accept us for who we are.

There are many things that I gained from reading Black Like Us and Giovanni’s Room but I liked the character of Phelia and the messages the most. I believe it is important to keep an open mind on people’s sexuality. We are not all the same, but that’s OK. With that, it is important to love ourselves in order for others to love us for who we are. I don’t keep an open mind or don’t love ourselves; we can potentially miss out on amazing people and experiences.

The Blues

The story “The Blues Ain’t Nothing But A Good Woman Feelin Bad” from the book The Big Mama Stories by Shay Youngblood is the story of Miss Blue, who experienced heartbreak and wrote a blues song about it. Listening to this story the narrator is able to learn about love and pain, how you can’t have one without the other. And that at the end of the tunnel, there is always light.

In the beginning of the story, the narrator is sitting in Miss Blue’s porch watching soap operas. Here Miss Blue begins to tell the narrator her heartbreak story. Miss Blue’s story takes place in June of 1923 at a juke joint and at Miss Blue’s mama’s house. In this story we find conflict between two people, Miss Blue and Bo Willie. These two characters face conflict because on the day they were supposed to get married, Bo Willie left Miss Blue for another woman.

In this story we learn characteristics about the narrator as well as other characters. One of the things we learn about the narrator is that she lived down the block from Miss Blue. The narrator also tells us that she used to fall asleep listening to Miss Blue singing her blues at night. We learn that she sits on Miss Blue’s front porch to watch soap operas. In this story we meet Miss Blue an elderly woman who used to sing blues for a living. She lived by herself because her son died and her daughter disappeared. Miss Blue used to sit on her porch watching soap operas all day. We also learn that after heartbreak, she was able to create a blues song that became her only hit. In Miss Blue’s story the antagonist is Bo Willie, the man she was supposed to marry. We learn that Bo Willie was a married man when he was trying to win over Miss Blue. He worked as a porter at the railroad, which caused him and Miss Blue to be apart. In the end, we learn that the woman he had left Miss Blue for ended up leaving him with all his money. Another character we meet is the character in the soap opera, which triggers Miss Blue to tell her story.

One growing up theme in the story that the narrator is facing is contemplating mating, courtship, and marriage. Although the narrator is not contemplating doing these things she does learn about them nonetheless. She learns that you can’t have love and pain without each other. She also learns that although one may cry and hurt over love, it is something we have to get over. She learns that there is going to be pain in love but at the end, things will always look up. This growing up themes doesn’t really create conflict for the narrator as much as it did to Miss Blue. I believe the narrator can potentially use this story later in her life when she does contemplate mating.

One of the lessons the narrator learned was that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. The narrator learned this through Miss Blue’s story as she sees that Miss Blue writes a song about it and was a hit. She learns that she has to be an independent woman and not let heartbreak bring her down as much as she may cry about it. I also think she learned about memories and how they are important to keep things that were once important in our minds even if there are bad things to remember as well.

“The Blues Ain’t Nothing But A Good Woman Feelin Bad” by Shay Youngblood is a short story about heartache. With her story, Miss Blue taught the narrator about relationships and heartbreak. This information is something she can learn from and use later in her life.

The Big Mama Values

Reading the story “An Independent Woman” from the book The Big Mama Stories by Shay Youngblood I learned the value the black women in the community have as well as the values about life. One thing I learned about the black women in the community is that they always stick together no matter what happens. When Aunt Mae was having an affair with Mr. Otis, I thought his wife and Aunt Mae would become enemies. To my surprise they didn’t. They stuck together as they both rejected Mr. Otis for lying to Miss Tweedie. I also learned a value about life as Aunt Mae compared the day she got her divorce to the Fourth of July as she says, “After the smoke cleared, I felt free.” I learned that life can be covered with smoke sometimes but once the smoke clears, everything will be clean and free.

The Trickster who Gets Tricked

Have you ever heard of the saying “What goes around comes around?” In the story “Uglier Than a Grinning Buzzard” by Louise Anderson from the anthology Talk That Talk we see this saying come true. The main character in this story is the trickster Buzzard who tricked other animals into jumping in his back to later drop them and eat them. The antagonist is the monkey who in a turn of events, tricks Buzzard and teaches him not to trick the rest of the animals.

In the story, “Uglier Than a Grinning Buzzard” I found two tricksters: Buzzard and Monkey. The Buzzard is a trickster because he took advantage other the hot weather to trick the other animals. He found the weakness that the other animals had and used it to his advantage. First he pretended to be their friends and offered them a ride to cool off. Then, he dropped them on their back and ate them. The monkey, also a trickster, found a weakness on Buzzard and used it to trick him. Monkey noticed that Buzzard was weak for an easy pray and used it to teach Buzzard a lesson. He also hopped on Buzzard’s back but instead of falling like the other animals; monkey used his tail to choke Buzzards and taught him to not trick the other animals. These actions show how both of these characters are trickster.

There are many ways an author can reveal a character. Two ways the author revealed the character of Buzzard was by his actions and by what the other characters said about him. Before reading of Buzzard’s trickster ways, through Rabbit’s mama that, “Whatever you do, don’t trust a buzzard!” This immediately shows the reader the bad reputation that Buzzard has before learning of his dirty schemes. Later, we learn of his actions, which prove what a trickster Buzzard is. He used other animals to his advantage, which proves that Rabbit’s mama was correct. In the case of Monkey, the author used Monkey’s thoughts and dialogue to reveal him as a character. In the story, we find the monkey analyzing Buzzard’s actions as he says, “Uh huh, um hum, right on, right on.” This shows that Monkey is astute as he is able to find Buzzard’s weakness and uses it to trick him. Although Anderson portrays Monkey as a trickster, she contrasts Monkey and Buzzard’s behavior. Buzzard used his trickery to eat the animals while Monkey used trickery to teach Buzzard a lesson. Monkey didn’t use trickery to kill the Buzzard, though he could have, Monkey was a hero trickster because he saved the other animals in the jungle.

I found value in this story and believe it applies to today’s modern and technological world. Today people use technologies such as the Internet to meet people who take the role of the buzzard. Nobody can really know a person online and certainly can’t trust them. This story taught me to not use people to one’s advantage. Sometimes people pretend to be someone’s friend to gain something and once they are done, they cut them off their life. I don’t believe this is right. People shouldn’t use people for personal benefit.

The story, “Uglier Than a Grinning Buzzard” by Louise Anderson is a story about a trickster who gets tricked. It is a story of value to humans as it teaches us not to use others for our own benefit. As we learned in this story, what goes around does in deed come around.