Literature Across Cultures: Gill

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Gill - Week 4 Post

I read the story three times and was still confused. The assignment asked us to think about the role/importance of memory? People want to remember and focus on good things. That is why Twyla is always asking about Roberta's mom. She does not want to remember that she was sick. Twyla also does not remember exactly what happened to Maggie. She thinks Maggie fell down. She does not want to remember that she possibly kicked Maggie. She does not want to remember that she had a part in anything terrible. Especially after her life has gotten better. It happened after Roberta's mom shunned Twyla and her mom, so maybe she had taken it out on Maggie. Later in her life, she does not want to think about anything she did that was terrible. So, she changes the story and makes it fit her reality and life. The article says that authentic narratives may be critical reflections and confrontations of their beliefs and cultural assumptions (secs et al. pg45). So, is Toni Morrison saying that at that moment of Maggie's fall, it was all okay to treat her that way, and then the guilt makes you change the story so that you are innocent?

Szecsi, T., Spillman, C., Vázquez-Montilla, E., & Mayberry, S. C. (2010). Transforming Teacher Cultural Landscapes by Reflecting on Multicultural Literature. Multicultural Education, 17(4), 44-48.

4 comments:

Sam LampmanJune 28, 2024 at 1:02 PM
Hi Regina! I also was confused by the story and had to go back to different parts to make sure I read it correctly. I still don't know if Twyla and Roberta actually kicked Maggie or not. I don't think they did. My take on it was that Roberta was trying to show Twyla that they weren't the nicest people or doing the right thing by just watching and not standing up for Maggie? I love your ending question and wonder that myself as well.
Thank you for sharing!
Sam
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HammJune 28, 2024 at 7:32 PM
I have to say-- I had not thought about the guilt this way in the story. I am now intrigued with the psychological component of memory and guilt. It makes a million questions run through my mind; such as, is guilt the reason parents are not honest with their children? Is guilt the reason that victors rewrite the facts? Is guilt a mirror to our insecurities? Thanks for the philosophy in cultural literature! :-) On the confusing side of your post-- it feels like the story's perspective is a little off. There was some confusion and I had to reread parts. Some of the story is not flushed out, which perhaps is where some background knowledge is missing from my repertoire. Maybe that was the point! I always tell my students that they can only take away information from text based on what they are bringing to the text. Maybe this is true for cultural insights as well!
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Rachel MeyerJune 29, 2024 at 8:46 PM
I had to go back and reread several parts of the stories. I like the question you posed at the end. I do not think Toni Morrison is saying it was okay that they did that to Maggie because honestly we still do not know what they actually did to Maggie. I think Morrison was making us think critically and that the girls perceived the situation differently. I still had a lot of questions after reading it. The quote that stuck out to me in the article that Szecsi wrote was when she said ,"An initial step in transformation, leading to changes
in one's cultural landscape, is to become critically aware of how and why personal perspectives sometimes constrain the way
we perceive, interpret, and feel about our world realities." I think this sums up why both girls had different memories about the situation.
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Brett BeckmanJune 30, 2024 at 7:22 PM
I disagree that Twyla didn't remember that Roberta's mother was sick. She mentions it several times throughout the story. I think she asks because she wants to hope that Roberta's mom could get better for her daughter, unlike Twyla's mom who 'never stopped dancing'. I think the point is for the narrative to be confusing, much like Twyla's memories, when we look back at things from our childhood they are confusing or hard to remember. I think maybe Toni Morrison wrote it so we would better understand the character of Twyla.
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