As Bambara's intent was to tell the community's story, issues of narration are extremely significant. From the "Prologue's" invitation for the reader to join the story, to the vacillation between Marzala and Spence's perspectives, to the reader's revised role in the "Epilogue," the shifts in narration provide an intriguing model for exploring the role of the writer. The reader is invited into the novel so that the community's story will be heard; Marzala's and Spence's words become the medium through which the silence is broken. Ultimately, Those Bones Are Not My Child represents one family's struggle to find their son, and, in the process, unify the entire community. The Atlanta of Bambara's novel is one steeped in racial conflict and division, tension that threatens the future of the African American community. Struggling in silence, the members of the community have no recourse and suffer until they...