Giovanni 400 Mulvaney Street, Essay Example

The reading was set in Knoxville, Tennessee. It states in the text that the only area with an airport was in Alcoa. According to Knoxville History (2007) after the WWII, the area of Alcoa became prosperous, this was after their economic problems around the 1930s. Therefore, I believe the text must have been set after this time.

Nikki Giovanni wrote about Knoxville in a reminiscent and adoring fashion. She seemed to have such a connection with the town, although not necessarily with the people. Giovanni was fascinated with the town’s ways, and this was seen in how she spoke about it, finding some mundane things about the town peculiar. It seemed that there was some superstitious culture within the town. This was found in the section where she wrote that grass was not growing in between their house and the White family’s house, it was believed to have something to do with the numbers. Giovanni was also not accepted very much amongst her town peers, she stated that it was something about her being too “Northern”, this was most probably because of the tension during the civil war. Even though, this did not seem to bother her so much. She even had a fascination with a town boy; who was described in the text to be black. The town still had some racial issues in stowed in some of the members of their community, because even though Giovanni did not think anything wrong of it, inter-racial relationships were seen as a bane in the town’s culture. There was strong family orientation within the text, and Giovanni had a good relationship with her grandparents, and she cared for them very much. She also spoke about how she was not good with death. At first, we are lead to believe that this was in connection with her grandfather, although later on I think it was something to do with the town’s traditional ways which were being changed. It says how she believes “progress” was in a way was changing the town she knew and loved in a negative way. Which can be the death she may have also felt sad about.

References

Knoxville history. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-South/Knoxville-History.html.