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.