River Of Names
“” is part of a collection of short stories in the book Trash published in 1988, written by Dorothy Allison. It is the basis for the later novel Bastard out of Carolina. In her powerful writing, Allison draws on her own harrowing childhood in 1950s Greenville, South Carolina: the stigma of growing up a bastard, the shame and pride she felt toward her family, and her association with her stepfather who beat and molested her. “In this story, “,” Allison writes about her life as a way to come to terms with her past, honoring the attempt to make contemporary literature out of her experience as a working class lesbian addicted to violence, language and hope.” ...
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influences this perception. Allison is from the back woods of South Carolina and presents these people in a way that challenges the expectations of the American public and at the same time does not romanticize their lives. The story is told by a narrator, who is nameless, and her experiences while growing up in this type of family and follows all the stereotypical images that come to mind: “broken teeth, torn overalls, and the dirt.” She does not gloss over the ugliness of this poverty. Her words are not simple, but hard edged truths. Dorothy Allison speaks through this narrator with unflinching honesty about a world where pain and love intersect.
“Stealing was a way to pass the time. Things we needed things we didn’t, for the nerve of it, the anger, the need. But sooner or later, we all got caught. Then it was, When are
you going to learn?”
Allison’s characters are based on her own poor southern family. She managed to escape the fate that ...
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and there is life.
Another reason Allison gives for her survival is that she is a lesbian and she incorporates this homosexuality into her story as well. The narrator has a lover, Jessie whom she loves deeply. Her relationship with Jesse seems to be used as a contrast and also as a relief between some of the appalling events that are told. Jessie is portrayed as having a fairy tale adolescence. She is innocent and the narrator clings to that naiveté for hope. This is adherence shown with the repeated use of hands as symbols of healing and bonding of these two women.
“Jessie said with her smooth mouth, that chin nobody ever slapped, and I loved that chin, but when Jessie spoke ...
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"River Of Names." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 14 Apr. 2004. Web. 23 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/River-Of-Names/6252>
"River Of Names." Essayworld.com. April 14, 2004. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/River-Of-Names/6252.
"River Of Names." Essayworld.com. April 14, 2004. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/River-Of-Names/6252.
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