(Im)Perfect Peace

"Momma! Why didn’t you love me? That’s all I ever wanted. Somebody to tuck me in at night and read me bedtime stories. Like white folks do with their kids. But you never did. I tried to clean up so good that you’d have to love me, but I guess I never did it good enough.  And you know what’s funny? I woulda done anything, I mean anything, to get your attention...” (146).

This is the scene depicted in Perfect Peace, after Perfect's true gender identity has been revealed and Emma Jean has retreated from her family's shunning to her mother's grave site. Up until this point in the text, Emma Jean has refused to speak with her mother, carrying a long-held resentment against her for being mistreated and disfavored over her other sisters in her childhood.

Her damaged relationship with her mother makes her question her relationship with her own children. I think this particular passage defines community as a body of power. While we think of community and familial ties as a means of bonding and togetherness, conversely, it has the power to divide and disenfranchise.

We have seen other instances of this in our reading: from Fun Home and Alison Bechdel's strained relationship with her homosexual father to I'm the One I Want and Margaret Cho's relationship with her mother. Children disassociating from their parents and parents shunning their children. Eventually, Emma Jean is hated by her family for what she has done and, in doing so, perpetuates the relationship she hated and hoped to change with her mother.

Daniel Black's Perfect Peace is a story of familial bonds and the shunning and togetherness of community. I hope everyone enjoys their families and has a great Thanksgiving break! Hope to recover from a turkey coma before classes start up!