Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Three Excerpts from "Magnolias for Whites Only"

1987; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 9; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3346258

1536-0334

Toni A. H. McNaron,

American and British Literature Analysis

As a child, I came into contact with two adult black women, both of whom worked as domestic servants to my family: Hettie Holmes and Josephine Zeak. Hettie was dark skinned and mysterious, lusty and free-spirited in spite of her poverty. Given the norms within which black help were treated by white families, mine was good to Hettie: my mother Mamie gave her food to take home to Mr. Holmes; Daddy often went to the local jail on Monday mornings to bail her out. Hettie drank whiskey on weekends and fought with her husband, who drank whiskey all week. They used knives and Hettie came to work with new cut marks on her neck and upper arms, though never on her face, which I found powerful and beautiful. Once when I raged against her husband for hurting her, she laughed and said, Oh, Sugar, don't worry, he looks a whole lot worse. She always had kind words for her husband and they stayed married all the time I knew her.