Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Wk. 4 Option #9: Introduction



Prompt:

Consider the introduction to chapter 12:

If the queen bee were smarter, she would probably be hopelessly neurotic (irrational, anxious). As is, she is shy and skittish, possibly because she never leaves the hive, but spends her days confined in darkness, a kind of eternal night, perpetually in labor… Her true role is less that of a queen than mother of the hive, a title often accorded (given to) her. And yet, this is something of a mockery because of her lack of maternal instincts or the ability to care for her young. –The Queen Must Die
Response Requirement:

Describe how this metaphor represents Deborah.

How does this metaphor represents Our Lady in Chains/Mary.

14 comments:

  1. "Lack of maternal instincts or the ability to care for her young." This is definetly Deborah because she left Lily for her own reasons, not statying and caring for her. She lives in "darkness" meaning T-Ray. T-Ray is the ultimate sadness and the darkest figure you may ever meet. She lives with this darkness every day.
    Mary was also like the quenn bee mentioned in the quote. "Our Lady filled their hearts with fearlessness and whispered to them plans of escape." She wants to escape the darkness of slavery and help others as well. Mary and Deborah have much in common as well...

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  2. Week 4 Option 9
    This metaphor represents Deborah flawlessly. If Deborah was smarter she would have discovered how neurotic she was and left T. Ray much earlier. She never left the farm and felt confined, in an endless sentence to prison. Unfortunately, she lacked the ability to take care of Lily, while she was in a state of depression, “kind of falling apart.”
    This metaphor represents our Lady in Chains also. Although, she is not neurotic or skittish, she tries to take care of her young to the best of her ability. And yet the world seemed to be falling apart in her face. Segregation and integration was causing war among the people. Mary tried and tried but she can only help her young, the world, to the best of her ability- we must do the rest. “Mary, star of the sea, Mary, brightest moon, Mary, comb of honey,” Mary, mother of thousands

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  3. This metaphor matches Deborah to a t. She was extremely anxious and disturbed and she rarely left the house. She also doesn’t have maternal instincts towards Lily because she left her. She is confined in the darkness of Lily’s mind, hiding, never leaving her thoughts. Back to Deborah, she couldn’t take care of her young in the condition she was in. “ When your mother got to Tiburon, she was practically skin and bone.” She was depressed due to her erratic emotions, and she couldn’t take care of herself, much less Lily.
    This metaphor also relates to the Lady in Chains. Lily said that she is the “mother of thousands,” much like the queen bee. The Lady in Chains was confined in darkness (the barn house) and escaped from it multiple times. She is not a queen, revered by many, but a mother, one who is held close personally by all who follow her. While she literally cannot take care of her young, she is an icon for those to lead themselves by. She never leaves the hive of their heart.

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  4. Maybe when Lily was really young her mother Debora could not look for her maybe because they did not have money to look for young child.Lady of chains was really strong, she could have helped every one if she need.

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  5. The introduction to Chapter 12 is a good representation of what Lily learns about Deborah. For the whole book, Lily has been looking for her mother as if she was the leader she had been missing and could bring order back to her life. It turns out though, that Lily was rather an unwanted child, and Deborah eventually couldn't take care of Lily and ran away to the Boatwrights depressed, making her less of a mother and a "queen" but more like the queen bee; neither leader nor true parent, only giving birth to her children and not seeing them. August explained that Deborah was so depressed from "being out on the farm, isolated from things, married to a man she really didn't want to be married to", like the queen bee that just sits in the hive away from everything. This metaphor is the opposite of Our Lady of Chains, since Mary can take care of her children and watch over them, unlike the queen bee, and she is also more of a queen because of her power over the Daughters of Mary and how they worship her as both ruler and mother. She isn't confined to a space, and the sisters believe her spirit is everywhere, watching over people.

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  6. In this metaphor, the queen bee represents Deborah. The queen bee, like Deborah, has the title of authority. Also in relation to the queen bee in the quote, Deborah lacks the ability to take care of her child, Lily. She left Lily and T. Ray when Lily was four years old and traveled to the Boatwrights' house. "Depressed people do things they wouldn't ordinarily do." August says this to Lily as an explanation to Deborah's actions. Although given the title of mother, being depressed causes Deborah's lack of ability to care for Lily.
    The Lady of Chains, or the black Mary, is the mother of Jesus. The mother of Jesus is also portrayed as a mother to the Daughters of Mary. While she is physically unable to do anything to protect them, she is a symbol for hope. "'The people called her Our Lady of Chains. They called her that not because she wore chains... They called her Our Lady of Chains because she broke them.'" The Lady of Chains escaped from the chains every time the master tried to chain her. In this way, she gives hope and courage to the Daughters of Mary.

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  7. This quote represents Deborah, because she was Lily's mother, yet she was never there for her daughter like a mother should be. She left Lily. Lily mumbles to herself, “ Some mother” because she spent most of the small amount of time she had with Lily, away from her. Being called Lily's mom is a mockery, because she didn't mean to have Lily, and then she abandoned her after.
    The metaphor also represents Out Lady in Chains because she was their savior, yet she spent most of her time in chains, and escaping them. Its a mockery to call her savior, because she was in chains a lot, and unable to save people, let alone, help herself get away from the chains. The people gave her the name Lady of Chains, as a title, but that mocks her because she finally got out of chains, and is their savior. They can't have it both ways!

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  8. This quote introduced in chapter twelve relates to Debrahs role in Lily`s life. later on in the noval, Lily learns the truth behing her relationship with her mother. Similar to the quote, Debrah spent most of her time seperated from her daughter Lily. According to the quote, " her role is less than of a queen than mother of the hive, a title often accorded to her." Debrah never held a strong mother role in Lily`s life. another statement, "and yet this is something of a mockery because of her lack of maternal instints or the ability to take care of her young,"describes debrahs lack of involvment in Lily`s life. She had left her as a baby and now Lily has to grow up with no mother figure. This metaphor also represents the role of the boatwrights sisters charished Lady in chains statue. It is similar to Mary because she is less known as a mother by the boatwright sisters than she is for her story as lady of chains. The sisters do not aknowlege her role as mother than they do a sa leader of freedom.

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  9. The quote from the beginning of chapter nine represents Deborah because it says, "Her true role is less that of a queen than mother of the hive, a title often accorded (given to) her. And yet, this is something of a mockery because of her lack of maternal instincts or the ability to care for her young." because Deborah really did not know how to be a mother to her child, she left Lily when Lily was still young. Lily was unable to care for herself and the label of being a mother mocked her for it. T.Ray was no father to Lily, he basically just provided a home for her, not the love.The only part of the quote that really doesn't relate to Deborah is, "If the queen bee were smarter, she would probably be hopelessly neurotic (irrational, anxious). As is, she is shy and skittish, possibly because she never leaves the hive, but spends her days confined in darkness, a kind of eternal night, perpetually in labor.." Deborah does leave the home, or nest, and she was probably neurotic because she was in depression and had left Lily behind.
    The metaphor represents Our Lady in Chairs because she is treated like the mother although she does not really act like a mother, either. She is basically what people would call their "mother" so that they are looked upon. But she truly is not their mother. She cannot care for them, but Mary is the voice in their head that tells them what is right and what is wrong, just like a mother would do.

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  10. This relates to Deborah because Deborah never gave Lily attention or love. She was always all coped up like she was hiding something. She also never parented her child. When she died it probably left Lily to fight on her own (not that she was protecting Lily) but without a mother Lily learned to fight her own battles and take care of herself with T.Ray. Our Lady of chains has failed to care for her young when it comes to April and May because they commited suicide. Also she never seems to help anyone either.

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  11. This metaphor represents Deborah and Mary(Our lady in chains). It represents Deborah because she is in the darkness, and Lily doesnt know much about her. It represents our lady in chains because it says "As is, she is shy and skittish, possibly because she never leaves the hive, but spends her days confined in darkness, a kind of eternal night, perpetually in labor… Her true role is less that of a queen than mother of the hive, a title often accorded (given to) her. And yet, this is something of a mockery because of her lack of maternal instincts or the ability to care for her young." This means that she is shy, but never leaves her hive, which would refer to as where she lays. This is how this metaphor relates to Deborah and our lady in chains.

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  12. This metaphor represents Deborah because she was young when she had Lily. she knew something of how to take care of a child but not much. And she did try like every mother does. This also represents our lady of chains. They gave her such a great role in the community. They made her watch over them and take care of them. She did. She watched over them and kept them safe from the white people. Like a Queen is supposed to watch over her kingdom.

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  13. This metaphor relates to Deborah because she was given the title of “mom” when lily was born. Now I don’t think that it was the right choice to have Lily because she just left to August, may and June’s house. She left Lily as a baby at home with T.Ray, which is a really big mistake. She had no desire to take Lily with her, until August asked her where the baby is. She didn’t care that Lily was home with a very horrible father alone. “…Because of her lack of material instincts or the ability to care for her young.” This is what Deborah represents…lack for caring for the young. This also relates to the Black Mary because her job was to look over the young children. Even though she is dead, she is still in everyone’s hearts and will still be looking over everyone.

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  14. “If the queen bee were smarter she would probably be hopeless and neurotic (irrational, anxious). As is, she is shy and skittish, possibly because she never leaves the hive, but spends her days confined in darkness, a kind of eternal night, perpetually in labor… Her true role is less than of a queen than a mother of the hive, a title often accorded (given to) her. And yet, this is something of a mockery because of her lack maternal instincts or the ability to care for her young. “-The Queen Must Die. This metaphor represents Deborah’s life in many ways. It represents her life because she had lived in Virginia her whole life and then her friend convinced her to move to Sylvan. While in Sylvan she meet T-Ray and she got pregnant with Lilly and had to marry T-Ray. Her new job was a mother; just like the queen bee’s only job was to be a mother. After having Lilly Deborah was unhappy with her life and became very depressed and sad and felt the need to leave Lilly behind with T-Ray. She went to go visit August because she felt like she was in eternal darkness. Just like the queen bee that always felt that she was confined in eternal darkness. Deborah was so upset she left her only job behind, taking care of Lilly. She was depressed and wasn’t even thinking straight. Deborah was a very good mom and loved Lilly but during her time of being in eternal darkness she made a poor decision to leave Lilly behind with T-Ray. Like the queen bee she was lacking her ability to care for her young, Lilly.
    This metaphor also represents the Lady of Chains because she was also like a queen. She had many children and her job was to provide and take care of her children. Her job was not a job that was very highly respected or appreciated, it was not much of a queen job, but it was extremely important. “I’d visited our lady in the middle of the night how I’d placed my hand on that same spot. You are my mother I’ told her. You are the mother of thousands.” Said Lilly. This shows how much of an impact the lady of chains could make on somebody’s life. Many people turned to her for help, comfort, forgiveness, and many other things. The salves thought of her as their mother and savior, the Boatwright sister and the daughters of Mary think of the lady as their mother and now Lilly thinks of the lady has her mother.

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