GORILLA, MY LOVE

in this stories Bambara focusing about the status of roles of the women in the society
-> they are written in the same time of DIVING INTO THE WRECK

The writing style is a tipical example of BLACK LANGUAGE/SPEECH with the vernacular and
dialect of black people

We are directly int the story thanks to the way Bambara talks to us in a very intimate way while the
narrator gets an important role.

The main character is

-young
- she has an important role
- idyosincratic
SHE THINKS SHE KNOWS EVERYTHING very tipical of her age

There are pretty strong relationships with the other black people.

ALL THE STORIES ARE ABOUT DISAPPOINTMENT -> if you something you gotta mean it!!!

In GORILLA, MY LOVE we understand how the MC is called HAZEL and she hates to be called in
some other ways.
What we understand is that HAZEL’s world is falling apart in a tipical COMING OF
AGR MOMENT

The power of NAMES resonate in the text another example is the difference of the word BLACK
and NEGRO

NEW NAME
CADE -> BAMBARA when she founded
old book she stumbled on this name

Hazel’s irritation at her uncle’s name change stems from his

rejection of the nickname she gave him when she was very young.
To her, it seems to signify a shift in their relationship and a potential
weakening of family loyalty. Her irrational fear of the moving
pecans, which remind her of rats, establishes her childlike
perspective of the world. As a child, Hazel is subject to the power
of the adults around her, and asserting her “real” name to the
reader is an opportunity to exercise control over her identity.
The theater’s decision to play King of Kings on Easter rather than Gorilla, My
Love highlights betrayal in two ways. The film itself portrays the life of Jesus, so
readers can reasonably assume that the film would include Judas’s betrayal of
Jesus. The showing of King of Kings is also a form of betrayal—at least in
Hazel’s eyes—because the adults running the theater are saying one thing and
doing another. Hazel’s fixation on this dishonesty reveals that although she is a
child, she is has a keen sense of justice and understands the unfair power
dynamic between children and adults.

Rather than apologizing, Hunca Bubba reminds Hazel that she is a child and explains
that he was teasing her. This is doubly offensive for Hazel, as Hunca Bubba’s
comment about “teasin” suggests that his words hold no weight (going against the
grain of Hazel’s unflinching belief that one must stay true to their word at all costs),
while his comment that Hazel is “just a little girl” belittles her and affirms the power
disparity between adults and children that she so despises. Even though this whole
argument—which dissolves into tears—reminds readers that Hazel really is a child
still, Bambara emphasizes that Hazel’s anger at being vulnerable to adults’ whims is
legitimate and something to be sensitive to.
THE HAMMER MAN

Hazel is what we could call a TOMBOY and she doesn’t fit. She is considered a DEVIANT in
her family.

The family structure is how they think and act according to what Americans thinks abt
black people.

We can see a deviation of digression in hazel life, how the black community said EVIL TRAVEL
IN STRAIGHT LINE.

We also talk about gender and how beautiful is about not being a fag.
Hazel at the end will embrace what the society say is good like a proper girl and so unHazel, but
only the right kind of girl

Time passes. The narrator’s mother bribes her to join the community center. While
there, she sneaks into the office and reads her file, which makes her realize she is
“from a deviant family in a deviant neighborhood” (38). One evening, the narrator is
walking home from the community center when she sees Manny doing lay-ups on the
public basketball court. She asks him why he is playing basketball alone in the dark,
but he barely responds, only muttering to himself about an important game he had
played last season. The narrator watches him for a while.

Two white police officers pull up, and ask Manny and the narrator what they are doing
on the basketball court, which is supposed to be locked. Manny seems unaware of
them as he continues to mutter about the game. One police officer slaps him, and the
narrator yells at him and his partner. The cops almost leave, but change their minds
and arrest Manny. The narrator does not intervene because she worries the
encounter will become violent, and that she will be killed. She has an entire fantasy
about a violent end to the situation.

She never sees Manny again, although she does hear from her godmother, Miss
Rose, that he has been sent to an asylum. She gradually forgets about Manny, and
participates in a fashion show at the community center.
Police brutality is another important issue that Bambara spotlights in this story. Throughout
the 1960s, many incidents occurred in Harlem in which (usually white) police officers treated
civilians violently, with little or no provocation. This persistent problem caused a large riot
when a police officer shot and killed a 15-year-old African-American boy in 1964. Events like
this may have influenced Bambara’s portrayal of Manny’s abuse and arrest. Although police
brutality in New York City is nowhere near the levels it reached in the 1960s and the 1970s, it
continues to be a controversial issue. Recent controversial incidents include the slaying of
16-year-old Kimani Gray in Brooklyn, and the NYPD’s use of racial profiling in its stop-and-
frisk program (Goodman, Goldstein).

Overall, violence is everywhere in this story, even though Bambara only hints at it. The titular
image of the "hammer" serves as a symbol for the aggression with which everyone here
confronts one another. It is not surprising that the narrator grew up with such aggression,
considering that her father clearly has his own problems with violence, as evidenced by the
altercation with Bernard. Manny's aggression towards the narrator has an almost obsessive
quality, and the narrator seems to define herself by her ability to maintain animosity towards
him. When she pretends to steal his "hammer," the sense is less phallic (though one could be
excused for reading it that way) as aggressive. She has taken his masculine aggression and
co-opted it for herself.

Like the narratives of “Gorilla, My Love” and “The Lesson,” the narrative of “The Hammer
Man” is driven by the main character’s slow transition into maturity. For most of the story, the
narrator rejects feminine things, refusing to wear dresses despite her mother’s urging. Even
before the incident with Manny at the basketball court, she thinks about how she will soon
have to give up her tomboy ways and start behaving in a more conventionally feminine
manner. After the incident, she conforms to those expectations, even participating in a
fashion show.
BLUES AIN’T NO MOCKIN BIRD

In this one we focus on the importance of telling tales.

HAZEL’s granny knows how to tell stories and how there are no innocent stories because they
all teach us something especially the more creative ones.

The typical black music of BLUES can tells us stories.

The narrator (unnamed) and her cousin Cathy are playing at their Granny’s house along
with Terry and Tyrone, the twin boys from next door. The house is out in the country, sitting
next to fields of crops.

A camera crew has been lurking in a nearby meadow for some time, and Granny
eventually tells the kids to shoo them away. The cameramen explain that they are
shooting a film to promote the county’s food stamps program, and would like to get some
footage of her house. Granny refuses?

In “Blues,” all of the characters are natives of the South. The story’s setting allows
Bambara to investigate certain peculiarities of the African-American experience that
would not be possible in her New York stories. In many of her New York stories –
especially “The Lesson” – Bambara emphasizes the insularity of Harlem. Residents
rarely interact with people from another neighborhood, let alone from another race. This
is not true in “Blues,” which centers around a fraught confrontation between the
narrator’s grandparents and some white cameramen who wish to film on their farm.

When the story was published, the discord between black and white Southerners,
exacerbated by the Civil Rights Movement, was very recent. The violence and
resentment of that period informs the distrust that all these characters have for each
other. The camera crew probably means well; they are making a promotional film for the
state’s food-stamp program. However, Granny and Granddaddy Cain view their attempts
to film on their farm without permission as an unwelcome intrusion, regardless of their
motives. Further, the camera crew expresses a sense of entitlement that belies their
professed sympathies, filming even after they are denied permission.
THE LESSON

This too it’s about not fitting as we can see about the discourse abt the style of straight hair
that it’s completely different from what MISS MOORE do. She is an activist and she has a lot
of Barbara’s personality. She has a college education and she doesn’t go to the church.

They want to make fun of her but they also respect her.
She is an outsider even if she is black.

At the Hazel understand that eve n if she doesn’t want to take this lesson she HAS TO and she
is afraid.

The Lesson” is among Bambara’s best-known stories, and it combines her focus on social
justice with her interest in telling stories about children maturing. One of the most provocative
elements of this story is Sylvia’s opaque response to Miss Moore’s lesson. Although the visit
to F.A.O. Schwarz angers her, she does not understand why, and cannot decide whether to
direct that anger at Miss Moore, at Sugar, or at white people. Yet despite her initially rebellious
response to the excursion, Sylvia’s chance to witness the vast disparity between rich and poor
seems to inspire her to work harder; at the end, she thinks to herself that “ain’t nobody gonna
beat me at nuthin” (96). In other words, the injustice has helped her focus her anger.

Like she does in “Raymond’s Run,” “Happy Birthday,” and “Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird,”
Bambara makes it very clear that this story takes place during the summer. She may do this
because in New York City, many middle- and upper-class residents leave town during the
summer. This highlights income disparities because most of the city’s population dwindles to
those who cannot afford to leave (Cross).

In “The Lesson,” Bambara seems to endorse Miss Moore’s opinion that economic inequality is
symptomatic of a flawed society. However, the lesson does not arise organically from the
children’s experiences – rather, it comes from a character who is very different from the other
adults the children know, and who is considered strange in the neighborhood. In other words,
it has to be forced down their throats. This explains why a child, especially a rebellious one
like Sylvia, is resistant to the lesson. However, the pervasive truth of it lingers, and Bambara
suggests that having seen the extent of inequality will not soon fade from this observant girl's
consciousness. Education and awareness might be hard, but they are necessary.