A Visit to Grandmother
In
this story you can find several elements of literature present, one of
them being the theme, which in this case is interracial racism.
This can be shown when Chig’s father, Charles, tells his mother about how he
always felt neglected as a child and how she always favored his brother, GL,
because he had good hair and was light skinned, which caused Charles to be
deeply affected by this and separated from his family at an early age.
The
voice in this story is Chig because
he is present and giving his point of view of what is happening in the story,
therefore it is a first person narrator.
The
mood that can be seen in the
story is Melancholy. This is reflected when Charles’s family keep talking about
the past when they are eating, causing Charles to feel sad that he was never
included in such things and even if he had been, then he would have been
treated differently.
The
tone in this case is sentimental,
because in the end Chig’s dad gives an explanation as to why he didn’t visit
for so many years, and how he felt everything unfair growing up, all of that
while he was crying and his mother was trying to reassure him that she was only
doing what she thought was best.
In
the story the inner conflict was a societal conflict,
meaning that Charles (the protagonist) had to fight internally with the
societal stereotype of people with white characteristics and overall superiority,
which cost him his relationship with his mom and possibly his siblings. The external conflict was Charles’s inability
to forgive his mother, despite him being away from his home for several years.
The
climax is almost given away at
the beginning when Chig begins narrating, starting from his father kissing his
grandmother’s cheek in a not so pleasant mood. However, after that Chig starts
from the beginning and the readers get to see why Chig’s father was not so
talkative and friendly as he normally was with other people.
Lastly,
the resolution in the story is Charles
storming off the table after the discussion he had with his mother, and right
at that moment GL makes his entrance, leaving the readers thinking that he may
never talk to his family again. An open ending, for you to think of another
optional way you might the story to end up.
By Dasha Nino, Step 10
