Did My Mama Like to Dance?

For my Englsih 1B class, Professor Lennon had the class each read a selection form the book the Big Mama Stories. My short story was "Did My Mama Like to Dance".

             In Shay Youngblood’s short stories, The Big Mama Stories, a selection titled “Did My Mama Like to Dance” is about the narrator trying to remember her blood mama, Fannie Mae. In order to for her to do this she had to ask Big Mama, Aunt Vi, or Aunt Mae but not one of them would want to talk about Fannie Mae. The narrator then realizes that there is only one person that would give her the answers she wants and that is Miss Corine because she knows everybody’s business. The setting of this selection is in Miss Corine’s beauty shop in Princeton, Georgia. The era is in the late 1960s.

            “Did My Mama Like to Dance” is in first person point of view and has multiple narrators. Two of which are the narrator and Miss Corine. In this selection there is no frame structure because of the constant flashbacks to Fannie Mae’s past. In Miss Corine’s story, Fannie

Miss Corine’s story to the narrator is set in Miss Corine’s beauty shop. While the narrator is being told the story she is getting her hair done. I believe the setting at the beauty shop is exceptionally important for this specific story because the narrator had to go to Miss Corine shop to find out who was Fannie Mae. If this story was told at a different location such as a church I don’t believe the narrator would have been told the truth about her mama.

            The protagonist in the story is Fannie Mae and the antagonist is the trouble that surrounded Fannie Mae growing up.  The main type of conflict is between person and social force, the social force being racism. The conflict stands out the exceedingly in two parts of the story.  First, is when Fannie Mae is in a grocery store and knew the she being cheated on and given the wrong price amount. She talks back to the white man, calls him a liar, so he then calls the police and Fannie Mae is sent to a juvenile detention. The second time is when Fannie Mae and her friend Patty are walking together in the park. A few white boys noticed them and ask Patty why she was holding hands with Fannie Mae. And before the girls realized what was about to happen Patty and Fannie Mae were raped by the white boys.

            The theme of this story is experiencing conflicts with social and culture conflicts. The conflict that Fannie Mae encountered was racism both at the grocery store and at the park with Patty. Two storytelling devices that create this theme would be the setting and the atmosphere.

A literary motif is a recurrent image, idea, theme, symbol of object used to enhance the story. In African American literature, we see motifs recurring two of which are the Black female and interlocking systems of Oppression. The Black female motif is seen when Fannie Mae is raped by the white boys and the interlocking systems of Oppression is racism that Fannie Mae was faced with while growing up. The conflict and plot are the two storytelling devices that easily present each motif. Both of these devices each were able to bring out the hardships in Fannie Mae’s life for the reader to simply notice.

            Overall this short story is now one of my favorites and I would highly recommend this specific story.