To Da-duh, In Memoriam – Paule Marshall – Flashcards

- youth and age - girl and grandmother - modernity and tradition - New York and Barbados

- 1937, during Paule Marshall's childhood - Bridgetown Barbados and a little village. St. Thomas - It is a land full of fruit orchards and sugar canes - The narrator also describes New York - She talks about the Empire State Building, the loud noises of construction work and the cold winter weather on the East Side

- Flashback - a memory of the narrator when she was a young girl - At the end of the story, we understand it is a flashback as we meet the narrator in adulthood

- First person narration - Autobiographical story - Most of the story is told from when she was a child - Near the end of the story, the narrator pulls back and says what happened when her and her family left Barbados at the end of their holiday - The riots, planes and her grandmother's death was told from when she was older - more factual and less personal

- Round character - A thin little girl - Nine years old - A strong personality - Competitive in nature - Proud of New York, but proud of her ancestry at the end of the story - Modern - Had a special relationship with Dah-Duh

- An 80 year old grandmother - Lived her life in Barbados - Detests any form of machinery or technology - Is proud of Barbados - Has a special relationship with the narrator - Believes in stereotypes - thinks that white people are dominant - Cannot even begin to understand or imagine the wonders of the American city life

- An important literary technique Marshall uses in this story is the way she contrasts the two different worlds of Da-duh and her granddaughter, and the subtle conflict that follows. - Several conversations between Da-Duh and the narrator to prove supremacy of the place they live in

The climax in this conflict comes when Da-duh takes her granddaughter to see the tallest object on the island Empire State vs The Bissex Hill

A story written by a daughter in a memory of her grandmother

- Steel and iron, the symbol of progress, is what shakes the nature loving Dah-Duh. - knowledge of the existence of the Empire State Building , defeat - is a foreshadowing of her death. - This is the case because it is metal, in the form of the planes that killed her - This is a physical echo of her emotional response to the knowledge of the existence of the Empire State building. - The fact that she is found dead after this incident is not a surprise to the reader.

- Urban versus rural - Young versus old - Da-duh versus society - Pride - Living in the past - Loss of family / tragedy

- Can have both positive and negative connotations - The narrator is proud of NYC: she paints a picture of her life for her grandmother: sings, dances, talks about her lifestyle, talks about the Empire State Building. Beats up a black girl in school ( hard to do in 1930s) - Da-Duh is proud of Barbados: Caribbean culture and sugar canes

The tragedy takes place in the denouement (or conclusion/resolution) of the story when the narrator receives the news of her grandmother's death.