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table of contents
Document Information
- Chapter: Chapter 2
- Scene: Grant introduces Miss Emma
- Draft: Manuscript
- File location: Box 10, folder 43
Discussion Questions
- Why do you think Miss Emma is described as “not seeing anything” while she stands in the yard? What might this reveal about her emotional state, grief, or the weight of her memories?
Miss Emma’s name was Emma Glenn, and no one except her closest friends and the white people on the river ever called her anything but Miss Emma. Her husband had called her Miss Emma, and she had called him Mr. Oscar, and those of them who had grown up on the plantation addressed them. Except for Jefferson. He called her Nannan, and Mr. Oscar parrain, —godmother and godfather.
Miss Emma continued to stand in the yard. But I was sure she was not seeing anything. For there was nothing out there to see but the Johnson weed and cane row and cane rows a hundred feet away. Miss Emma was not seeing, not thinking of that. She was thinking, not seeing, remembering, she was not seeing.