Friday, January 8, 2010

Title in the Story

The title of a book.

Oftentimes, you'll find the title right in the text of the story. Sometimes, the result can seem sloppy; too obvious. Sometimes, it can be stunning.

In Marked by Fire, Joyce Carol Thomas incoporates her book title (or rather, a slight variation of it) early on in the story. And she does this all in a style that works well with the setting of the narrative.

The book begins with the main character being born in a cotton field in Oklahoma in 1951. Thomas uses single sentences as each neighbour woman retells a part of the events surrounding the birth. The beautiful sing-song style harkens back to the storytelling tradition of the African-American slaves.

Far from seeming forced, this exchange becomes an organic and natural part of the book. Just plain, beautiful writing.
In Ponca City, in the cool of the evening, the older people invariably sat out on their porches to reinterate the events of the day. They wanted to witness all that went on with neighbors. They were particularly interested in the new baby, Abyssinia. The women of Ponca City considered themselves midwives-in-common at her birth.

"Remember it like it was only yesterday," one of them commented.

"Born in the cotton field."

"Came here marked, too."

"Marked by the fire!"

"Baptized with the fire!"

"Foreman built the fire."

"Boiled water for the birthing."

"Patience spread out on her pallet of cotton sacks."

"And here comes our baby."

"An ember jumped out of the blaze and branded the child."

"Marked at birth!"

"A birthmark."

"Placed the new child on a soft sack of cotton."

"Laid her in a cotton manger."

"A black girl in a manger."

[Thomas, Joyce Carol. Marked by Fire (1982), pp.14-15.]

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