Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo is Dee’s new name. This in an attempt to live what she believes is her heritage while leaving the oppression and poverty behind, which actually has created a wedge between herself and the rest of her immediate family. Symbolism and the use of tangible items used every day bring Dees perception and her mother’s perception of heritage to places that are completely opposite of one another. The story takes place within an oppressed black family in the 1960’s during the Civil Rights movement when young blacks were searching to find themselves and their true African heritage. Mama, which is also the narrator, takes pride in sweeping the dirt in the yard which is referred to as an “extended living room only with a breeze and an ability to look up into the elm tree.” Mama states that she has “deliberately turned her back on her house” and describes it as “not having windows and a tin roof “and seems to be perfectly satisfied with these living conditions.
The mother may be the birth mother and be related by blood but she sure doesn’t show any love toward her handicapped daughter that she abandoned. The dull and tasteless tone/style of the story express the love between Linda and her adopted and birth family. The tone never really changes; it always stays in a slightly sad and depressing language. Through out the whole paper there is very little description. When Linda is talking about how clean her mother Betty tried the kids and how dirty the dad always got them, she just says exactly that and nothing more; “Betty was always trying to keep us clean, and Albert was always getting us
The late 19th century and early 20th century was a time period in which both African-Americans and women in general were experiencing opportunities for advancement and change within society. I would argue that in both To Joy My Freedom and When Ladies Go A’Thieving women were challenging the role that women belonged in the house, while their reasons for challenging this role differed. Women and African-American’s were seen as subordinates in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the African-American women experienced double-trouble, so to speak. While it is fair to examine the comparisons between women in general, it is equally as fair to note the role that race played. In To Joy My Freedom, by Tera Hunter it is clear the oppression that African-American’s were still facing in the South.
His behavior and outlook on life are influenced by how his mother raises him. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “Everything that Rises Must Converge”, Julian and his mother maintain conflicting personal views surrounding the status of African-Americans in 1960’s society. Mrs. Chestny closely associates herself with the time period of plantations and slaves but says that she “can be gracious to anybody” (O’Connor 1017). Julian, on the other hand, believes his mother is a flat-out racist and almost feels the need to apologize to African-Americans for his mother’s behavior and attitude. Despite these clashes of perspective, the main conflict between mother and son derives from Julian’s inability to put his pride aside, accept the sacrifices his mother made for him, and move on from his lack of success in the real world.
Whereas all attention is given to Dee, as she has taken a new road. When Maggie comes back to visit Mama, she arrives with her new boyfriend Hakim-a-barber, which Maggie has been studying with. Dee has also changed her name to an African name: Wangero. Mama was astonished of how her daughter had changed. And as the story is set in the start 70’s where the Afro-Americans is fighting for their rights and identity, Mama is a kind of afraid of “letting Dee go”.
In "An Appeal To The Women of the Nominally Free States", Angelina Grimke, an American abolitionist and women's rights advocate in the 1800s, talks passionately about the mistreatment of black women in the North and South. Grimke had a deep commitment to women’s moral equality and was unique because she was a white southerner who lived her life in the North and cared very much about women slavery and racism. In her appeal, she criticizes Southern women for oppressing black women, but she is especially critical of the Northern women due to the hypocrisy that they are guilty of. The Northern women say they are abolitionists, but in reality they are not sympathetic to the prejudice and cruelty of the black woman around them. Throughout her appeal, Grimke repeatedly states that all women “are our sisters”, because she wants everyone to realize that all women are women no matter what color they are.
After being suffocated by the images of this absolute world, Mrs. Breedlove strives to acquire the white’s life style. While in her employer’s house, Mrs. Breedlove role plays as the household’s main woman because this is the closest she will get to living this fairytale life. Mrs. Breedlove also shows how little she values her family by “neglect[ing] her house, her children, her man” (127). She demonstrates the strain in her mother-daughter relationship with Pecola by allowing the little white girl she looks after call her Polly. Pecola does not address her mother in this casual manner.
This was a problem for her because in the 60’s and 70’s the Klu Klux Klan was still very big and powerful in the south. This posed a problem for Natasha being friends with the white girls, because if their fathers where a part of the KKK and they found of that Natasha was half black, they would do whatever they wanted with her. That prevented her from keeping white friends. The same goes for African Americans; since Natasha was so fair-skinned she probably didn’t feel welcomed by her black friend’s families, because inter-racial marriages were still illegal at this time. The title, “White Lies,” you could describe as lies that don’t hurt anyone.
This is accentuated by the fact that Mama was denied an education because her school closed down. “After 2nd grade the school closed down.” Dee was fortunate that Mama gave her the opportunity, but her superior intellect serves only to detach her from her mother and her sister. Dee uses her intellect to patronize and almost intimidate others. As a child Dee read to her mother and sister “Without pity, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand.” This clearly conveys how Dee was so detached from her family. She “shoves them away” when they are about to reach the same level of understanding as she does.
It favours the women to live the way they want to. They are not object to play but they have their own choice and respect to be with. While in the novel, writer has dicussed with black feminism or the issues of black women which are subjected to the racism, sexcism. The black women were in great sufferings rather than the other white women. They were neither secure in their parent’s home not in their husband’s home.