Gloria Naylor | |
Gloria NaylorGloria Naylor, "The Meanings of a Word" Gloria Naylor (1950- ) was born in New York City and earned a B.A. from
Brooklyn College, CUNY in 1981 and an M.A. from Yale University in 1983.
She's been a missionary for the Jehovah's Witnesses, worked as a hotel
switchboard operator, and has taught at various colleges and universities
including Princeton, Brandeis, and Cornell. Her novels are often interconnected,
and display strong spirituality as they examine urban African American
experience. They include The Women of Brewster Place (1982), Mama
Day (1988), and The Men of Brewster Place (1998). Naylor's
work has also appeared in periodicals such as Southern Review,
Callaloo, and the New York Times. Among her honors and awards,
Naylor has won National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim fellowships
and two American Book Awards. "The Meanings of a Word" turns
a painful memory into a meditation on how a positive, like-minded group
can overcome narrowness and hate. It was first published in the New
York Times in 1986. | QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION | CONTENT - Naylor says that writing has given her at least two very
valuable things. Name and discuss them.
- What is "the inevitable question that every black parent must
face"?
- Where, according to Naylor, does dialogue get its power?
- Describe the author's maternal grandparents in as much detail as you
can.
- What meanings does the author say the word girl has? How does
this word's meaning change as the context changes?
- What was the "unforgivable sin" among the black adults around
whom Naylor grew up? What things were forgivable to them? Why?
- Describe the author's view of the relationship between language and
reality.
STRATEGY AND STYLE - Take your answer from question c.) above and apply Naylor's
method to her own dialogue throughout this essay. Where does it get
its power?
- Naylor starts her essay on a personal level, relating a personal incident.
She goes on to generalize her experience to show that she is not the
only one affected. How effective are some of the ways she does this?
- What two figures make up the last image in this essay? Where else
are similar figures mentioned? How does the repetition of such imagery
function within the essay's structure?
- Why does Naylor put the word bad in quotation marks in paragraph
three? How does this relate to her ideas about the consensual nature
of language? How might this usage differentiate her teacher from her
mother?
- In terms of rhetorical mode, is this essay better classified as "cause
and effect" or "definition"? Does it have to be one or
the other? Explain, with specific references to the text.
| ENGAGING THE TEXT | - Describe a time that you and someone older (teacher, parent,
neighbor) had a nontrivial disagreement over the meaning of a word.
Did that incident cross your mind during your reading? Does anything
about the reading seem different now?
- If you had to read this essay aloud in class, would you feel comfortable?
Why or why not? If you wouldn't be comfortable, what kind of discussion
could help you and your classmates and your teacher reach a consensus?
| SUGGESTIONS FOR SUSTAINED WRITING | - Describe the rules concerning conversation that were observed
in the Harlem apartment of the author's grandparents. What was considered
harmful to children's ears? How does Naylor contrast hearing the word
nigger there to hearing it in her third-grade class? What do
you make of this distinction?
- Does it surprise you that Naylor, a renowned writer, says she considers
"the written word inferior to the spoken"? What does she mean
by that phrase? What is your position in this matter? Explain.
| FOR FURTHER RESEARCH | Naylor suggests that under certain circumstances derogatory words can
be "rendered... impotent" by being spoken. Lenny Bruce and Richard
Pryor, both brilliant standup comics, have suggested a very similar thing
in both their life and their work. Pick one of these comedians and research
his use of language in this regard. How are their contexts different from
the one Naylor describes? Any similarities? | WEB CONNECTION | This page has
information about a video series called In Black and White: Six Profiles
of African American Authors. One of them is Gloria Naylor. Can you
tell if your library owns the series from the computer you're using now? | LINKS | Biographical Here's a very good general start
page at the Voices From the Gaps site. There, you'll find
a Naylor biography, quotes, book covers, photos, bibliographies, links,
and a feedback area. Naylor talks about herself and her work on this page.
You'll also find a link to a brief video of her at this site. This is an "unofficial"
page about Naylor. What makes it "unofficial"? Does this
mean that the information you find here is untrustworthy? How can you
determine the validity of information on the web?
Bibliographical Eager for some more writing by Naylor? Take a look at these excerpts
from her novel The Women of Brewster Place. Did you happen to
see the television adaptation that starred Oprah? Read this teacher's
guide for Mama Day. What did you learn about the book from
the guide? What kinds of things would you have to consult the book itself
to find out? Are you interested in reading the novel? Why or why not? Here is the table
of contents for an issue of the journal Hayden's Ferry Review.
Notice that the interview it mentions with Naylor is not online.
What's the best method of locating this interview?
Cultural To put Naylor's work into a social and cultural context, it's helpful
to have some background information about North American Black English.
This Google.com directory
will lead you to lots of different sites dealing with this subject.
Like every great writer, Naylor loves words and pays particular
attention to their origins and meanings. How about you? What's your
relationship with words? See if you have some fun at this site
devoted to word and phrases. Would you like to brush up your knowledge about American women's contributions
to Civil Rights Movement? Read this essay
on the subject. What mention is made there of Naylor? Could you use
any of this in a research paper?
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