Chapter # 1 Name : Kenneth Vazquez
Chapter Title: “blessing of grogginess, forgetfulness, and the soft lamplight.”
Chapter Image/Illustration:
Brief Summary: We learn that Maya and her bother Bailey are shipped off to their grandmother’s house (father’s mom). They lived in the rear of a store that “Momma”, as they started calling their grandmother, owned for about 25 years. The store was mostly nationalized into selling African-American based foods and ingredients. Momma is a religious person, and makes her grandchildren pray every morning. She was their guardian, and made them do chores. Workers of the land, worked everyday, hoping the next would be better. They worked hard so that the next day would seem easier. Every day they would face a challenge, the challenge of working to death to no avail. Hope was thin, yet they kept their spirits up with songs.
Theme: earn their bread by the sweat of your brow- work hard to support yourself and your own. Earn what you eat.
Setting: Stamps
Characterization (insights into a character’s personality) in the chapter:
Maya and Bailey’s grandmother “Momma” – She is described as a powerful woman who wants to teach the values of life to her grandchildren. She is a harworking and kind woman. She has faith in her beliefs, and passes it down to her grandchildren. She seems to have her mind set on giving their grandchildren lessons which will be necessary later on in their life.
Figurative Language (Examples of Simile, Metaphor, or Symbolism):
Simile- “it closed in around us, as a real mother embraces a stranger’s child”
Imagery- “the odors of onions and oranges and kerosene had been mixing all night”
Other Important Details (conflicts, examples of irony, anything else you think is important from this chapter)
There is a money crisis in these times, and workers work extra hard to get what they deserve. Maya and her brother were not the only children that were sent to live with their relatives (given up). Workers tried to hold on to hope by singing upbeat songs. Something that bothered Maya for she thought that they had no reason to act all happy. Maya and Bailey may be in for the best lessons of life they’ll ever get.