User:Shanice Phillips/The Two Grandmothers

The Two Grandmothers
By Olive Senior

ARRIVAL OF THE SNAKE WOMAN
Arrival of the Snake Woman is a collection written by Olive Senior. It consists of seven short stories: “Arrival of the Snake Woman”, “The Tenantry of Birds”, “The Two Grandmothers”, “Tears of the Sea”, “See the Tiki-Tiki Scatter”, “The View from the Terrace” and “Lily, Lily”. The story of “The Two Grandmothers” will be dissected using a gender lens to zone in on theories and concepts surrounding gender in society.

BACKGROUND OF THE WRITER
Olive Senior was born and raised in Jamaica. She got her education at the secondary level in Jamaica and tertiary level in Canada. She graduated from Montego Bay High School in Jamaica and Carleton University, Ottawa. Olive Senior started working as a journalist at the Daily Gleaner where she was editor of two of the Caribbean's leading journals - Social and Economic Studies at the University of the West Indies and Jamaica Journal, published by Institute of Jamaica Publications of which she was also Managing Director. Her early works include The Message Is Change (1972), a survey of the 1972 Jamaican General Election. Summer Lightning (1986) and The Arrival of the Snake Woman (1989), her collections of short stories, draw on the oral traditions of her rural background for their moving and sometimes disarmingly humorous evocations of conditions among the working-class inhabitants of Jamaica.

SUMMARY OF THE STORY
The story the ‘The Two Grandmothers’ is about a little girl who is sharing her experiences whenever she visits her maternal or paternal grandmother. She gives insight into the contrasting environments and the completely different grandmothers she has. Her Grandma Del is from the country area while her Grandma Elaine is from the urban area. The two grandmothers share nothing in common but a grandchild. They differ in opinions about beauty, colour, religion and relationships. Grandma Del believes her granddaughter is beautiful the way she is while Towser thinks her hair it too tough. Grandma Del loves her dark complexion, Towser prefers her lighter genes. Grannie Del is a Christian while Towser wants to go to hell in peace. Grandma Del has no existing relationships throughout the story while Towser loves to date her rich, handsome and nice men. Throughout the story the narrator ages and no longer wants to visit her granny in the country as she becomes caught up in colour, social status and travel.

Women: Classism and Social prejudice
This short story has highlighted the issues of classism and social prejudice. Lott (2002) defined classism as an institutional and individual distancing (i.e., discrimination), stereotyping, and prejudice against poor people. This theme was strongly depicted through the relationships of Grandma Del and Grandma Elaine. Grandma Del, the paternal grandmother, resided in the rural areas and occupied her position on the lower wrung of the social ladder. Grandma Elaine, the maternal grandmother, however was from a more fortunate socio-economic background and lived in the urban areas. The circumstances of the two grandmothers were perfectly juxtaposed hence providing the grandchild (the story teller) with experiences from both ends of the socio-economic continuum. Grandma Del was an avid church goer who was not rich nor possessed plenty material things. She lived in “little pretty house” as was described by her granddaughter, however she owned no TV, much to her astonishment. It can be deduced that Grandma Del lived in one of poor areas as her community had no streetlights (or any lights) and had to use oil lamps. In the beginning, Grandma Del was adored by her granddaughter as someone who took great interest in her life and cared for her deeply. She would take her to church, sew pretty dresses for her by hand, apply castor oil to her thick hair (even though she hated the scent) and compliment her on her beautiful dark complexion. Contrastly, Grandma Elaine’s belief is that her Grandmother Del is a country bumpkin of the deepest waters and that they are from completely different generations (Senior, 1989). With that being said they had completely different approaches to life. For example: Grandma Elaine would swear a lot and wear make up (her grand daughter would describe it as painting her face) while Grandma Del was a ‘holier than thou’ Christian and despised even the very usage of lipgloss as she said it was a sin. Grandma Elaine, who asked her granddaughter to call her Towser, had differing opinions from Grandma Del. She often times complained about her granddaughter’s upbringing and expressed concerns about the visits with her paternal grandmother. Towser, as written, depicted an uptown woman who lived a flashier lifestyle and was in a much better financial situation than Grandma Del. Mummy, the mother of the storyteller, through deduction is a millenial mother who came from a higher socio-economic background than the father of her child. He was the son of Grandma Del, hence he came from a poorer upbringing but his lifestyle has changed. He was very involved in high school as he won numerous Manning Cup Titles and then he was afforded the opportunity to go to university. This bit of information was seen through the eyes of his daughter who was looking at his pictures at her grandmother’s house. Her father elevating his status is called social mobility. Social mobility refers to the ability to change positions within a social stratification system. When people improve or diminish their economic status in a way that affects social class, they experience social mobility. Upward mobility refers to an increase—or upward shift—in social class. It is not uncommon for different generations of a family to belong to varying social classes. This is known as intergenerational mobility. Eulalie and Ermandine are two sisters who lived in the same community as Grandma Dell. Their situation was uniquely positioned to highlight the struggles and effects of young women in poverty. Some of these effects are: teenage pregnancy, lack of education, absentee fathers and promiscuity. This was the situation of Eulalie and Ermandine who had “many children between them and not a man to mind them” (Senior, 1989) Pearlie was also another example of how young women and children cope and live in poverty. She lived near to Grandma Del “in a tiny house”. She had to sleep in one room, on the floor, with her mother and siblings. She owned only one pair of shoes and one “good” dress. Pearlie did not have the opportunity to go to school often, due to poverty, and she had to look after her little brother even though she was just a child herself.

Women: Colourism and Racial Prejudice
Colourism refers to discrimination based on skin color. Colourism disadvantages dark-skinned people while privileging those with lighter skin. Research has linked colorism to smaller incomes, lower marriage rates, longer prison terms, and fewer job prospects for darker-skinned people. (Nittle, 2020) Grandma Del was of a dark complexion much like her son and granddaughter. In the 1980s, colourism and prejudice was rife and the notion of “If you’re black, stay back; If you’re brown, stick around; If you’re yellow, you’re mellow; If you’re white, you’re all right.”(Nittle, 2020) was very much present. On the other side of the fence Grandma Elaine was of a lighter complexion hence in a better social and economic position than Grandma Del. Their granddaughter suffered being in the middle of this colourism crisis as she had ties to the two contrasting ends of the spectrum. However, she got the genes of her darker lineage and as such her hair and complexion reflected such. Towser would encourage her granddaughter to cut her hair and get some of the “kinks” out. Apparently Towser had warned her daughter about being with a darker man “from the very start”. She said, “Honey, love’s alright but what about the children’s hair?”. (Senior, 1989) This shows the value placed on the traits of being light skinned and possess “good hair”. With Grandma Del expressing love for her granddaughter’s appearance and Towser expressing disapproval, the child was in a state of confusion about her self-identity and self-love. She was further pushed into a state of confusion when she got to visit her family in Clearwater. She was much darker than they were and she did not have straight hair like her cousin Maureen. The same cousin she claimed despised her and called her a nigger.

Family: Structure, Life and Relationships
In the short story, there were depictions of different families types and how they exist in different social environments. The storyteller existed in a nuclear family (which means she had the presence of both father and mother). Grandma Del was a single parent to her son. This was deduced as she had pictures of everyone but no picture of her son’s father and she got upset when her granddaughter asked about him. However, throughout the story, there were no mentions of Grandma Del having relations with other men. On the contrary, Grandma Elaine was on the dating hunt throughout the story. We were first introduced to her secret boyfriend, Mister Kincaid, who she described as nice, handsome and rich. Her second boyfriend was Mister Samuels, the one who was taking her to Mexico and telling her how beautiful she looked. Her final boyfriend was Mr. Blake, the man who her granddaughter asked if she would marry. Eulalie and Ermandine engaged in promiscuous relations and those bore children that had no father figures hence they became single parents. The same is true for Pearlie’s mom. Also, they had children out of wedlock which was a big deal to Grandma Del. However, her granddaughter was rudely awakened by Eulalie that her “Grannie Del Miss High and Mighty” was no different and “she that is without sin must cast the first stone” (Senior, 1989).

GENDER AND LANGUAGE
Throughout this short story, the language of the storyteller changed gradually. It started out with the writer using less punctuation marks, good grammar, continuous thoughts and unending sentences. As it progressed and the storyteller aged, there is a stark difference in the manner and tone of the writer. For example: “Grandma lives in this pretty little house with the white lace curtains at all the windows, Mummy you must come with me and Daddy next time, and you can peek through the louvres Grandma calls them jalousies isn’t that funny and you can see the people passing by”. This can be contrasted to “O.K. You know what? I have an idea. Why don’t we just take a quick run down to see Grandma this Sunday and then we won’t have to worry about her again till next year?”. These excerpts show a complete change and growth in the way the writer voiced the granddaughter. It showed maturity and tone. In the rural areas, the granddaughter expressed how they spoke. They said things like: “WAT-A-WAY-YU-GROW”. She expressed that “they don’t speak properly, the way we do, you know.” She was not accustomed to that dialect as her mother, father and maternal grandmother spoke proper English and she went to a school that groomed her to do the said. This can also show that language is coherent with the level of education one has.

PATRIARCHY
Patriarchy is most commonly understood as a form of social organization in which cultural and institutional beliefs and patterns accept, support, and reproduce the domination of women and younger men by older or more powerful men.( iResearchNet, 2020) Throughout history, patriarchy has purported that men should head the families, household, government and hold all leadership positions. Throughout this story, patriarchy is challenged as well as highlighted. It is first noted that the leader of the church that Grandma Del attended was a man, who also was the only one to drive to church. The storyteller’s father was the head of her family and he held a very big position. Patriarchy is challenged with the presence of multiple female-headed household in the story.

WOMANHOOD AND MANHOOD
Womanhood and manhood are the natural qualities and characteristics of being a woman or man, respectively. In the story, there are roles assigned to each gender that are deemed as the social norm. Examples are: Women being child bearers, women and girls should cook, women and girls should care for the household, men must work and men should lead. These examples are portrayed through the relationships examined throughout the story.