ell, I just hope you know what you've let us in for . . . [Loudly] I said I hope you know what you've let us in for! It's the end of the peace and quiet we've been having. [S
The break that Hally had from his father is now done due to his early departure from the hospital. Hally is upset that his mother is letting this happen. Also he upset that the heavy burden of taking care of his dad is back
ALLY: [Having a hard time controlling his emotions. He speaks carefully.] Mind your own business, Sam.
Evidently, hally doesn't want sam to ask about that phone call
HALLY: He's a white man and that's good enough for you.
Characterization- Right when I thought Hally was sincere. This shows the world view at the time. When a white man told a black man something, they must do it due to their belief of superiority
35slow on the uptake. It's what's called a pun. You see, fair means both light in color and to be just and decent. [He turns to Sam.] I thought you would catch it, Sam
It seems like Hally is trying to convince himself that him and his dad have a good relationship when it is clear they don't. Also, he have never seen no sign of racism from Hally until here and this must hurt willie and sam.
If you ever do write it as a short story, there was a twist in our ending. I couldn't sit down there and stay with you. It was a "Whites Only" bench. You were too young, too excited to notice then. But not anymore. If you're not careful . . . Master Harold . . . you're going to be sitting up there by yourself for a long time to come, and there won't be a kite in the sky.
This shows what the kite represents. The kite is a representation of racial equality. When he left him at the bench, it was because he had to but Hally still had his kite. However, if Hally does not alter his beliefs, he will lose good friends and there wont be a hope for the knock down of racial barriers
Fly another kite, I suppose. It worked once, and this time I need it as much as you do. HALLY: It's still raining, Sam. You can't fly kites on rainy days, remembe
Sam wants to fly another kite which partially represents the two connection. However, it doesn't seem like Hally wants to and we can infer that it hurts Sam due to how much of a friend he considers him to be
Don't forget the comic books. [Hally returns to the counter and puts them in his case. He starts to leave again.][To the retreating back of the boy.] Stop . . . Hally . . . [Hally stops, but doesn't turn to face him.] Hally . . . I've got no right to tell you want being a man means if I don't behave like one myself, and I'm not doing so well at that this afternoon. Should we try again, Hally?
Sam is trying to make conversation with Hally after their big argument
Claire doesn’t have the heart to object
This shows that she is kind of like a doormat. She will not speak up if something is bothering her or if she is not cool with something. She seems go with the flow.
wellfuck you too.
Claire is expressing her anger towards the hallmate that posted the picture.
. She is strangely embarrassed by the picture, the way it turns her into someone else. She wasn’t wearing the bikini to bother black people
This shows that Claire did not know how serious takes the confederate flag and how it can seriously affect those around her whom are people of color or against racism
tweet from the account of the black girl who lives across the hall from her, which features the photo of Claire in the bikini and the commentary My hallmate just posted this picture of herself on vacation :/.
This picture is insulting to the black community. As someone who knows Claire personally, she probably views Claire very different and so as everyone else
“You look like white trash,” Puppy says to her the first time she sees the bikini.“You would know,” Claire says back
Their relationship has no mutual respect. Puppy can be seen as childish and should not say anything like that to the daughter of her husband. At the same time, they both should not feel comfortable talking to each other like this
he does look pretty hot: like someone she is not, what with the stars and bars marking her tits and crotch, but a hot someone she is not
I like how they emphasize how this isnt her and this isnt something she would wear. I wouldnt say she is changing for Jackson but it sure does seem that way.This shows how Claire really isnt herself anymore and changing into someone that no one knows, not even herself
Jackson presents the bathing suit wadded up in a supermarket plastic bag, the sort of awkward non-gift you give someone in an awkward non-relationship—he bought it for five dollars on a spring break trip, he says, for a girlfriend he subse-quently found blowing one of his friends in their shared motel room and broke up with.
Their relationship is pointless. It seems like they just want this relationship for the fun. The fact that jackson gave claire a gift he was going to give his ex shows how thoughtless it was
They get high and make out in the pool house that afternoon, and the next and the next and the next.
This shows that their relationship is naive and fun. Its not serious
Puppy, having no job and, from what Claire gathers, limited ambitions beyond strolling the house in expensive loungewear, is always home to miserably watch her eat it
To Claire, Puppy is a gold digger and has no ambition to get a job or do for herself. In her eyes, she is probably using her dad.
Claire suspects that Puppy has made the whole thing up
she evidently doesnt like her step-mother
Confederate flag,
Confederate flag symbolizes white supremacy
y thoughts and the soft throb of my head the only audible things in the room. I ponder whether my parents — dregs floating across a diasporic sea before my time — would have imagined their sacrifices for us would come with sharp pains in their backs and newfound worries, tear-soaked nights and early mornings. But, it is too much to process. Instead, I dream of them and the future I will build with the tools they have given me.
He is taking both of his worlds and learning from them. He is not from here but being in America has showed him how hard he has to work but he also has his memories from back home. These two worlds will help him in the future.
I realize that she is too young to remember our original home: the old dust of barren apartment walls and the constant roar outside of life in the nighttime.
Unlike him, his sister is going to be too young to remember the same memories as him. He steps out of himself and considers his sister and her POV.
I watch my father come home every night, beaten yet resilient from another day of hard work on the road. He sits me and my sister down, and though weary-eyed, he manages the soft smile I know him for and asks about our day.
Another juxtaposition. His dad is beaten down from working but always make sure he puts on a smile or his kids and become interested in their day.
the scourge of poverty and flickering prosperity that never seem to coalesce.
Juxtaposition
remembering my father’s stories of rising up early to feed the cows and my mother’s memories of the sweat on her brow from hours of picking coffee at a local plantation.
I think this is a set up of little memories making up his life in America. He is trying to show how his family is hard working and how that is whats helping them make it in America.
a living masterpiece painted by a life of poverty and motherhood.
I like this a lot. He is taking this moment and connecting it to something bigger. He is connecting it to hard-work and thats how he describes his grandmother.
My grandmother hovers over the stove flame, fanning it as she melodically hums Kikuyu spirituals. She kneads the dough and places it on the stove
He creates this vivid image of him and his grandmother in the kitchen. Instead of a build up, he dives right into the story which makes me what to know more and as a reader, catches my attention due to his usage of language.