The Wedding p.60-120

Summary

Shelby starts to get a lot of drama from her family about marrying Meade. Her sister Liz disapproves of her marrying Meade becuase she thinks shelby is in denial from being more attracted to black men. Her mother also disapproves of Meade becuase he is poor and his family in not well known in their society. As ayoung family Sheby had always thought that she had a perfect family until her sister told her the reality of their family. the reality was that their dad was cheating on their mom with a black woman who worked in his doctor's office as a secretary. The weird part is that their mom is affair of the affiar that the dad is having with the secretary from his job in the hospital. Shelby' father arrived in Cape Co for shelby's summer wedding and ends up reflecting on his life so far. He almost didn't marry Shelby's mom becuase when they met in college he was in love with another girl named Sabina and she was black. Because shelby's mom's father was the president of the college her father felt like he was obligated to marry her mother. Mostly due to the fact the if he wanted to stay in that college and become a doctor that was the sacrifice he was going to have to make. Ever since Shelby's parents had her and her sister they began to drift apart becuase they were in love.

Quotation

" The ferry landing was behind him, and he could just make out a boat in the distance, coming with a fresh brace of day trippers from Cape Cod"(West 102).

Reaction

the description of the scenary sounds really pretty. Especially since i have been to Cape Cod i can see what the speaker was seeing while standing on the beach. I think that the boat in the distance can foreshadow the following issues that are going to follow what is going on. The quote itself speaks to me becuase it sybolizes what her father is leaving behind by kind of abandoning her family even though not in a physical sense.

The Wedding By: Dorothy West pg. 1-60

The Wedding is a book surrounding a colored family and their lives from slavery through the 50s. Written by Dorothy West, the story is about the Coles family and their last daughter Shelby who is soon to be married to Meabe Wyler, a white jazz musician. The story starts off at the oval where the Coles are occupied for the summer for Shelby to be wedded. Lute Mcneil and his three daughters are also introduced in the story with Lute braiding his daughter's hair. Shelby starts to think about when she was a young girl and got lost by trying to return a lost dog back home. Shelby's great-grandmother who is a white woman, her dying wish is to see Shelby marry a white man so that the next generation of their family could be whiter looking. Shelby's great-grandmother had a daughter named Josephien who was very sick and ended marrying a black man named Hannibal because she was poor. Josephien and hannibal had a baby which was Shelby's mom. Shelby's mom married a white man and then they had Shelby and her sisiter. Is the summer wedding really going to take place?

"So they slowly rocked in their chairs, staring at the incomming tied and praying it held no cruel surprises" (West 64).

The quote speaks to me because it is describing an action. I love when authors use literary devices to place a setting. And the word slowly can impact the rest of the book dramatically. But I wonder if there are going to be any cruel surprises.