One of the main themes of “Snakes” is the struggle for control over the Black female body. This can be seen in the Grandmother's desire to control Tara's aesthetics, and also in her attempt to use the black female body as a vehicle through which she can also control her daughter. The desire to regain control and agency manifests itself physically when Tara jumps from a tree, injuring herself. The relationship between the control of aesthetics and the control of the physical movement of the body itself during a moment where the Grandmother locks Tara and her cousin in the bathroom, “Once we spent an entire morning locked in the bathroom. I'd been ordered not to come out until I had done something with my hair.” This moment creates a relationship between aesthetics and behavior and therefore physical control of the black female body. Additionally, because hair, a physical attribute that has come to be a source of pride and individuality for black females as well as a symbol of power in general, is what is being controlled in this instance, this interaction can be seen as the Grandmother attempting to take agency and power from Tara as well as compensate for her own lack of control. This can also be seen in the Grandmother's attempt to use Tara's body as a vehicle through which to control her mother. Later on in the short story, the narrator herself (Tara) recognizes that her Grandmother saw her as a type of do-over. However, by using Tara as a type of vehicle, she dehumanizes her and uses her. In the moments before the climax of the story in which the Grandmother removes all of Tara's hair, the two characters have a fight over Tara's mother in which Tara states, “Daddy says you took everything from my mother”. The immediate reaction to this is to cut off Tara's hair. Again, we see that the Grandmother associates a relationship between Tara's defiance and refusal to be used as a vehicle and the very symbol of black female pride. Again the Grandmother uses Tara's body to entrap her and control her physically. This moment is described by Evans as, “She started snipping quickly, unevenly, the rhythm of her anger punctuated by the growing pile of tight black curls on the floor. It didn't occur to me to run. It didn't occur to me that there was anywhere to go”. Tara's feeling of entrapment stems from her Grandmother's domination of her physical appearance. Tara's complete loss of agency in this moment results in a physical freezing – she cannot move and loses all power in a relationship that she already lacked much authority. Her only escape is to be physically lead away by her cousin. This lack of agency then physically manifests itself in the moment that Tara jumps from a tree, leading to her Grandmother's loss of power, but only at the hands of her daughter/Tara's mother. The struggle for control over the black female body takes the form of a relationship being formed between black aesthetics and physical control and domination as well as an attempt on the part of the Grandmother to use this relationship to deprive Tara of her individuality and free thinking. Ultimately, this struggle ends with Tara being forced to take extreme measures after undergoing a traumatic event which represents the quintessential symbol of white control over the black female body.




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    Snakes

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    April 2012

    Katie Kieft

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.