“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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