Analysis of Works by Sharon Draper (used by permission)
Readers of Sharon Draper's novels will expect to find characters who, much like themselves, believe in the possibilities for a better world, a world where respect for the traditions of one's culture may coexist with the expansion of new ideas and diversity. Draper's characters see within themselves the power to effect change within their own lives and beyond. Realistic in her development of their paths, Draper sometimes creates characters who do not survive; while indefatigable in their defense of the way the world "ought to be," their attempts to overcome the challenges it presents are sometimes tragically thwarted.
Unafraid to tackle sensitive issues, Draper allows her characters to confront issues that are as timely as they are centuries old. The Hazelwood High School novels, Tears of a Tiger (1994) and Forged by Fire (1997) allow readers a glimpse into how young adults sometimes succumb to feelings of guilt, alienation, or isolation and persevere despite living in the throes of domestic, child, and drug abuse. Romiette and Julio ( 1 999)--an update of Shakespeare's classic with echoes of West Side Stopits two modern young adults who see beyond traditional barriers against those who resort to gang violence as a means to intimidation and power. The Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs series offers younger readers mystery and adventure for the sake of history, of coming closer to an understanding of one's heritage. In each of these novels for young adults, Draper's ear for the humor, dialogue, and vernacular of young adults prevails. This National Teacher of the Year has listened to her students well. As she wrote of her desire to write for young adults, "Since I've been an English teacher for almost thirty years, I know what kids like, what they will read, and what they won't.... Not only will they read about recognizable experiences with pleasure, but they will also be encouraged to write as well. I started my writing career for those young people" (TFTN, p. 113). It is through Draper and her characters that their voices will continue to be heard.
Celebration of Heritage and Diversity
The first adventure in the Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs series ( 1994) introduces readers ages six through twelve to four diverse ten-year-olds who have just finished fifth grade. While they share a love of adventure and exude a spirit of camaraderie in the formation of their secret club, The Black Dinosaurs, each is situated within his own unique heritage. Ziggy, who is Jamaican and speaks in dialect, lives with his extended family. Rashawn, a Muslim and a vegetarian, has a dog named "Afrika," who rescues the boys in a later adventure when they're trapped in an underground dirt tunnel. His father, a police officer, is a member of the Black Heritage Club, which sponsors African-American activities and causes. Jerome, also African-American, lives with his grandmother and two sisters. His treasure that he donates to the clubhouse is a kalimba, an African instrument his grandmother made. Amid these three friends, African-American Rico Johnson considers his life "basically boring," with a mom who "drove a dull brown car, worked in an office building downtown where she wore sensible flat shoes, and wrote careful letters to people in other offices" (p. 1). Rico is as fastidious as Ziggy is colorful, each demonstrating the powerful influence elders and heritage have on each of us.
When the clubhouse is erected from a fallen fence in Ziggy's backyard, the Black Dinosaurs first use "Tuskeegee" as the secret password for entrance. The second password is "Nairobi." For the boys, this is a place "to dream and to create" (p. 15). Rashawn's dinosaur, which they dub "Blackasaurus," is hung from the ceiling and must be touched for good luck. It is only when the boys attempt to bury their treasures donated to their new clubhouse that they discover a link to the history of the Afncan-American experience.
Draper introduces the mysterious Mr. Greene, whose songs the boys hear in the night turn out to be songs his grandfather Mac sang to him. As their friendship with Mr. Greene develops, they learn of Mac's coming to Ohio in 1860 as a runaway slave. Mr. Greene introduces the boys to the importance of preserving their heritage by reclaiming the bones of African-American dead who were once buried behind their clubhouse but disturbed when a construction site erected an apartment building on the sacred ground. The box of bones, first discovered by the boys, takes on new meaning, as "the spirit of thousands of freed slaves and escaped slaves and hardworking Black men and women who weren't allowed to rest in peace" (p. 75). Readers are encouraged to explore the importance of preservation of heritage with a final essay at the conclusion of the novel, entitled "Digging Up the Past." Complete with photographs, the essay discusses the actual rediscovery and excavation of an eighteenth-century African cemetery at Broadway and Reade Street in lower Manhattan.
African-American heritage is explored further in the second book, Lost in the Tunnel of Time (1996). Mr. Greene reappears and joins the boys on a field trip with their school to Eden Park on the Ohio River. Here, he explains the river's role in transporting slaves to freedom in the Underground Railroad. Their teacher tells them the story of the River City Ghost, a 100-year-old Shawnee woman who assisted slaves in their journey toward freedom. The boys' curiosity is heightened further with the knowledge that Mac, Mr. Greene's grandfather, hid in secret rooms underneath their school during his journey on the Underground Railroad. Their teacher's homework assignment to make up a story about a person who was trying to escape from slavery or a person who helped someone to escape takes on new meaning when the boys find themselves in the actual tunnel later that afternoon. Readers may be interested to learn what present-day sites remain which were part of the Underground Railroad. The concluding article, "The Underground Railroad Next Stop: Cincinnati," discusses such sites in Cincinnati. An additional essay of interest is included, an excerpt from a 1995 feature in Applause! entitled "The Heroes Train," by Zakia McKinney.
Readers are asked to reconnect with a piece of shared history between African Americans and Native Americans in the third and most recent book in the Ziggy series, Shadows of Caesar's Creek (1997). When Rashawn's dad arranges a trip for the youth in the community through the Black Heritage Club to Caesar's Creek State Park, the boys are introduced to the history of Caesar, an African-American ex-slave, explorer, and Shawnee chief who was given the land by the Shawnee. As the boys discover, Caesar, a harness maker and blacksmith in Maryland, was brought to Ohio in 1776 by his master. The Shawnee found him hiding in the woods and took him to their village, rescuing him from slavery. His thick belts and harnesses for horses improved the Shawnee riding conditions, and he stayed with them for the rest of his life, marrying a Shawnee woman, having children, and later becoming sub-chief. The connection to the story becomes more immediate for the boys when they discover that their storyteller and guide for the trip, Noni, is actually Caesar's great-great-great-granddaughter.
Thirsty for late-night adventure after everyone is sleeping, the boys leave their base camp and eventually run into Hawk, a Shawnee who tells them what the history books leave out about his people. Through Hawk, the boys learn of Tukemas Pope, chief of the Shawnee Nation of Ohio, United Remnant Band, who lives with his people in their tribal land, Shawandasse. He also enriches their respect for Native American heritage with his story of Tecumseh, the great warrior, who was eight years old when Caesar came to the Shawnee. Hawk demonstrates an awareness of language and the sensitivity its use demands when he tells them that using the word "Indian" is okay as long as it's not used negatively and the speaker remembers that they were the native people of the country. Rashawn points out that this is like one's use of the words "black" and "AfricanAmerican." Readers are encouraged once again at the conclusion of the story to explore heritage--the link between the African-American slave and the Shawnee--with a 1996 article from the Cincinnati Enquirer entitled "Caesar's History Mapped: State Park Named for Frontier Explorer."
In Draper's Forged by Fire (1997), Gerald's sense of pride and self-respect is undergirded by his Aunt Queen Marie Antoinette Lincoln, who rolls into the hospital and into his life on "her throne polished wheelchair. Dressed from head to toe in red, she challenges the doctor's assumption that Gerald doesn't have a father because he is African-American and poor. Gerald learns to respect a resplendent piece of his heritage, Aunt Queen, with whom he lives for the six years his abusive and neglecting mother is in prison. Draper writes of Aunt Queen, "Her very presence was like a power source, to be plugged into for love, security, or a good fried-chicken dinner" (p. 21). Most importantly, she instills in him the capacity for taking control of his life, professing her mantra, "No use stewin' about stuff you can't change. It's the things we do have control over that I'm worried about. Like whether you're going to finish those carrots or that book report before midnight!" (p. 24). Her untimely death forces his reunion with his mother, her abusive husband, Jordan, and his half-sister, Angel. It is Aunt Queen's legacy of inner strength and capacity for overcoming challenges that enables Gerald to save his sister and himself from abuse and neglect.
In her most recent novel, Romieffe and Julio (1999), Draper gives her readers a modern parallel to Shakespeare's story, yet her version seems to replace long-standing family feuds--whose origins are lost-- with challenges to cultural differences as the source of contention among those opposed to the relationship. Romiette has grown up in a home where African heritage has been celebrated for generations. Her mother, Lady Brianna Cappelle, owns an African boutique in downtown Cincinnati. Her strength, notes Romi, is a reflection of her connection to African kings, and it is Romi's hope that she will embody the very strength she sees in her mother. "She walks like an African queen," she tells the reader in her journal (p. 5). About her mother's name, she writes, "I think black folk have the most creative names for their children. We don't bother with ordinary names like Sandy and Mary. We like flamboyant names like LaShandra and LaMarietta or Quinesia or Appolinia. Each name is distinct and descriptive." Clearly, Romi values her connection to her heritage; she credits her grandparents with her love of music, reading, and God. It is no surprise that Romi signs on in the Internet chat room as "Afroqueen."
With the bond between Romiette and Julio, African-American mixes with Mexican-American culture. Julio is a transplant to Romi's Ohio from Corpus Christi, Texas, where Tejano music flourishes, hot sauce is abundant, and people are bilingual. At the beginning of the novel, Julio's deep love for his heritage and the landscape he associates with it cloud his ability to see the possibilities that exist for understanding a world that is not his own. When his father, Luis, asks him about his first day of school, he remarks, "[T]here's nothing Spanish here in Cincinnati" (p. 23). Like Romi, he has a profound sense of his heritage and takes pride in knowing his family's history for centuries back. He tells his friend Ben what it's like to live in Corpus Christi: "It's well, different. Different colors, landscapes, feels, smells.... My family is from Mexico, but Montague is an Italian name. Some Italian count, hundreds of years ago, who was running away from trouble with some king, ended up in Mexico, got married there, and it has been our family name ever since" (p. 25).
Julio's respect for his parents is steadfast, even when his father's notions about what constitutes "socially acceptable" are in conflict with his own. He tells Ben, "My parents are great, but uptight. Rules. Manners. Proper ways of doing everything. Family tradition" (p. 25). Julio seems to understand that his father's belief system, while problematic, demands respect. Note the following exchange between Julio and Luis about Ben: "So, Julio, was that a friend from school?" "Just a dude with green hair, Papa." "Green hair?" "Only for today. Tomorrow it's gonna be blue. "I don't understand." "I know, Papa, but that's cool.... Need any more help with the boxes?" (p. 27).
Romi's best friend, Destiny, and Julio's best friend, Ben (a.k.a. Benvolio), represent youth on the margins, whose creativity and self-expression challenge traditional notions of how youth should look and behave. Both seek to abandon the prosaic in exchange for possibilities. Destiny, a self-proclaimed psychic who is known for her daily horoscopes, drives a bright red car covered in butterfly decals and sports a bumper sticker that reads "PRACTICE RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS AND SENSELESS ACTS OF BEAUTY!" She wants to change her middle name from Louise to "something like Sagittarius or Karma" (p. 20). When Romi points out that her own relationship with Julio never allows their racial differences to be an issue, Destiny remarks, "Good, that's the way the world ought to be" (p. 58).
Ben is first described as "a tall, freckled boy wearing two safety pins as earrings, a small gold nose ring, and bright green hairÑgreen like the color of a fluorescent marker" (p. 15). When he crashes into Julio on Julio's first day of school, takes a blow to the nose, and doesn't narc on Julio, he defies traditional stereotypes associated with youth who challenge apparel norms and don body piercings. Julio thinks to himself, "I could be getting kicked out of school, instead of checking in. If it had been me getting punched by a crazed stranger, I would have clocked him, not helped him. Amazing dude, that Ben" (p. 17).
Comfortable in his own skin, Ben celebrates his individuality by changing the color of his hair almost daily. Change and possibility are exciting and stimulating to Ben, just as they are to Destiny. In defense of his hair color, he tells Julio, "Pink and silver hair is what poetry is all about. Expression! Creativity! Besides, orange is old. That was yesterday. Gotta stay fresh, my man" (p. 102). He sees himself in direct contrast to the members of the Devildogs, the school gang which taunts Julio with derogatory nicknames like "Chico" and later threatens his life. Ben sums up the Devildogs: "They have no poetryÑthey have no individuality. They're just parts of a large, dirty organism, like that alien monster thing in that Star Trek movieÑunthinking, but very, very dangerous" (p. 103). It is Ben and Destiny who are willing to stand guard for Julio and Romi as they attempt to ambush the Devildogs and record their threats on camera.
The most dramatic tribute to the celebration of diversity is the friendship between Luis Montague, Julio's father, and Cornell Cappelle, Romi's father, which ultimately develops during their frantic search for their children at the end of the novel. Initially, each was quick to blame the other for his child's disappearance, relying on misconceptions about what ethnic groups constitute gangs. Early on, Luis, upon learning that Romi is African-American, asks Julio if dating her is "wise," referring to her as "some black kid" (p. 68). Julio must then remind him that the Mexican gangs in Texas were "the bad guys," not the African-Americans. In the end, both men, along with their children, share the hope that individual differences can be celebrated, rather than feared. Julio tells Romi, "I don't care what color you are, or what color your daddy is, or the color of your car or your dog. I just care about you, and the person you are. I am glad that we are both alive so that I can tell you that" (p. 236).
Challenges to Ethnic Pride and Diversity
While struggling with being identified as a drunk driver who killed his best friend Rob, Tears of a Tiger's (1994) Andy desperately wants his family to acknowledge and respect their African-American heritage. His mother, in "la-la land," refuses to call them black or African-American, and prefers instead to devote her time to her sorority activities. His father, a Republican who "can't deal with the real world," works at Proctor and Gamble "kissin' up to white people" (p. 47). As Andy's grades plummet and his depression becomes more profound, his father accuses him of a lack of "desire to excel." Andy, however, sees his father's business efforts, large vocabulary, and formal, stilted language as selling out to his white co-workers. Andy's anger and inability to triumph over his guilt may be juxtaposed with his father's malleability. His father asserts that "the only way to make it in this world [is] to assimilate into society" (p. 153). The society Andy sees, however, is not one in which he wishes to belong.
Andy fears that his little brother Monty may, too, grow up with little understanding of his own heritage as an African-American. He remarks that Monday "doesn't think black is cool" and worries when he notices Monty coloring the hair of a person in his homework assignment yellow (p. 48).
In a school where racism is subtly present, Andy wishes to dispel misconceptions about his identity as a young African-American male. He remembers how he and Rob were always followed in the stores in the mall and how is perceived as a drug dealer. He and Rob once asked the mall Santa Claus at Christmas, "How come stores never have black Santa Clauses?" (p. 740) Threats to his own ability and intelligence as an African-American surface at school, too. He describes the stigma attached to making good grades: "I like gettin' good grades, but my friends talk about me if I get called up to the front on Awards Day with all the white kids" (pp. 55-6). And when he expresses an interest in pre-law to his guidance counselor, he is advised to focus on athletics and P.E. instead. With regard to his teachers, his history teacher never calls on him because, as he puts it, "she just assumes I'm another stupid black kid" (p. 53). In fact, the lack of praise he receives from African-Arnerican teachers comes as a result of his inability to make his work"good enough."
Andy's attitude toward such injustices may be compared to that of Julio's in Romiette and Julio, who becomes angry at his father's suggestion that "black city children are somehow connected to gangs, or they know someone who is" (p. 116). Where Andy feels powerless in the face of such challenges, Julio commands self-respect and remains hopeful, telling his father, "The world is changing. Our generation looks at people as humans, not as races. Suppose everybody looked at me as just a Hispanic? . . . I am so much more than that! I'm a musician, and a swimmer, and a person able to make my own decisions. You can't do that for me!" His decision to confront the Devildogs' prejudice is undergirded by a desire not to run from fear, as his parents have done.
Threats to Survival
In three of Draper's novels, her characters find themselves in life-threatening or fatal circumstances. Tears of a Tiger's Andy struggles to live with the guilt of killing his friend Rob while drinking and driving. Through Draper's use of a variety of points of view and modes of writing, readers are able to see the effects from different angles: the newspaper report, phone call and interview transcripts, Tyrone's testimony to Officer Casey, prayers, and students' written and verbal responses to assignments in English class. The young adults in the novel are forced to confront their own mortality prematurely. As Rhonda puts it in her personal essay, "I thought we'd all come back for our reunions, and then we'd get old and then when we're so old it doesn't matter anymore, we'd die" (p. 19). Andy pleads for greater suffering, only getting his license revoked until he's twenty-one and serving a two-year suspended sentence. He goes to a health clinic for alcohol rehabilitation classes every Saturday from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and becomes the captain of the basketball team all at the same time. Seeking refuge from his pain through his relationship with Keisha, his girlfriend, Andy's depression and constant focus on his guilt eventually ends their relationship. He tells his psychologist, "It seems like bein' dead is the only way I'll ever feel alive again" (p. 92). While the psychologist suggests some approaches during treatment to help Andy come to terms with his guilt, such as talking to Rob's parents, writing a letter to Rob, or talking to kids about drinking and driving, Andy's improvement is only faint. Eventually, he succumbs to the weight of his guilt and ends his own life, telling himself, "It's not that I want to die it's just that I can't stand the pain of livin' anymore" (p. 165).
Forged by Fire's Gerald and Angel must fight to survive physical abuse to themselves and to their mother from the hand of Jordan, Gerald's stepfather. At the age of three, before Angel was born, Gerald nearly dies when is left alone and accidentally sets fire to the apartment where he and his mother live. His mother, Monique, who sniffs "the white stuff," physically and emotionally abuses Gerald on a daily basis by not changing his diaper and once holding his hand over a hot flame "to teach him a lesson."
After his mother does jail time for child abandonment charges, she reappears with a husband and a daughter, who, Gerald notes, "ha[s] seen many tears." And when Aunt Queen urges Angel to remove her hot stockings for playing outdoors, Angel refuses and grows fearful, saying, "Mama would get me!" After Aunt Queen's death, Gerald is left to defend his and Angel's lives against Jordan's abuse, which involves his inappropriately touching Angel when he is alone with her and Gerald is out of the apartment. Confronting Monique proves ineffective for Gerald and Angel; she repeatedly defends Jordan and calls her own children "lowlife" for their accusations.
Gerald seeks the help of Mr. Washington, Rob's father, in getting Jordan arrested. Gerald and Angel must testify against Jordan, with only Mr. Washington there for support. After his six-year sentence, Jordan reappears to find a "tough and stocky" Gerald, now seventeen. While Jordan appears temporarily to have changed, his facade is short-lived, slapping Monique and punching Gerald when he discovers his air conditioner gone from his room. Gerald and Angel nurse Monique back to health after she is run over by a taxi and becomes addicted to pain killers.
The children face their final threat to survival when a drunken Jordan fondles Angel while hot dogs that are cooking ignite the apartment. Gerald returns to a fiery kitchen, finding Jordan in Angel's bedroom. After punches are exchanged, Jordan attempts to escape the apartment leaving the two children behind, but instead burns to death. Gerald and Angel escape death as Monique and the firemen approach. It is only then that Monique is able to accept the pain that Jordan has caused them all. At the conclusion, readers will find the telephone numbers for the National Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Hotlines.
Just as Gerald fights for his own and Angel's survival, Julio fights to save himself and Romi from gang violence in Romiette and Julio. The threats to his safety start at school when he is approached by a gang of boys wearing purple-hooded sweatshirts in the bathroom. They call him "Chico" and accuse him of being a member of "that Texas Tejano gang." Julio stands firm, unwilling to allow them to bully him, "I ain't scared of you, or purple, or The Family" (p. 42). He assumes, however, that their threats will persist and that an attack is inevitable. While talking with his friend Diego from Corpus Christi, Julio learns that the Texas Tejano gang the Devildogs referred to have "guns and a big body count" (p. 46). Likewise, as Ben informs him, the Devildogs "play with real guns" (p. 47). Thus, the tension is heightened.
Romi becomes the Devildogs' target, too, when Rashad and Terrell, "two dudes who hang with the gangbangers," stop by her table at lunch and stare her down "as if to give [her] some unspoken message" (p. 71). A childhood friend-turned-renegade, Malaka Grimes, also questions her about her involvement with Julio, a "Puerto Rican" as she calls him, and warns her that her relationship with him could mean trouble for her. She warns, "You shoulda picked somebody black" (p. 106). Romi, however, maintains her loyalty to Julio, not really aware of the threat the Devildogs pose to their safety.
The threat becomes real one afternoon when Romi and Julio are followed by a black Cadillac near her neighborhood. Terrell and three others in purple hoods approach them and warn them to stay away from each other. When Julio angrily lunges toward Terrell, Terrell shoves a gun in his face and knocks Romi to the ground. Frightened, they debate on how to solve the problem without going to the police. They develop a plan with Ben and Destiny in which they will set up the Devildogs to follow them at night, while Julio will carry a miniature video camera to record the entire incident.
Draper creates characters in Romi and Julio who are fearless in the face of such danger, which one might not encourage as a response to gang violence. However, the frightening experience they endure being beaten and blindly led to a nearby lake where they are set adrift in a boat while violent storms erupt brings them dangerously close to death. They learn, as a result, that they were wrong to hide their fear from their parents; ultimately, adults do need to be involved in the protection and safety of children from such threats to survival.
USED BY PERMISSION Written by Anne Lewis Angstrom Auburn University Auburn, Alabama
Under the authority of: Series Editor Lisa Spiegel, Ph.D University of South Dakota
Copyright 2000 by The Writing Conference, Inc.
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