Black People and Dorothy Allison

Race, class and gender have been a topic for most books that have been written. A lot of books talk about these topics because it is something most people face. Whether you 're at work and can 't get a promotion because of your gender, excluded from a place because of your class or hated because of your race. Know matter what you will be faced with one if these topics in your life time. Dorothy Allison 's Bastard out of Carolina deals with these issues in a very intriguing way. She uses them to keep the story flowing and keep the reader interested. In the novel BOC, Allison uses race, class and gender in a very stereotypical way. The story of Bone takes place in a time where race was a conservational topic. You can say America was split in two groups, the whites and blacks. If you were black life was not easy. Black people were discriminated against. Even though slavery was over the black nation was not accepted by the white people. Racism means Discrimination or prejudice based on race (2). This word was not really used in this book because the narrative was Bone, a white girl. When Bone would visit Aunt Alma 's apartment she would come to face black children. There and then is when the stereotypes of black people started. The grown up 's in Bone had nothing good to say about the niggers that lived by Aunt Alma. "Running off with a man 's children, living in the dirty place with niggers all around. My little girls having to go up those stairs past those nigger boys. My wife walking the street past those peckerwoods!" (Allison 89). The family really did not approve of Aunt Alma living around black people. They were thought to be dirty and uncivilized people. Black people were also thought to be stupid and worthless. Bone was young at the time and did not know what to think about them. But she did not feel the same as her elders. Instead she made friends with them and learned to like them. I think Allison is trying to show the innocence of a child. Most kids are

Cited: 2 entries found for racism. 2003. Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. 19 Feb. 2006 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html Allison Dorothy. Bastard out of Carolina. New York. Penguin Group. 1993