| These two novels are divergent in regards to | | | | action-packed, and full of animal violence. |
| time frame, family relationship, and class. | | | | This depicts the world of the African |
| The female protagonists are both young, | | | | American ghetto. The style also gives the |
| African Americans but their lives are | | | | sense of a jungle, full of animal imagery |
| complete opposites. Before reading these | | | | (such as Chink being called an ape or tiger). |
| texts, the only African American literature | | | | The reader also sees people as predators, |
| that I had read and studied have been slave | | | | economically and sexually. Chink earns his |
| narratives, such as Frederick Douglas' and | | | | living by preying on other people's |
| Celia, A Slave. These texts showed me that | | | | addictions and Sandra is preyed upon sexually |
| even after emancipation, African Americans | | | | by two black men. One also gets a picture of |
| were still oppressed, first with segregation | | | | the jungle in Sandra's relationship with her |
| and then poverty.Baby of the Family is a | | | | mother. Sandra has to fight her mother in |
| story of assimilation. Lena's family, even | | | | order to survive. An example of this is when |
| though they live in a segregated society, are | | | | Sandra gets some food from Sammy after |
| joining the white culture as much as | | | | working in his store. Sandra was eating the |
| possible. They are definitely middle class. | | | | food when her mother came home. She hurriedly |
| In spite of being forced to live in the Black | | | | ate the rest of the sandwiches but the cake |
| part of town, which is the poorest section, | | | | and pop were still there when her mother |
| Lena's family owns a very nice house and have | | | | entered the kitchen. Her mother snatches up |
| many luxury items, such as two sewing | | | | the cake and eats it and then demands that |
| machines, appliances, and a piano. They are | | | | Sandra give her the bottle of pop. Sandra |
| working hard and striving to achieve the | | | | runs around the table to stay away from her |
| dominant culture's "Dream." Lena and her | | | | mother as she downs the soda. This struggle |
| family have created their own world that | | | | over food between Sandra and her mother |
| exists separate from the white world. In the | | | | reminds the reader of how the animals in the |
| novel, white people are almost non-existent | | | | jungle fight over a fresh kill.From reading |
| and there is little confrontation with | | | | these two texts together, the picture that |
| racism. The style of the novel is very | | | | emerges of African American literature is |
| mellow; it practically lulls the reader to | | | | that of the various ways African Americans |
| sleep. One is given the feeling that | | | | have been oppressed and are still being |
| assimilation is good and that the message to | | | | oppressed. Lena is oppressed by segregation; |
| African Americans is not to "buck the | | | | Sandra by poverty. In both of these novels, |
| system." The only example of resistance in | | | | women are subjugated to men. This is shown in |
| Baby comes from the slave Rachel, who tells | | | | Sandra's rape and her deference to Chink and |
| of her suicide to escape oppression. Before | | | | also in Nellie's submission to her husband |
| this, Lena did not know much about the lives | | | | and his numerous affairs.ReferencesAnsa, Tina |
| of slaves; this lack of knowledge indicates | | | | McElroy. Baby of the Family. Harcourt, |
| her parents' desire to let the past be the | | | | 1991.Goines, Donald. Black Girl Lost. Lushena |
| past.Black Girl Lost is a novel of resistance | | | | Publishing, 2006.Mary Arnold is an author on |
| to the dominant culture. The literary style | | | | which is a site for Fiction Writing. |
| of this novel is very fast-paced, | | | | |