Which characteristics of Negro expression are employed by the characters
in this story? Provide specific examples.
135:
Explain the 1st two sentences. What is a "Negro yard"? Why does the
narrator say "But there was something happy about the place" (135--emphasis
added)?
136:
Explain: "Woman ain't got no business in a man's clothes nohow" (136).
137:
Explain: "Ah might not look lak one, but if you burn me, you won't
git a thing but wife ashes" (137).
138:
Why does Joe wish that he had a bigger gut?
Does Missie May wish that Joe were different? Explain.
142:
Why does Missie May sleep with Slemmons? Is it necessary?
143:
Explain: "The yellow coin in his trouser was like a monster hiding in
the cave of his pockets to destroy her" (143).
146:
Does Joe forgive Missie May at the end? Does she "redeem" herself
somehow? Explain.
Is this a happy ending? Explain.
Other Discussion Questions:
Why does Joe throw nine dollars at the door at the beginning?
Why does he throw fifteen at the end?
Is Slemmons's money more special because white women supposedly gave
it to him? Explain.
137:
Explain: "Ah could eat up camp meetin', back off 'ssociation, and drink
Jurdan dry" (137).
Why doesn't Joe want Missie May to have a second helping of tater pone?
138:
Define: "puzzlegut," "chuckle-headed."
140:
Explain: "A lean moon rode the lake in a silver boat" (140).
What is being described? What literary technique is being used?
141:
What does "making little feet for shoes" (141) mean?
Why does Joe laugh when he catches Slemmons and Missie May together?
143:
Why is she happy that Joe wants her to cook for him?
Why doesn't Joe leave her?
Explain: "Don't look back lak Lot's wife and turn to salt" (143).
Explain the personification used on this page.
144:
Why does Joe put the gilded coin under Missie May's pillow?
146:
Explain the candy man's comments about "darkies." What racist
stereotypes does he employ? Do the blacks in the story help perpetuate
these stereotypes at all? Explain.
General:
Who has the better marriage, Missie May & Joe or Delia & Sykes?
Explain.
Images of Money (and Sex):
135: "payroll," "dollar clock"
135: "singing metal"
136: Woman has "no business in a man's clothes," "Ah knowed
you had somethin' for me in yo' clothes."
137: "Don't you mess wid mah business."
143: Yellow coin "was like monster hiding in the cave of his pockets
to destroy her."
Other Imagery/Comparisons:
135: "her stiff young breasts thrust forward aggressively like
broad-based cones with the tips lacquered in black."
137: "If you burn me, you won't git a thing but wife ashes."
137: "Y'all pritty lil frail eels"
140: "A lean moon rode the lake in a silver boat"
141: "The great wheel of Time slipped and eternity stood still."
141: "The shapeless enemies of humanity that live in the hours
of Time."
141: Joe's fist "like a battering ram."
143: "The sun, the hero of the day, the impersonal old man"
Other/Folk Language:
138: "His mouf is cut cross-ways, ain't it?"
144: "Before morning, youth triumphed and Missie exulted."
144: "You makin' feet for shoes."
145: "Her ma used to fan her foot round right smart."
):