Definition: Also called anastrophe, reversal of normal word order

It can also be applied to characters and their situations

Inversion

“We gots two children to leave or take” (Rawles 82).

Significance: Shows the tough choice that Sadie has to make has to decide whether to leave her children or take them

with her.

Impact/Influence: The inversion of syntax puts emphasis on the “leave or

take” (Rawles 82). Makes that the focus of the sentence

Theme: It is important and difficult to keep family together.

Dialect

How does the language/writing style of the text reveal the values of the society of the literature?Importance of family for slavesDifficult to keep it togetherShows that family is valueSadie attempts to hold her family values closeLiterary Criticism:human beings treated as chattel;

bodies used and bodies sold; children bred like cattle; families torn apart; beatings and torture and sometimes murder. We hear of all these atrocities in Sadie's restrained but never resigned voice (Cheuse).

Essential Question 4:

“Soon she [Sadie] gonna turn white and think we her slaves” (Rawles 49).

Significance: This shows the inversion of Sadie’s life with the life of a white person. The slave community thinks that Sadie is becoming like their white masters because of all the time she spends in the house with them.

Influence/Impact: The inversion is ironic because Sadie is the farthest from being like the white masters. She is compassionate and every bit as much as a slave as the others. Just because she spends time around the whites doesn’t mean she is turning white. Sadie is seen as an outcast and lives a lonely life. This shows the conformity of the slave community because they refuse to accept anyone who could possibly be different.

Literary Criticism: “…many other characters, for good or evil, come alive. Says Jim’s granddaughter, when she hears her grandmother begin to speak of slavery times, ‘Spirits come in and fill the room with the cool of thy loneliness.’ They do. They do indeed” (“Review: Nancy Rawles’ novel ‘My Jim’”). This quote shows just how lonely slavery can be. The only person to truly rely on is

yourself because you never knew who could be gone the next day. Or who is going to turn his back on you.

Theme: Sadie vs. slave community

Character Roles

Select a character and explain how the author paints a picture of him or her using language. Rawles portrays Sadie as an outcast even

amongst her fellow slaves. She is lonely and has no one to turn to accept

for Jim and even he leaves her. She is strong because she has the strength to

keep on living even when everyone turned their backs on her.

Essential Question 5