 We
adults are not setting a very good example for our children. Fear
sometimes drives adults to spend more time telling their kids what
they can't do than what they can. Children become confused,
questioning what's right, ultimately turning to popular media forms
for answers. On MTV, we hear popular singers lashing out with words
like “ho,” “bitch,” and “nigga,” influencing younger
generations to use such words casually. Tina McElroy Ansa's newest
work of fiction confronts the power of negative words. The book also
demonstrates how morals dilute with succeeding generations. Ansa
introduces some solutions via three spirits that guide three
generations of women. The spirit trio consists of a local
educational pioneer, hardcore nurse, and retired town whore.
Ansa’s first heroine, Lily Paine
Pines, is a former schoolteacher, principal, school board
administrator, volunteer, and respected pillar of Mulberry, Georgia.
She still manages to put her daughter's and granddaughter's needs
before anyone else's, including her own. In Lily, Ansa shows us a
woman determined to meet the needs of family and community, who has
succeeded over the years by sheer integrity. In short, Ansa has
given us a heroine to assimilate.
The book opens with Lily combing the
streets in the dead of night for her eighteen year-old
granddaughter, on a strong hunch the girl is in grave danger.
LaShawndra is as precious to her as 'though she were her own child,
even if she has a "hoochie mama" (promiscuous) reputation.
Lily first sees the spirit of Miss
Moses, local black educational founder, standing under a streetlamp
by The Club, LaShawndra’s favorite hangout. Lily marvels over the
fact she’d recently seen the woman’s obituary in a local
newspaper. But if old Miss Moses is only a vision, she is still a
blind and elderly one. Lily helps the lady into her car, and it
becomes apparent higher forces are at work.
Lily’s portion of the book is
titled “Faith” for what Miss Moses helps her find within. Lily
is deathly afraid LaShawndra is going to end up pregnant at nineteen
the way she and her daughter did. She comments about LaShawndra's
goal to be in a music video, and how she has tried to redirect the
ambition. The problem is, she has ignored her own needs. She learns
from Miss Moses - who asks, "Child, where IS your
courage?" - believing, in God and those you love, is enough.
The second portion of the book,
“Hope,” is devoted to Lily’s ruthless daughter, Sandra Pines.
She eventually gains this attribute from the stern spirit of Nurse
Bloom, former midwife at Mulberry's first and only African-American
hospital. It should suffice to say Sandra Pines begins her own
spiritual journey as a neglectful, spiteful mother who loves
pointing the finger at her daughter any time something goes wrong.
Sandra is Ansa's bodily portrayal of
American values at worst. She is a modern woman with her own
business, who has acquired an abundance of money, a symbol she
favors over her daughter. On the day of two break-ins, Sandra blames
LaShawndra for both (LaShawndra's place is one, Sandra's is the
other). She cries, “What kind of person have I raised who would
steal from her own mother? LaShawndra knows better!" That
Sandra is more concerned for personal assets than for her daughter's
safety reflects our misguided culture.
It is nonetheless through Sandra's
learning that Ansa teaches us we can't ignore our hearts: Sandra
remembers LaShawndra at age eight trying to make breakfast. The two
images she recalls is her daughter burning the one good Calphalon
pan, and the pain in her daughter’s voice when she “muttered,
‘I was just tryna please you!’” Isn't it interesting that
"the kind of person who steals from her own mother" was
once a child hoping for approval? Ignoring one's child can yield sad
results.
Nurse Bloom, reading her thoughts,
instructs Sandra to “bless her child” with the blessings she has
received from Lily (productivity, love). This book makes it clear we
must pass down our finest lessons.
LaShawndra’s is the final chapter.
It is titled “Love." Enter the spirit of Eliza Jane Dryer.
This spicy elderly lady wearing a short skirt, low-cut shirt, and
inviting smile knows there is power in words. LaShawndra represents
today's MTV generation: She calls herself and others "ho,"
"bitch," and "nigga" like she were buttering
bread - all before Miss Dryer!
Miss Dryer, once a "hoochie
mama" like LaShawndra, used to playfully berate herself in
front of men for attention. She suspects LaShawndra is talking the
talk of her ambition (being in a music video), but Miss Dryer
insists the more times she calls herself a "ho," the more
she'll be inclined to believe it till that is what she becomes.
Evidence of Miss Dryer's warning has already presented itself many
times within the story (LaShawndra's sleeping with a number of men
who claim to be "in the music industry"). It is
LaShawndra's careless lack of respect for herself and others that is
the reason behind her hitching a ride with Miss Dryer out of
Mulberry: She gave a key to a stranger who then broke into her
friend Crystal's apartment (where LaShawndra also stays), landing
Crystal in the hospital.
It is necessary to mention Crystal
stands for responsible young people. She has treated LaShawndra like
one of the family, letting her slide on rent, cooking her meals, and
encouraging her children to call her “Auntie LaShawndra.”
Unfortunately, we only experience Crystal through characters’
descriptions of her, and I can't help but think her mighty example
would have had more impact in person.
Nonetheless, Ansa has painted a
decent portrait of what young women like LaShawndra may aspire to be
like.
Near book's end, LaShawndra finds
herself increasingly distressed over her best friend's state, which
she feels totally responsible for (for the first time ever). Miss
Dryer persuades her to "face the music," paving the way
back to Crystal, Lily, Sandra, and Mulberry.
You Know Better is about turning
generational "curses" into blessings. More importantly, it
is about how people can change.
~Review by Sara
Webb Quest
This review is also
available to read at http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/alternative_writing/92586
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