Haunted Houses: "Bone Black"

"Bone Black" by Bell Hooks

At the beginning of the story Hooks tells the story of a controlling father. "They", I pressume, are referred to the children of the mother and father who are fighting. The first sentence says that " they have never heard their [parents]...fighting" That made me wonder if whether or not their parents where keeping that part of their relationship hidden from their kids? or Whether this was realy the very first time the parents had a fight. Then Hooks shifts the attention from the children,"they",to the daughter,"she". I was confused when I first read this section. At first I thought the "she" was referring to the mother when come to find out it was the daughter.

As I read on, It seemed that the "she" shifted from the daughter to the mother of "they". I noticed how the father seems to constantly feel angry. He comes home angry and displaces his anger on those in the family because he is hurt. He probably has alot on his shoulders and doesn't know how to cope with it. He likes to feel that he is the "Alpha-male" and it makes him feel powerful.The daughter seems to feel the mother's pain and wants to help her. The daughter, who becomes "I" as the pov shifts, can't bear to go visit her mother in the hospital, and is feeling betrayed by her siblings.

In the second part of the story, I found it interesting that the daughter felt like she should "rescue" her mother from her father's threats. I've learned that sometimes in most dysfunctional families, the children end up taking over the roles of the parents. They feel like it's "their" duty to make sure the family stays together and that the younger siblings are taken care of, robbing childhoods of the older siblings. Another part of the story that interested me was when the father was kicking the mother out of the house. The mother had some hope that her brother was going to be there and rescue her relationship and everything was going to be okay. Come to find out her brother wasn't much help at all. This reminds of how females are when it comes to their men. We can always rely on our fathers, brothers, or uncles to come support and back us up if we ever have problems with our relationship( especially if it's physical). The end of the story was in favor of the husband. The daughter is upset and angry that her mother is still under her dad's authority. One day she rebels against her mother and disclaims her. The daughter feels guilty for the pain she caused her mother and is willing to be punished because of it. I believe that alot of families have these secrets that they keep and feel like they need to hold their tongue so the family won't be looked down upon.