Marquezs a Very Old Man With Enormous Wings and Bambaras the Lesson-Libre

8/12/2019 Marquezs a Very Old Man With Enormous Wings and Bambaras the Lesson-Libre

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statement refers to Hazelnarrator of most of the stories (but not The Les-son)his statement also applies to Sylvia, the protagonist of The Lesson:

With [Hazels] mastery of the restricted linguistic code of Black urban life

and her ability to evoke both the verbal and nonverbal signs of that culture,she speaks from within that world and becomes a self-ethnographer of theimaginary Black community. For readers familiar with the culture, Hazelprovides a body of signs that resonate with their semiotic comprehension of the culture; for readers unfamiliar with the culture, she offers realisticinsights. (94)

Sylvias thoughts and actions convey her opinions and growth as a personwhile giving the reader a look into her culture. For example, Sylvia relatesentering the store:

So me and Sugar turn the corner to where the entrance is, but when we getthere I kinda hang back. Not that Im scared, whats there to be afraid of,

just a toy store. But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be shamed about?Got as much right to go in as anybody. (Bambara 93)

Without the use of first-person narration, the reader would only know thatSylvia hesitated. There would be no indication that she was ashamed of invad-ing what she saw as white America.

Butler-Evans later says this about Hazel:

Hazels role as narrator [. . .] allows her to construct authoritatively theimplied imaginary community, block, or neighborhood. Recognition of theinner world of that community by readers is thereby contingent on theiracceptance of Hazels credibility and their ability to decode the body of signs evoked in the story. (9596)

This reveals how Bambara uses first-person narrative with Hazel and Sylvia.The reader can see this when Sylvia describes the people outside of the store:Then we check out that we on Fifth Avenue and everybody dressed up instockings. One lady in a fur coat, hot as it is. White folks crazy (Bambara 89).

With a very different approach, Garca Mrquez utilizes in Enormous thestandpoint of an outside party witnessing the events so as to not focus on theinternal journey of any single character. This is important given the scope of his audience. Garca Mrquez knew that the histories and attitudes of theColombian people were quite varied. Even so, they shared the common expe-rience of La Violencia . Thus, he presented multiple reactions to religion. Asstated earlier, the angel represents religion and the villagers display thereactions. This allows readers to decide for themselves which character orcharacters they identify with. From there, Colombians could mold Colombiansociety.

Alternately, Bambara desired to reinforce in her readers a particular realityabout American society. Like most Americans, Bambara was probably famil-iar with anomie a sociological term generally credited to Emile Durkheim


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(Crutchfield and Bates 164). The Encyclopedia of Sociology explains anomie:[W]hen there existed within a society a disjuncture between the legitimategoals that members of a society were aspiring to and the legitimate means of achieving these goals, then that society was in a state of anomie (Crutchfieldand Bates 165). Sociologist Robert K. Merton went further by asserting thatsociety was the source of the goals, not the individual, as Durkheim believed(Crutchfield and Bates 165).

This is what Sylvia experienced. She saw toys that privileged members of society could afford, but she could not. Bambaras purpose was to remindreaders that hard work and wise use of money could resolve the conflictbetween being a have or have not, as displayed both within and withoutSylvia. If Bambara wrote the story in a third-person narrative style, the audi-ence would not know that Sylvia learned the true lesson, as seen in aintnobody gonna beat me at nuthin (Bambara 96). This is an internal thought,not a verbal statement, and, although it is in the context of a foot race, thereaders know Sylvia is referring to life because Sylvia does not chase afterSugar.

Through a close examination of Enormous and The Lesson, it can beseen that Bambara and Garca Mrquez provided social commentaries on dif-ferent scales. Due to the divergent focuses, it was necessary for varyingapproaches and styles. When there is an internalized message from one char-acter, such as in The Lesson, a first-person narrative is most fitting. How-ever, when the purpose is in identifying with various characters, a third-per-son perspective is ideal. Clearly, Enormous and The Lesson provideillumination into the advantages and disadvantages of works written with dif-ferent narrative voices.

JOHN GOODWIN, Lunenburg, MassachusettsCopyright 2006 Heldref Publications

WORKS CITEDBambara, Toni Cade. The Lesson. Gorilla, My Love . New York: Random, 1972.Butler-Evans, Elliott. Race, Gender, and Desire: Narrative Strategies in the Fiction of Toni Cade

Bambara, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker . Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1989.Crutchfield, Robert, and Kristin A. Bates. Anomie. Encyclopedia of Sociology . 2nd ed. New

York: Macmillan/Gale, 2000.Garca Mrquez, Gabriel. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. Leaf Storm and Other Sto-

ries . Trans. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Harper, 1972.Levine, Daniel H. Religion and Politics in Latin America: The Catholic Church in Venezuela and

Colombia . Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1981.


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Marquezs a Very Old Man With Enormous Wings and Bambaras the Lesson-Libre