Essays:
"Planet Unflinching" by Kelly Cherry
"From Two or Three Things I Know for Sure" by Dorothy Allison
In her essay, Dorothy Allison unmercifully but honestly describes the family she comes from. She sums up her family saying, "My family has a history of death and murder, grief and denial, rage and ugliness- the women of my family most of all" (93). She explains going through life with a predetermined destiny to be ugly, and good for nothing but child bearing; it was in her blood. Because of their ugliness, women in her family were subjected to verbal abuse from the men in the family, constantly reminding them of how ugly they are. At the end of the essay, she expresses her desire to live differently than the rest of her family. She dramatically ends the essay on a powerful note saying, "The women I loved most in the world horrified me. I did not want to grow up to be them. . . every night I prayed a man's prayer: Lord, save me from them. Do not let me become them" (96). She obviously loves her family, but the thought of settling for a predetermined fate which would lead to a life of oppression and self-image problems terrifies her.
That whole book is excellent.
ReplyDeleteDisregard my question in the comment on the other post about short takes posts. This is what I was looking for. Glad that you quoted directly from the text.
ReplyDeleteAnything you're noticing in the writing style/
Oh, I just saw that title in Short Takes the other day and really wanted to read it! That's funny how that works out!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds amazing. That's interesting how she words that: "every night I prayed a man's prayer." I am sure that it is true, but it is still different than what you would expect when talking about women and predetermined fates? When was the piece written?