Dana From Silver Sparrow Analysis

A secret or an unknown? This is the question Dana from Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones is faced with. Her father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist. His first wife, Laverne, has a daughter, and so does his second wife, Gwen. Dana and her mother, Gwen, know about the first family, but the first family does not know about them. On a Wednesday after Dana had come home from kindergarten, she presented her father with her drawings from school. The drawing she had left for the end was the picture of her family. In this painting, she portrayed her dad, both his wives, and both his daughters. After seeing the picture, James tells Dana how she cannot talk about him or his other family in relation to herself. When Dana asks, “Your other wife and your other …show more content…
Language is symbolic in that we can represent abstract concepts such as ideas, objects, and feelings with words. Words are only representative, because it is impossible to see someone’s exact thoughts. This, however, can leave the same statement open to many different interpretations. Additionally, a connotation, or an emotional or psychological association a word carries, can affect the interpretation of a word. Words that, by definition, mean the same thing can sometimes take on a positive or negative feelings. For example, Dana and her mother “surveil” Chaurisse and Laverne, whereas if her father knew, he would call it “spying” (5). Dana makes this distinction because she believes the word spy is too harsh for what she and her mother do. Although the words can be used as synonyms, this subtle difference in connotation evokes different feelings. The literal meaning of both spy and surveil is to observe secretively. The connotation of spy invokes thoughts of a person who is sneaking around, this word that make you think negatively. No honest or good person would be sneaking. On the other hand, surveil summons ideas of close observation. Observation is seen as a healthy and natural thing. In this instance, surveil is the positive term, whereas spy is the negative term. The author of Silver Sparrow, Tayari Jones, once said in an interview that she no longer uses the term half-sister when referring to her sister because her nephew once …show more content…
A secret is something that is kept hidden or unexplained; An unknown is something that is simply not known. At first glance these words appear to mean the same thing. However, the connotation of each word gathers opposing responses, these can be positive, negative, or neutral. The word secret implies that the thing being kept a secret is done so intentionally; secrets are seen as bad and unhealthy. However, the word unknown holds a more neutral feeling. An unknown is simply not within the scope of knowledge. An unknown is not a bad thing, and, in some cases, people strive to uncover the