Monica Johnson
Professor Lennon
Freshman English/Introduction to Literature: African-American Storytelling
15 November 2010
The short story Fever is taken from The Mee Street Chronicles: Straight Up Stories of a Black Woman´s Life, which is a collection of short stories, by the author Frankie Lennon. It is a narrative with its focus on first love. It is the story between the protagonist, who is our narrator and her first love Stacey, who is the antagonist. The story is set at Indiana University and it is the last Saturday night before the college Christmas break. The author cleverly uses a broken linear chronological timeline, framed by memories with inner layered wants, feelings and desires. The story is entwined with the summertime heat of Indiana, a heat, which serves as an agent, for the passion in our love story. The author shares her experience of first time love, along with the search for guilt-free sexuality. (Professor Lennon, Lecture November 10, 2010)
The importance of this relationship is revealed through the narrator’s sharing of memories about experiences in connection to this relationship as she states“ I didn’t feel boys the way I did girls…I had a serious ache, but I choked if off, never let it come up for air, hid it from myself in a secret vault (107) showing that by the time the narrator meets her first love she is willing to take a chance, open herself up to a relationship and finally embrace her natural inclinations. The main theme in the story is love. The kind of love that is pure, emotional, passionate, intense and blinding. The kind of love that will say anything, do anything and tries to be everything for the other person. It is the kind of love that will break your heart. It is a story that is relatable to anyone who has been in love. Because, love is not only physically passionate, it is emotionally fulfilling. Love is understanding, accepting, and enduring. The narrator’s love for Stacey makes her want to face her own feelings of who she is stating “I’d buried the secrets in the vault under layers of double-dealings and deceit” (108) meaning that before Stacey, she had been repressing her feeling and living a life that was hidden. In fact, as the narrator states “I blended in like a chameleon and the crowd bought my act.” (107) But we can only suppress who we are naturally for so long. As the narrator’s true inner feelings resurface, her relationship with Stacey instinctively takes its course.
The storytelling device that the author uses to present the theme most clearly is through the conflict, which is the protagonist’s fear. The conflict of Fever is multi- layered, as love is multi-layered. The first layer to the story is the internal battle between the narrator and the social force of racism and homophobia.” Homophobia is the unreasoning fear toward homosexuals and homosexuality (Dictionary.com) as our narrator states, “she had a fear of the words, accusations, she’s funny, she’s a bulldagger, she’s a dyke-fear of being severed, cut off from the pack, the crowd, the group taught me how to make myself fall in step, act in the conventional way, say the appropriate words.”(107) Meaning to live with this horrible stigma that labels you with a false sense of disgrace is unbearable. The narrator learns to pretend. With that in mind, the second layer comes through the relationship and the person she has fallen in love with who also represents that same social force and wants the narrator to stay hidden, to hide their relationship in shame and to continue to live in fear.
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The social system that surrounds homophobia which represents the external battle of the story has caused unhappiness and torment. Because of their enforcements of what they think should be considered societal normalcy is discriminating, it advances their prejudices. The indictments of other people’s customs, traditions and choices are atrocious. In the same way, the revelation of Stacey’s true feelings is bewildering as she states “we’re not like them…. so let’s don’t act like them…those freaks, bulldaggers. (114) It is in this moment, that the narrator’s inner voice, which serves as an echo of her wants and needs, but also serves as her insight and thought process, raises doubt. The doubt comes in the forms of anxiety that produces feelings of denial, mistrust and betrayal. As a result of feelings of mistrust, which are terrifying for the narrator because this is someone to whom she has given her heart. The narrator states, “I was confused, what did she mean, let’s don’t act like them,” (113) meaning, fear of being labeled, but this time by someone that she loves. And, because this is someone that she loves the narrator becomes a person that is more willing to compromise as the narrator states, “I did not want to make her madder, so I nodded, abandoning my feelings, ignoring my unease…because I was afraid to put my feelings into words” (114) Begging the question for the narrator, how can Stacey feel this way about herself and me? Therefore leaving the narrator with painful thoughts and with some dark truths to deal with.
The other topics that are important to this selection are that of self and identity, which surrounds self love, self awareness, and self respect promoting the idea of knowing exactly who you are as a person. And by knowing who you are as a person also lets us embrace another topic that goes along with the selection and that is “experiencing life changing turning points” (Lennon. Growing up Thematic issues) life’s experiences challenge us to learn and grow. And, when we are able to advance along with life changing turning points the same issues don’t keep resurfacing over and over. We are able to deal with them head on.
The story Fever was engaging to me because of its real lessons of life and love. In love and in life there will be some real disillusioning moments. But we have to accept them, learn from them and go on. I did not like the character of Stacey for several of reasons. First, I was unsure of her intentions from her first entrance into the story. Second, it is Stacey that makes all the initial advancements in the relationship so it is really upsetting when she reveals her true feelings. As time went on I got the feeling that Stacey had no real intentions of being together with the narrator and that she was being very misleading to the narrator by making promises that she knew she was not able to commit to. Lastly, I felt like she does the same thing in her relationship and engagement with Ned. This proves that she is very misleading, and manipulating. I felt no sympathy for Stacey or people like her that knowingly, in their heart, become involved in a relationship that they know that they will not be able to commit to and this happens all the time. I think it is very cruel. I did however feel sympathy for the narrator who can be described as genuine and dynamic. She is the most relatable character through her mistakes. Through the narrator I could see myself, in past relationships, not following my inner voice and that process of shutting down my gut instincts. I was engaged through the narrator’s heartbreaking description of her feelings and fears of the possible loss of Stacey. Our hearts are precious and we must protect them; I could feel the narrator’s heart breaking as she states, “It came to me then that nothing would every be the same, that we wouldn’t, as I had dreamed, grow old together, realizing that made me tremble, suddenly, for I had no idea how I would navigate this new place,” (130) showing the devastation of her loss. I would recommend this selection to everyone to read, re-read and grasp with understanding the complexity of knowing ourselves, accepting ourselves in the search for love and guilt-free sexuality. (Professor Lennon, Lecture November 10, 2010)
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