Journal Entry 3

Pages 81-110

5 comments

v The father continues to spend his money gambling leaving his family to try and survive on their on for the week.
v The mother believes she is receiving blessings from god in the form of money in which one time is stolen due to a lie by amanda’s mother claim to be hers.
v At birth Miriam had to go through a sort of coming of age ceremony as a child in which she was pierced with a razor and baptized in a specialized bath of roots and special herbs
v Mama has gotten to the point where she is so sick that she fuses to eat food calling it shit. She also sometimes has violent streaks.
v All the names of Miriam’s siblings came from the experiences and emotional changes that her mother had gone through as a result of her husband’s gambling and drinking problems

4 questions
v If a wife in a marriage was unhappy couldn’t she divorce him and marry another man?
v What do they mean when they say, “wait until my bones closed”?
v How did they get the idea that America was a better place to live than in Johannesburg?
v Is there a limit of authority to how far the police officers can go when it comes to invading homes?

3 vocabulary Words

v Latrines (Pg. 75)- A communal toilet of a type often used in a camp or barracks
v Decrepit (Pg. 83)- worn and broken down by hard use
v Illegitimate (Pg. 89)- born out of wedlock

2 Literary Terms

v Simile- “she was thin as a matchstick (pg. 97)
v Personification- “Dawn is breaking outside” (Pg. 94)

1 Sentence Summary

v As they pull through almost getting arrested for not havin a pass, Miriam family begins to suffer another loss, their mother becomes violently Ill turning against her family.