Gloria Naylors Mommy, What Does Nigger Mean

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Table of Contents

Main Idea
Whether the Reading Is Fiction or Non Fiction
Three Techniques Used by the Author to Convey the Main Idea

Gloria Naylors Mommy, what does nigger mean is an interesting, deep, personal and cohesive piece of writing. The paper shall examine how Naylor manages to achieve this through an analysis of the main idea, stylistic devices and classification of the piece.

Main Idea

Gloria Naylors piece can be revered for either its literary significance or its sociological significance. In the literary field, her intention or main idea is to contribute to the debate of reality and meaning. Here, the author argues that words (whether written or spoken) have no real significance unless a consensus for their meaning is made depending on ones background. (Naylor, par 13) Consequently, ones context is what determines ones reality.

Through an analysis of the term nigger, the latter author is able to demonstrate how this terminology carries a very different meaning when the users ages and races are altered. As such, she demonstrates that reality is negotiated.

On the other hand, this author wishes to inform readers about the struggles and lives of African American people. She portrays this by describing their rich kinship ties, their struggles to earn a living as well and their values. For example, she talks about how younger people communicated with the older generation where they were expected to refrain from use of terms like Girl when doing so. Additionally, she portrays the complexity of their characters and thus shows that stereotypes of this community were not accurate.

For instance, she cites an example of her grandparents who own several buildings at Harlem and Johnny who worked hard and earned $6, 000 at some point. (Nyalor, 8) No discussion of African Americans lives would be complete without tackling race relations and this forms a central part of her argument. Naylor affirms that numerous white minds still perceive blacks as worthless and hence their use of the word nigger. She however succeeds in illustrating how inaccurate this depiction is by taking us through her life and that of her family.

Whether the Reading Is Fiction or Non Fiction

For its employment of rich creative and literary devices, this work can be classified as fiction. It alters time sequences, has a range of characters and numerous structural aspects that lead to this classification. The audience forms a central part of the authors work in any fiction essay and this is reflected quite clearly in the short story since the Naylor (2) goes out of her way to explain to the reader ideas that may not stand out readily when going through the characters words.

Even though the author may be providing an account of events that actually occurred to her in real life, readers have no way of verifying that the characters she is talking about are real. It can therefore be accurate to categorize this short story as a piece of autobiographical fiction.

The authors use of basic elements of fiction (plot, setting, character) so tactfully contributes to the success of her writing. For instance, readers can easily identify the setting of the piece as she describes her classroom and her grandparents home in Harlem so vividly. It was a bustling and open house with assorted neighbors and tenants popping in and out to exchange bits of gossip pick up and old quarrel or referee on going checkers game in which my grandmother cheated shamelessly. (Naylor, par 4).

Furthermore, the author uses characterization as another tool for conveying her main idea successfully, she makes use of round characters like her grandmother who cheated shamelessly in some games and her third grade teacher who was sensitive to the humiliation underwent by one of her students after being called nigger. This contributes towards the ability of the work to capture the attention of its audience because her characters are quite convincing.

She fulfills a number of expectations for any good fictional story since her plot has a conflict. Naylor starts with the conflict and then takes readers through the background or context of that conflict. In this case, the conflict was racism through the spoken word. (Naylor, par 13) At the end of the story, she is able to come to a resolution of this conflict by determining that she (and other African Americans) had the capacity to live their lives without getting limited by the opinions of others about them.

Three Techniques Used by the Author to Convey the Main Idea

Three literary techniques that stand out in this piece of work include flashback, framing device and writers voice. Flashback is the method that the author uses to hold together her arguments. For instance, she starts the story by talking about her third grade experience with racism. She then takes the reader back to this incident in order to provide some insight about it later on. (Naylor, 13) The same thing was done concerning her grandmothers living room.

Gloria Naylor is quite clever in her application of flashback because she utilizes emotional transitions in order to take the story to the past. For example, in the classroom scene, she was offended by her colleagues use of the term and this therefore necessitated her remembrance of her familys treatment of her (Naylor, par 5,6). Employment of framing device as another literary technique also contributes to provision of resolution in this story.

The author started with the third grade classroom event where she was offended by a classmate and then ends by referring to this argument and thus creates a frame against which the rest of the piece develops. (Maylor, par 3, 13) By starting with the story, the writer captures readers curiosity on what would happen to her protagonist and this prompts them to read along. By finishing with that incident she then assimilates the different parts of the story hence giving a resolution. Lastly, the writers voice is another technique that contributes to the success of this work. Gloria Naylors choice of vocabulary and language are essential reasons behind the depth of this piece.

For instance, she applies first person narration in order to make her writing personal. Readers can get a view of Naylors innermost thoughts by reading her opinions on her childhood experiences and this is what makes her work so remarkable.

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Gloria Naylors Mommy, What Does Nigger Mean

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