“A scared little girl, all alone with a scared woman:” Clover’s (Not)Telling Secrets
Keywords:
African American fiction; child perspective; Clover; cultural differences; Dori Sanders; racial differences; secret (telling); the SouthAbstract
This paper uses Leslie W. Lewis’ concept of secret telling and Alicia Otano’s theory of child perspective to discuss Dori Sanders’ novel, Clover (1990). In choosing a black child protagonist to narrate her story of having to live with a white stepmother, Sanders successfully negotiates cultural differences to foster cross-racial understanding. This paper demonstrates how the child serves as a mediator between cultures, bridging the gaps that separate them by choosing to tell or withhold family secrets.
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