Reflection: Writing My Literacy Narrative (Final)

RAsheda Young

ENGL B2802

Basic Writing Theory & Pedagogy

Writing My Literacy Narrative

Writing my literacy narrative has been a labor of love.  My theme this semester has been to be an honest student.  Being an honest student means admitting my weaknesses and strengths, asking for help when I need it, and removing my ego in order to learn.  It's been working.  When I sat down to write my literacy narrative the first time, I needed to write that story about how I learned to hate myself and how I learned to love myself.  Although I did not execute the assignment correctly, writing about literacy, it was still important for me to get my ideas out about self-hate.  I had to confront that part about myself.  I used the book the Bluest Eye to construct my narrative around the main character Pecola Breedlove who begets nothing but hate despite her last name.

Once the draft was finished, I remember feeling powerful.  I felt like I accomplished something magnificent—being honest.  I know it can be revised more thoroughly, but still, I feel like I accomplished a milestone: being honest and transparent. 

In order to write this draft, I began reading The Bluest Eye again.  I needed to understand why this book resonated so deeply within me.  As a graduate student and mother of two children, when I read this book this time around, it affected me differently.  I understood that the characters were not born with hate.  Hate was given to them.  In turn, they gave it to others.  In my case, hate was given to me by girls and boys in high school for being "pretty" and "rich".  Hate was also given to me from people in my community and “friends” at Hampton University.  Much like Pecola, I wanted to fit in and be accepted, but I couldn’t.  Their self-hate absorbed them, spilled over their scorned lips, and fell into my lap.  The concept of self-hate didn’t truly crystalize until I wrote my narrative.

When I received my professor's feedback and better understood the assignment, I wrote another draft that focused on how I learned to read and write Legalese to save my son Malik.  Writing that narrative was difficult as well.  It forced me to be organized in my thinking; therefore, I began to speak my ideas into a tape recorder.  I wrote my words down as I heard them. Then I revised my ideas.  This essay was equally challenging because it was emotional.  I wrote about overcoming physical, mental and emotional abuse by son’s father.  For a short time period, my children and I did not have our own place.  I slept on a hardwood floor and they slept on a twin sized air mattress.  Most of this time, I was sad, but determined not to go back to my son’s father.  

Another reason that writing this paper was difficult is that I had to organize all the times I went to court against a man I once loved.  I had to clearly demonstrate how this man was able to convince a judge to vacate all of his child support arrears.  I had very little money to retain a lawyer nor did I understand how to articulate my needs to the court before a judge; however, I persevered and eventually won in court.

While I crafted my essay, I learned that it’s okay for me to be honest in my writing.  I stopped trying to fake smart and just be smart.  I decided to write authentically by including dialogue.  I wanted to show the characters: Malik, my attorney and the judges.  I used language that fits my linguistic community and just stayed true to myself.  Much like Gloria Anzadula or Geneva Smitherman I chose to write with a tongue of fire: mine.  Similar to Anadula’s determination to speak Pachuco or Chicano Spanish, I chose to write in my language, and when I did, my writing was much more fluent. I enjoyed discovering this honest part of myself.

I learned that a good literacy narrative tells a well-told story that “set[s] up some sort of situation that needs to be resolved” (Bullock 28).  My literacy narrative retells the story of how I saved Malik from going to his father.  I had to learn how to write and speak Legalese in order to keep my son in my primary care. 

Vivid detail is another feature of writing a literacy narrative.  Using “details can bring a narrative to life for readers by giving them vivid mental images of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of the world in which your story takes place” (Bullock 28).  I decided to do this to the best of my ability by describing my fear in the court room, driving home during a snow storm when I finally left Malik, and my interactions that I had with the court clerk.

“By definition, a literacy narrative tells something that the writer remembers about learning to read or write….The writer needs to make clear why the incident matters to him or her” (Bullock 28).  I tried desperately to reveal why learning to read and speak Legalese was significant to me.  When I first began going to court, I did not understand the paperwork, how to present ideas before the court, understand various terminology, or write a Letter of Certification to the judge outlining my court appearances and history.  Once I learned how to read and write like a lawyer, getting various judges to believe me became a lot easier.

While writing my literacy narrative was a labor of love, it was an enjoyable experience.  I learned about myself as a writer: I need to speak my ideas into a tape recorder first.  This way, my ideas will stay on topic and it provides a rough outline.  I also learned that I am a strong woman.  I won my case against one of the most powerful attorney’s in the state of New Jersey by using the strategy from my lawyer: paint Malik as a liar using court documents and credible sources.  Writing my literacy narrative was more than an act of writing.  It fulfilled one of my goals: writing authentically, honestly and with purpose.

Works Cited

Bullock, Richard.  The Norton Field Guide to Writing.  New York: W.W. Norton, 2009.  Print.