More Analysis

The couple days of new material this week we spent on the same kind of assignment. We collaborated our analysis with the entire class. Each group presented their thoughts and now we have a much deeper grasp on the novel. This is on a general but also on a specific level, by the quote. A couple passages struck me in this section, one being the encounters with Night Swan. Although it seems she is a woman who is important to Tayo just because she took his virginity, she carries weight apart from that. She also represents an awakening, and a rebirth after much time in darkness. He feels overshadowed by his being biracial because that is all he has ever known to classify himself by. Night Swan, however, helps him to wash some of that away by relating to him and showing him that there is more than the circumstances under which he was born.

Another key passage we come across in this section is describing Tayo's early life. He is passed between his mother and social workers, and learns to feel abandoned. As a very young kid he has to learn things the hard way, like when he doesn't even know not to eat cigarette butts. We see why he is so hungry for affection, and why it hurts him so much to be shut away by Auntie. He has never had a mother to love him, which is important for a child to grow emotionally. Although he receives care from his uncle Josiah, he is never really loved as he should be.