BookRags.com Literature Guides Literature
Guides
Criticism & Essays Criticism &
Essays
Questions & Answers Questions &
Answers
Lesson Plans Lesson
Plans
My Bibliography Periodic Table U.S. Presidents Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-Up
Research Anything:        
History | Encyclopedias | Films | News | Create a Bibliography | More... Login | Register | Help

Not What You Meant?  There are 37 definitions for Virginia.

Hamilton, Virginia (Edith) 1936–: Critical Essay by David Guy

Print-Friendly  Order the PDF version  Order the RTF version
About 2 pages (653 words)
Virginia Hamilton Summary

Bookmark and Share Know this topic well? Help others and get FREE products!

Tree—short for Teresa—is a black girl with a world of problems. She has never known a father. Her mother is a nurse and stays away for weeks at a time. School means little to Tree. Not only must she cook and keep house, but she has to take care of her older brother Dab, who is marginally retarded and also exhibits symptoms of another illness; he cringes from light, grows absent-minded and distracted, sometimes experiences severe pain. Tree and her brother are extremely close; in the small apartment where they live, he has been her whole world. At the age of 14, she seems ready to expand her horizons.

Such facts are not unusual in a novel for young people, which characteristically loads its protagonist down with a host of problems as if to gather as many sympathetic readers as possible. Where these books seem contrived they are often just being didactic, teaching their readers the lessons that the characters learn. In the case of Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush, since Tree justifiably resents her mother's absence, we would expect the book to explain why her mother—M'Vy, as Tree calls her—is so often gone. M'Vy has always been distant from Dab, and Tree must come to understand that distance too. Tree has suddenly realized she knows nothing about her father, or her mother's family. She is beginning to long for a larger world, for a real family, for some respect as a person, for a little romance….

This is a free excerpt of 245 words. There are 653 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.

Read the rest of this Criticism with our Hamilton, Virginia (Edith) 1936–: Critical Essay by David Guy Access Pass.

Ask any question on Virginia Hamilton and get it answered FAST!
Answer questions in BookRags Q&A and earn points toward
discounted or even FREE Study Guides and other BookRags products!
Learn more about BookRags Q&A
Copyrights
Hamilton, Virginia (Edith) 1936–: Critical Essay by David Guy from Literature Criticism Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.



Join BookRagslearn moreJoin BookRags


About BookRags | Customer Service | Report an Error | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy