Page 159 - Demo

247I love more than I loathe, and I hope the work that I have done to make Mississippi a place worth living is enough. I hope they feel more themselves in this place than any other in the world, and that if they do leave, they dream of that house, that clearing, those woods, when they sleep. This is the answer with teeth. The reply that demands nuance, introspection and ruthless clarity, enough to see that this can be another place. Even as the South remains troubled by its past, there are people here who are fighting so it can find its way to a healthier future, never forgetting the lessons of its long, brutal history, ever present, ever instructive. We stand at the edge of a gulf, looking out on a surging, endless expanse of time and violence, constant and immense, and like water, it wishes to swallow us. We resist. We dredge new beaches, build seawalls, fortify the shore and hold fast to each other, even as storm after storm pushes down on us. We learn how to bear the rain, the wind, the inexorable waves. We fear its power, respect its reach, but we learn how to navigate it, because we must. We draw sustenance from it. We dream of a day when we will not feel the need to throw our children into its maw to shock them into learning how to swim. We stand. And we build. its citywide reading program in order to foster community dialogue about what it means to be bound together in this place. We are trying to understand that one person%u2019s fate predicates another%u2019s, that this illness of racial violence and oppression affects all of us %u2014 not just in Mississippi, but throughout the South, America and abroad. I like to imagine that one day, I will build a home of cement, a home built to weather the elements, in a clearing in a piney Southern wood, riven with oak and dogwood. I%u2019d like a small garden where I could grow yellow squash and bell peppers in the summer, collards and carrots in the winter, and perhaps keep a few chickens. I wish for one or two kind neighbors who will return my headstrong bulldog if she wanders off, neighbors who I can gift a gallon of water in the aftermath of a hurricane. I like to think that after I die, my children will look at that place and see a place of refuge, of rest. I hope they do not flee. I hope that at least one of them will want to remain here in this place that 15How does Ward%u2019s portrayal of violence assert that it is an %u201cillness%u201d (par. 14)? What is her suggested cure?22 QUESTIONS Understanding and Interpreting 1. In his book True North Leaders , Bill George, a businessman and Harvard Business School professor, explains that a person%u2019s %u201ctrue north%u201d is %u201cthe internal compass that guides you successfully through life. It represents who you are as a human being at your deepest level.%u201d What does Jesmyn Ward%u2019s title for this essay suggest about her internal compass and the role her home state plays in how she has built her life? 2. What reasons does Ward give in paragraph 4 for why Mississippi%u2019s past makes it a place many people can%u2019t imagine a %u201csuccessful black woman%u201d wanting to live? 3. Based on the examples Ward gives, what is the difference between %u201cslight and interpersonal%u201d (par. 6) and %u201cdeeper, systemic%u201d aggression (par. 8)? Why does she make this distinction? 4. What does Ward mean when she writes, %u201cone cannot escape an infinite room%u201d (par. 12)? How does that statement relate to her main argument? QUESTIONS 5 Jesmyn WardWhat is the metaphorical gulf Ward describes in paragraph 17? How does this metaphor function in more ways than one, considering the Mississippi setting?33 2018 Copyright %u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.