The Party

The Party Blog

In the story "The Party," from the book Mee Street Chronicles: Straight Up Stories of a Black Woman’s Life, by Frankie Lennon, it starts with the narrator being in a party with a lot of her classmates. The narrator is faced with peer pressure of having to dance with a boy named Bobby. This is a problem for Frankie because she is discovering her sexuality and is not sure what she should be feeling. It is difficult for Frankie to actually tell Bobby that she doesn’t want to dance because then she will be looked upon as stuck up. Bobby then starts asking her why she doesn’t have a boyfriend while she is hesitant to answer. Bobby later catches on that Frankie does not have a boyfriend because she does not like boys. Frankie is then worried that the boy is going to tell everyone about her secret affection towards girls.

I like some parts of the story because the narrator built suspense when she had to talk Bobby. The story was based on the confrontation of Bobby and the narrator and I didn’t find it as interesting as other chapters. I feel that this was an important story in the book but it could have been less detailed. Since this was an important story in the book I felt that the coming out of Frankie was not emphasized as much.



I find it difficult sometimes reading the book since it is based in an era where people would take different; therefore I have expanded my vocabulary by looking up two words I didn’t understand. The first one is in page 68, the word is hunkering. “Hunkering down inside me, just waiting.” The word hunkering means to squat close to the ground. The second word is in page 71 the word is bulldaggers. “I think you one of them-them bulldaggers!” The word bulldagger is a slang word in the African American community to describe a lesbian. By looking up what these two words I now have a better understanding of how people would use word in that era.

What I liked was that the author put in what she thought was important which is basically the low tolerance people have toward the issues of a person liking the same sex. I like how Lennon makes it clear that being a woman of color and a minority is still difficult for people and society to understand. The fact that the narrator had to lie about her feelings shows that people cant be their true selves,