Essay Questions

Explain the type of allusion which Ward applies in reference to 1969.

Historical allusion: “In 1969, when my father was thirteen and my mother eleven, Hurricane Camille hit. It flattened everything, wiped away the landscape with an indomitable hand. I imagine everyone in south Mississippi must have thought the world was at an end.” Alluding to the hurricane brings forth the historic background of Ward’s parents’ childhood. Also, the allusion depicts the tragedies which her parents weathered.

How comparable are Ward’s parents’ childhoods?

Ward elucidates, “In some ways, both of my parents were given adult responsibility too early, a necessity of growing up in fatherless household. Those shy children they’d been on St. Stephen’s when they met had grown and changed in their teenage years. My grandmother Celestine treated my father as the man of the house and the family, as an adult equal, since she’d married and divorced his father, my grandfather Jerry, and was raising her children on her own.” The absenteeism of father figures in both households obliges both of Ward’s parents to forfeit their childhoods and to take on accountabilities of adults. Accordingly, the nonattendance of fathers induces children to mature speedily.

Expound the implication of “the memorial shirt.”

Ward elucidates, “The memorial shirt is most common at funerals for young people…In this way, the young memorialize the young. On his memorial T-shirt, Rog has a charming grin.” The shirt enables possessors to retain the deceased persons’ commemorations. The shirts are corresponding to the souvenir which will stockpile all the memories of a departed person. Owning the shirt is tantamount to retaining a piece of the deceased person.