Wednesday, 4 December 2013
Discussion 2.12.13
Today in class, the chapter, "My children Were Like Phantom Limbs," was discussed. This is the chapter that Aminata is introduced to the Witherspoon's. The way this chapter ended was devastating. I was pretty suspicious with the way Mrs. Witherspoon was towards May. For example, on page 377, when May falls ill, she says to Aminata, "Goodness' sakes. What have you done to our lovely May?" This is a little strange because May is in no way her child, so she has no right to even say our May. Mrs. Witherspoon always had a weird attachment to May and I now realize that this was a sign that Aminata should have picked up on. Mrs. Witherspoon did not have a child of her own and she adored May. I think that the kindness that she displayed towards Aminata was all fake. She just wanted to gain May's trust and spend time with her so that she could eventually steal her and take her away as her own. I ended up hating Mrs. Witherspoon with all of my heart. Aminata did not deserve her child to be taken from her AGAIN, especially by someone she trusted. I couldn't imagine the pain of my child being stolen from me, and twice, in Aminata's case. Mrs. Witherspoon is a terrible person and even though she is not real, I truly have a hatred towards her.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with your comment. When the Whiterspoon's began to take shape in the novel, I thought they were a decent set of people. I secretly said to myself "Yes! Finally this is Aminata's saving grace; they will help her get to where she wants." Sadly, I to was blindsided by how compassionate and caring the Witherspoon's were towards Aminata and May. Similarly, one the day where May was sick Aminata said, "I decided to take May along, thinking that Mrs. Witherspoon might let me fold up an old blanket so May could sleep while I worked." (Hill 377) Traditionally Aminata would never have done this for two reasons. One being the fact that this was her work, and two the circumstances at those times where still very shaky (in relation to race.) Therefore having your housekeeper child at work with her would not have been acceptable. However, we see that Aminata trusted Mrs. Witherspoon to do it anyway. This clearly demonstrates how Aminata was not even aware of the sneaky plot the Witherspoon's had in store for her and May. The Witherspoon's put of exceptionally pretensive and phony faces, which Aminata didn't even take notice of. This was rather unfortunate on Aminata's part because she lost yet another child. I subsequently share the same resentment towards the Witherspoon's because they lied and stole a child which did not belong to them.
ReplyDelete