Snuff Dippers

In the book The Big Mama Stories by Shay Youngblood, there is a story called “Snuff Dippers”. The story is about Big Mama telling her granddaughter a story about her past. This story took place back in 1957 in Georgia where segregation was still evident. The conflict in the story is within the story that Big Mama is telling. The main conflict is between people and between forces. One of the conflicts is with Emma and a white rich lady. The conflict was that Emma had spit on the white lady which is completely disrespectful. The second conflict was between a person and a force, the force being racism. The people that were involved were the #99 bus full of black women heading to work as well as the police man. The conflict shows racism when the policeman pulled the bus over and started to humiliate the women.

As I got further into the book, I found out more things about the author. She is gullible, she loves storytelling, and has respect for others. The protagonist in the story is Big Mama and the policeman serves as the antagonist. What I did find out was where Bug Mama used to work at when she was young as well as how her friends would dip. I also found out that the policeman had no mercy against the innocent black women and also showed zero tolerance for disrespect for white people. The other characters involved in the story were Miss Emma, Miss Mary and Ralph the bus driver who were all part of the conflict as well. Miss Emma was the one who caused the conflict by spitting out the window, Miss Mary was the one who can predict the future and Ralph is the white bus driver who defended the black women in the bus.

Through the story of “Snuff Dippers” the narrator is faced with growing up issues. The main theme was that she experienced conflict with social and cultural realities such as racism. Throughout the story, Big Mama is recalling a time in her past and sharing with the narrator to make her aware of how things used to be. I believe she learned that being a black women in the fifties and sixties were a difficult time period because they would get mistreated.

Overall I believe that the narrator because wiser when listening to Big Mamas stories. She learned how Black Folks were classified back in the fifties and sixties and how racism was strictly enforced. I believe the narrator grew as a person and this experience will help her out in her life.

Briar Patch

In the book Talk That Talk by Linda Goss and Marian E. Barnes, there is a short story that deals with lying called “Briar Patch”. This story is about Brer Rabbit getting away with lying. I believe the main character is Brer Fox and the antagonist is Brer Rabbit. Two reasons why I enjoyed this short story was because of the humor and sarcasm along with the thoughtfulness of the characters behavior.

Reading short stories can teach one lessons. In “Briar Patch”, I learned that if someone lies they will eventually get caught and the consequence will be worse than telling the truth. Another lesson that I learned was, if someone lies once they will lie again. These two lessons were taught in the short story by Brer Rabbit’s behavior. At first when Brer Fox asked Brer Rabbit a question, he lied and the lies started pilling up. Brer Rabbit got caught in a mess with his own lies and finally the truth came out that he was the one that stole the butter. That is why it to not good to lie.

Trickster stories are fun to read because they cause excitement, luckily this story happens to be one. The trickster is Brer Rabbit. It all starts with one simply lie. Brer Rabbit wanted to eat the butter but he didn’t want to tell Brer Fox, so he tells him that he needs to go home because his wife is about to give birth. That was a lie because Brer Rabbit’s wife was no due. When Brer Rabbit comes back, finished with the butter, Brer Fox asks him how the delivery went and what he named his son, Brer Rabbit answered, “His name Lickbottom”. Brer Rabbit was lying because he did not have a son. When it is time for dinner, Brer Fox realizes the butter is gone and therefore asks who stole it. Brer Rabbit did not confess once again making him a liar. At the end Brer Fox finds out that it was Brer Rabbit who ate it because he was put next to flames and butter started melting from him. Brer Fox decides that he will throw him into the Briar Patch so that the owner can kill him. The funny thing was that Brer Rabbit had tricked them all because he was born and raised in a Briar Patch.

The story quickly unfolds that Brer Rabbit is assigned to be the trickster. Rabbits are often portrayed to be the tricksters of the story because they are quick and smart. In the story Brer Rabbit was quick when thinking of lies and making sure he did not make things obvious that he was telling a lie. I find it fascinating how one white lie over wanting to eat butter can go as far as getting someone killed. Then again, Brer Rabbit knew what he was getting into and therefore did not get caught.