A Piece of Mine Essay Example

A Piece of Mine Essay Example A Piece of Mine Paper A Piece of Mine Paper However it takes a real artist, true to the craft, to create a masterpiece that is so raring and defying that calling It a short story would be in Insult to the author and the work. Stories that have a combination of rhythm and emotion can only hold the title being called a parable. And with parables comes life learned lessons that are disturbed by tough love or falling down a few times to understand the saying You want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. All these things are what J. California Copper displays in her 1984 book entitled A Piece of Mine. A Piece of Mine is a collection of stories that describe the wages of sin and the rewards of patience, the occasional sweet taste of revenge In a moral universe In which Justice operates independently of social and economic forces. The story beings in a little town where everybody knows everybody. So when you read you can relate to the sin of the eye can cause you pain with Mary and Mr.. Charlie in $100 and Nothing. Or the bittersweet term of Lovelace that Laid Mae had to come to terms with in Sins leave Scars. Or the true meaning of friend to the end in A Jewel for a Friend. All the stories have some kind of lesson that you can take from It. The style Is deceptively simple and direct. The characters are never so deep that even a rich chuckle at foolish person foolishness cannot be heard. The dialogue that each of the characters brought in each of the stories was one of the reasons that I enjoyed the book. A lot of times you get stories that sometime you have to decipher who the narrator is, whos saying what. In $100 and Nothing the narrator gave you an distinct picture of what to expect through the book. The narrator told you that they live In a town. It wasnt a big town nor was It a little one. It was In the middle. The language and use of words were amazing. In my mind I could Image an old woman sitting on her porch telling stones to people within the town. Young old, rich poor, just sitting and telling stories. With the dialogue you were able to catch every emotion of each of the character. Going from excited to having remorse you were able to pick up on it and keep up. In $100 and Nothing the narrator really caught the meaning of telling a story and relating to what the reader would say If they were right there In that moment. L went home to lunch with Mary once and he got mad cause we woke him up as we was talking botfly and eating. Lord, did he talk about Marry Talked about her skinny legs and under her clothes and her kinky hair Then she tired to buy him something nice and he told her to give it to the Salvation Army cause he didnt want it Anti he something! Somebody trying to be good to you and you anti got sense enough to understand kindness and love. Another thing that I enjoyed was the repetition that the story had. Everyman Charles would say something about or In negatively to Mary, It always retreat to ten title AT ten story. Never someone loud as him about how he felt about helping his wife he would always respond angrily l can take $100 and nothing and have more than this in a year!! One thing about repetition is that the more you keep saying it, itll eventually become like a non- stop record thats on repeat. Once its in your head it can eventually come to life like life inmates art. Eventually Mary came to terms that after all the evil things that Charles called her she made him eat his words. She took his clothes and Just like he said shed gave it to the Salvation Army. She shut down her store that she had started and took all her money out and left Charles a note that she was to read when she would pass. She died of a broken heart and Mr.. Charles thought that he was going to get the rest of her money but he look surprise when he saw that everything that he had said to her he did. He told her once that he would rather sleep with a boulder than her. So she went and found rocks within her yard and laid them in a bed with a note. Everything that he said she did it and left a note reminding him of what he wanted. She wanted to love him and he gave her exactly what she needed to make him happy. Moral of the story: Life and death lies in the tongue. Dont write a check your behind cant cash. One thing that I thought was bizarre was a poem that my teacher wrote and how it corresponded to the Scars for Love. Although within the poem it really didnt go into detail about the girl like the story, it kind of reminded me of the same script different cast theory. Laid Mae, the main character in the story was a pretty girl that was the youngest of nine. She developed at an early age and that aught the attention of a certain gas station. In the poem we knew that the girl was in a catholic school and that she had a scent on her that only a gym teacher could sniff out. The only difference with Laid Mae was that she was damaged brutally by the wife of the owner of the filling station. It left a scar on her face that she felt that had made her deformed her for life. Now the girl in the poem may not have had a physical deformity, but metal and emotionally she was scared. Laid Mae had gone through so much that she eventually became out of tune to what the world really had or her. She wanted to graduate from high school and have something to do with her life. But because of the survivable that life had thrown her thing quite didnt go the way she planned. She would say Life anti sit, you know that? It anti never done a bucking thing for me!! The narrator takes in what Laid Mae says and instead of listening to what a woman scorned has to say she simply end the story with this; Some people watch things happen. Some people make things happen. Some people dont even know nothing happen. Overall after reading the book, I have found a lace to add Ms. Cooper in my top eight on namespace. The way that she pieced every story in the book reminded me so much of a patchwork quilt. Within the African American culture, the quilt was something that the women of the family created and passed down from generation to generation adding something to it to make the story come alive. Thats what J. California Copper did. With every story you were able to identify with the entire layout of the story. The stories that were displayed in the book reminded me of something you would hear at a town bar or pool hall with the coals and each given there own opinion on to what happen or what they would have done if it was them. Copper has caught the true essence of what story telling is. It isnt about making up different scenarios and coming up with one sure plan to make everything okay I a oh taking ten good Witt ten Dad, ten ugly Witt ten Duty, Ana making reality a beautiful nightmare that the reader can sleep pleasantly too. So overall what is that J. California Cooper has in common with Alice, Zorn, and Beets? There all in a category by themselves.