part of the Great Migration from the South, which begun in 1916. Also, Ms. Bambara lived in Georgia when she attended Spelman College in Atlanta. She would then be familiar with what is now called African American Vernacular English because she would have heard it both in Harlem and in Georgia.

The language of the Cain family of "Blues Ain't No Mockin' Bird" is a patois, now termed African American Vernacular English. The dialect of the white men, known as Southern American English, is similar to that of the Cain family except that the Cains' dialect has the added influence of the Creole language, a mixture of English and a native African tongue spoken by slaves.

Because of the strong historical ties of African Americans to the South, the dialect that developed in their English is not dissimilar from that of the poorer whites who came from the British Isles. For these men worked on the plantations as overseers and other jobs on the land; thus, they had close contact with the slaves. These lower class British people would have spoken English that was removed from the standard, unlike the plantation owners. Since the South was an area that did not have the influx of other European immigrants, much of the English grammar and vocabulary used did not change as it did elsewhere. Consequently, some archaic verb forms and words were retained. Two examples are the word yonder and the use of archaic English past participles. (e.g., the use of saw rather than seen—Have you saw him? This usage is in Romeo and Juliet: Romeo's mother asks Benvolio, "Have you saw him today?").

Without a doubt, Bambara's skillful use of these dialects enriches her story and makes the telling of the narrative more effective. 

Though the setting of Toni Cade Bambara's "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird" is not fully identified, we can tell the story takes place in the U.S. South due to the two dialects found in the story. One dialect found in the story was named Ebonics by African-American linguists in 1973 and is also often called African American Vernacular English (AAVE) by other scholars today ("What is Ebonics (African American English)?," Linguistic Society of America). The second dialect is Southern American English. There are a lot of distinguishing characteristics of both dialects, such as dropped letters and changes in grammar.

In the short story, the Ebonics dialect is clearly depicted in the narrator's drop of the letterg in words with -ing endings, as we see in the following:

Similin man was smilin up a storm.

The dialect is also depicted when the narrator and the characters use nonstandard grammar. For example, Grannny uses the word ain't for the verb phrase are not in the following:

Go tell that man we ain't a bunch of trees.

The two obviously white men in the story use their own dialect, and it actually sounds very similar to the Cains' dialect, as the story is set in the South. Just like the Cains, the two white men, whom the narrator calls "smilin man" and "camera man," also drop the letter g from words with -ing endings:

We're filmin for the county, see.

An idiom is a frequently used phrase within a culture that is interpreted to mean something other than what the words in the phrase literally mean. Idioms are colorful expressions, meaning rich, vivid expressions, that have developed because people feel the need to make language more vivid and varied. Since language varies in different cultures, idioms and their meanings will vary in different cultures as well. One example of a common English idiom is "taken aback," which has become a cliche expression to mean someone is surprised or confused (Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms, 2003). It stems from the literal meaning of the word aback, meaning backward, which is no longer used in contemporary English.

Toni Cade Bambara's short story "Blues Ain't No Mockin' Bird" is full of dialect, and also contains a few idioms. The Woodland Hills School District of Pennsylvania points to one idiom: "with rocks all in his jaw." This idiom is very specific to the culture of the US Southern region in the story. The narrator explains that Granny frequently gets fed up with the—often racist—behavior of people around her, which is why the Cain family moves so much. The narrator further explains that each time Granny gets so angry she's ready to move again, Granddaddy first tries to pacify her, but by the next day he is "loadin up the truck, with rocks all in his jaw, madder than Granny in the first place." The idiomatic phrase "rocks in his jaw" doesn't literally mean the narrator's grandfather is sucking on rocks. Instead, it means his jawline is so tense from being angry that it looks like he has rocks in his jaw. In other words, it means he is very angry.

A second example of an idiom can be seen when Terry says, "I woulda gone upside her head with my fist and—." At this point in the narrative, Granny has just told the children her story of a person being disrespectful to a man who was suffering by taking photos of his attempt to jump off a bridge, and Cathy has added her own lesson of being disrespectful by telling the children her own version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." After Cathy explains that Goldilocks entered the bears' house uninvited, ate up the bears' groceries, and broke their furniture, Tyrone and Terry want to know what revenge the bears sought, and Terry uses an idiom to say he would have beat up Goldilocks. The idiom "upside the head" has come to refer to hitting someone on the side of the head. It was developed in America around the 1950s based on the actions of policemen: policemen used nightsticks to hit victims over the head, especially during civil rights protests (Ammer C., The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, 2003).

Titles in literature are often very significant, and the title of Toni Cade Bambara's story "Blues Ain't No Mockingbird" is no exception.  For those from the South, the mockingbird is a common sight; so, like the Finches in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, this bird's meaning is well-known.  It is a rather large bird that imitates the song of other birds, singing much of the day.  It is gentle and "sings its heart out" in imitation, but it is also very territorial and fiercely defends its nest.

The Blues also generate from the South; they began as an expression of the displaced African-American person.  The lyrics of the blues address life's troubles and people's personal relationships.  Very emotive, the blues are genuine expressions of feelings--They are not mockeries of real feeling.  In Toni Bambara's story, what Granny feels is real and should not be mocked.  When these feelings of Granny--her need for privacy, her demand for respect, and her pride are genuine; they are no mockery.  Her reaction to the intrusion of the white filmmakers, indeed, expresses the meaning of the title.

Toni Bambara wrote "Blues Ain't No Mocking Bird" during the height of the the Black Power movement in which black pride and autonomous black identity were core components of the movement. In the title "Blues Ain't No Mocking Bird," Bambara asserts that black suffering, and black existence in general, are not objects or entertainment for white consumption/imitation. Bambara's short story contributed to the powerful narrative that coursed through the Black Power movement in which black people prioritized social, political, creative, and economic power and autonomy over assimilation into white society. In "Blues Ain't No Mocking Bird," a black family is exploited by a white film crew who seek to capture their economic disenfranchisement. The strong black grandma in the story demands respect and asserts her strength by refusing to acquiesce to the prying eyes of the white film crew.

Published in 1971, like many of Bambara's narratives, this story reflects issues that are relevant to the African-American culture.  At the time of her writing, the Black Power Movement was growing stronger.  Among other things, this movement promulgated the importance of self-definition and pride.  Bambara joined the cause of expressing this awareness of a unique African-American culture and traditional oral expression. 

Bambara's depiction of Granny and her courageous resistance to the photographers' efforts to patronize her--when they call her "aunty," she replies, "Your mama and I are not related"--as well as their efforts to exploit her family by taking pictures of them as though they are curiosities are thematic of both black pride and self-definition as well as the assertion of the power of the female. In addition, the narrator Cathy's astute understanding of the conflict in the events establishes her as not only a strong female, but also as an effective storyteller.  Thus, "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird" underscores the independence and pride of the African-American, male and female, and it also places an emphasis upon the importance of storytelling as a tradition.

Flashback is an interruption in the chronological order of a narrative to describe an event that happened earlier.  A flashback gives readers information that may help explain the main events of the story. Usually flashbacks occur with a character who is the narrator in the story; however, in Bambara's "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird" the flashback is narrated by Granny rather than the young girl who narrates the rest of the story.

Annoyed by the two men who appear in her yard with cameras, filming their home and possessions, Granny recalls a memory of having been on a bridge where a man was going to jump.  A crowd formed, watching the man and a minister and a policeman who tried to talk the man out of committing suicide.  His woman was nearby, biting into her hand in nervousness.  And, while the man was ready to jump and the two other men talked to the man while his woman stood nervously by, there was a person with a camera, Granny says, 

"taking pictures of the man in his misery about to jump, cause life so bad.  This person takin up the whole roll of film practically.  But savin a few, of course."

This flashback, of course, reveals much about Granny and her reactions to the men with the camera who are on her property.  To Granny, like the person on the bridge, these men have no respect for the private actions of others, and merely want the opportunity to sensationalize life and sell their pictures.  In short, Granny finds the men with the camera despicable; she has no tolerance for their patronizing behavior towards her and her family.

Toni Cade Bambara's short story "Blues Ain't No Mockingbird" does an effective job of portraying the fact that those who are better off have a tendency to mock and oppress those who are worse off. But more importantly, it also does an effective job of portraying the strength of character and pride that even those who are poor can still have, just like Granny and Granddaddy.

In the short story, the two men filming the family as the children play and Granny makes Christmas cakes claim that they are making a film for the county for the "food stamp campaign" (p. 954). However, what's interesting is that they refer to Granny as "aunty," which as a study guide informs us in footnote 1, was actually "a derogatory term of address once commonly used for black women in the South" (p. 954). Hence, whatever the two camera men are doing, it's certainly not out of respect for the family or others like them in need. They further hint at exactly which side of the food stamp campaign they stand on when they note that Granny grows her own vegetables and that "if more folks did that, see, there's be no need--" What he is starting to say here that is cut short by Granny's silent stare is that there would be no need for food stamps at all. Hence, the two men are certainly not filming the family out of benevolence; instead, they're trying to prove the family is not in need and that there is no need for the county to start spending tax payers' money to distribute food stamps to the poor.

However, Granny is certainly not the type of disadvantaged person who stands by and takes abuse. Instead, she is characterized as strong, full of beneficial pride, and able to tell right from wrong. She portrays her strength of character by running the men off her property and relating a story to the children of a man she once witnessed taking pictures of another suffering man who was about to commit suicide. The moral of the story is that a person's suffering, or a person's "blues," are not something to be "mocked," as is implied by the title.