Ermina Flashcards
(4 cards)
role
ermina is the bold, extroverted fifteen year old sister of ernestine
-she is presented as a contrast to ernestine, and often shifts between great big childlike innocence to a boy hungry girl demonstrating the leap to a adulthood and how hard it can be with an absent father (also boys are a void for her father)
-obsession with boys, a void for father love but also her way of seeking out crumbs and gaining love.
-living in a Jim Crow, red scare, consumerism child, also grieving the death of her mother, she is living in a world of change and deals with that change in her own ways-universal experience of growing up
adolescence and growth and critical thinking
-‘also wears her hair in mismatched pigtails’ (pg 9) pigtails connate girlhood and innocence however verb mismatched shows unevenness in this and unbalance in her current home life, as if it won’t and its not meant to be like this 4ever foreshadowing growth and change
-‘ermina’s leg shakes violently’ (pg 69) a symbol of innocence- whenever she ‘sins’ against her father. adverb violently demonstrates and connotes a wild animal fight which we have seen in her earlier, she is fighting against herself and her growing because of her father is stopping her. also represents inability to speak in a racist and oppressed world so silenced it becomes physical.
-‘reaches into her father’s pocket and retrieves a cookie’ COOKIE=crumbs, a metaphor for his love, well the best he can give as he states later on. she still wants his approval as she’s still a kid, and a cookie connotates sweetness she craves, the crumbs everyone craves for in life, whether kid or not, also probs why she likes boys so much as, however the act of reaching to gain love shows how father is insufficient. retrieves to bring back as if love is one everyone has, and owns simply due to humans, and they just want it back.
-‘lily presses the comb to ermina’s head’(pg 34) though seems like straightening, also a metaphor for how lily is a catalyst for ermina’s fast growing with head connotating the mind and thoughts ie critical thinking
coping mechanism, and their effect
-‘So Ermina fought like a wild animal’ (pg 10) simile animal connotates her as a danger, unpredictable…not allowing herself to be reduced. as death could have left them broken like their father, ermina fights whilst ernestine romanticises-they both cope.
-‘with a handful of greasy relaxed hair’ (pg 11) greasy connotates the consumerism fast world, contrasting with relaxed she is living in and handful links back to the crumbs she’s getting representing her attitude and need to fight is her way in coping in a world and home that won’t accept her such as with lily.
-‘Bebop, shoo bap, de dap(…). Far out, sweet daddy. (she races out) (pg 72). as she did earlier (from learning it from lily, language of city, and becoming more popular’ rhyming makes it sound pleasing, represented here as a coping mechanism, her innocence and naivety of childhood is symbolised.The use of rhyming also connotates nursery rhymes in a way, further demonstrating innocence and fear. unlike ernestine, she doesn’t want To deal wit the matters in the world ].
-‘she’ll carry my memory in her leg now, a limp that will never quite heal’ (pg 84) limp personified, effect and trauma of childhood and life. d, limp is made top be red scare, consumerism, Jim Crow all those things that make them have to seize onto crumbs, and now is attached to her.
-‘she’ll be the one to identify Lily’s cold body poked full of holes’ (pg 85) similarities. ‘the one’ singles her out -the fight in her also gives hope for a world of change. and by discovering lily’s body it is a message to the future-when one door closes, a new one opens (future gen) as shown with ernestine monologue
romantacism and love
‘they take each other’s hands’ (pg 110) pronoun they distances the girls from rest of family showing that that changes may include growing apart from people, also foreshadowing the future of the characters. simultaneously it demonstrates a contrast between moving away brought them together-they need each other
-‘why don’t you go off to the pictures, you’re cramping my space.’ (pg 56)
-‘let’s go to a movie and forgit about all this until tomorrow, let’s go down to Coney Island…’ continuous repetition of let’s portrays her insistence in pretending the world isn’t scary and also pronoun brings them together-how she copes-with people as everyone does.
-‘he got money, plenty good enough for me (smiles gloriously)’ (pg 57) adverb gloriously connotates holiness, and Sandra their mum, heavenly, contrasts with what she’s doing showing she is breaking off her father and finding her own crumbs of life. also like everyone searching for meaning, indulging in boys gives her meaning.
-‘What about me? I wanna do the mambo’ (pg 39) question mark brings in the idea of a search for meaning and that boys, sex and love are her way of seeking out crumbs and gaining love such as in a scene where lily is talking about just have doing it
-‘takes a deep whiff of the envelope’ (pg 19) a comfort of home, sensory imagery.
