Dorothy Allison 2

I kind of want to go off of what our last in-class writing assignment was and talk about the two or three things i know for sure. One that really stood out to me was, "Two or three things I know for sure, and one is that I would rather go naked than wear the coat the world has made for me." and what i got from that quote is Dorothy saying that with everything that people say about her and percieve her as, she would rather go "naked" than walk around with all of these accusations about her. She wants to live pure and have nobody judge her. If people are walking around judging her then these rumors or sayings are going to get around to people and people are going to look at her in a way where she is judged on what other people say and not on who Dorothy really is. Going naked is like a fresh start. People looking at her with a blank slate and not having things said about her.

Dorothy Allison

With reading the first half of the book I'm a little confused. Why would Dorothys family be so mean to her. Like when I believe it is her aunt that is combing her hair and said to her that atleast she is smart. Which means she is calling Dorothy ugly. Why would anyone want to put a little girls hopes down? She was in 3rd grade at that time so she was around 7 or 8 years old. I remember when I was that young, everything negative someone would say I would take to heart because your so young that you don't know any better. Maybe she was saying that because all the women in the family get treated badly and aren't pretty so she is trying to let Dorothy know not to get her hopes up because she is just going to end up like the rest of the women and get called a bitch by her husband and not have a great life. But what confuses me is why she wouldn't want to give Dorothy confidence. Whether Dorothy had a good life or not, when someone keeps putting you down like that, it makes you insecure and doesn't give you much hope for your life.