To Da-duh in Memoriam

by Paule Marshall

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To Da-duh in Memoriam

The primary literary technique used in "To Da-duh in Memoriam" is contrast. The author juxtaposes the differing worlds of Da-duh and her granddaughter, highlighting the cultural and generational...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

The relationship between the granddaughter and Da-duh changes when the granddaughter describes the marvels of New York. Da-duh, who prides herself on the wonders of Barbados, feels overpowered when...

2 educator answers

To Da-duh in Memoriam

The mood of To Da-duh in Memoriam is characterized by youthful excitement, stubborn arrogance, and competitiveness. This mood shifts to include regret and guilt after the rivalry is won, and...

2 educator answers

To Da-duh in Memoriam

"To Da-duh in Memoriam," set in 1937 Barbados, highlights cultural contrasts between the narrator's life in Brooklyn and her grandmother Da-duh's traditional Barbados. The story unfolds through a...

3 educator answers

To Da-duh in Memoriam

The description of the grandmother's death following the appearance of planes evokes a sense of fear and disorientation. This contrast between the natural Caribbean environment and the artificial...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

Da-duh sees the fierceness in her granddaughter’s eyes when they first meet in the shed at the boat landing. Da-duh is immediately challenged to teach her granddaughter a lesson and takes her...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

In "To Da-duh in Memoriam," the conflict between the narrator and her grandmother, Da-duh, arises from generational and cultural differences. The narrator, from New York City, embodies modernity and...

8 educator answers

To Da-duh in Memoriam

Da-duh asks her if she has anything as nice where she comes from. When the narrator goes to visit her grandmother, Da-duh, the old woman gives her a tour through the grounds of her Barbados. ...

2 educator answers

To Da-duh in Memoriam

Paule Marshall’s story describes the narrator’s first and final meeting with her grandmother, referred to as Da-duh. The narrator—then nine years old—and her parents live in New York, while the...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

In the short story "To Da-duh in Memoriam" by Paule Marshall, the first line contains the phrase "I remember," which indicates that the narrator is looking back into the past. Later in the first...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

Da-duh seems to be concerned and frightened by the stories about New York for a couple of reasons.  First of all, even though she tries to convince the narrator that there is no place like...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

The first impression the narrator receives of Da-duh is that—despite her age—she is strong, disciplined, and determined. This is evidenced in the way the narrator describes Da-duh the first time...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

The clash of two different worlds is evident through the subtle struggle between the grandmother and her grandchild, the narrator. Almost from their first conversation together, both seek to show...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

The narrator struggles to come to terms with the “shadow” that hovers over Da-duh’s death. They fervently desire that the natural landscape of palms and cane will positively inform the...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

The narrator crosses an obvious border of going from the United States to Barbados in the Caribbean, but she also crosses the "borders" that divide one culture from another and that separate one...

2 educator answers

To Da-duh in Memoriam

It appears that the narrator promises to send Da-duh a postcard of the Empire State Building because she wants to prove that her assertion is right, namely that the Empire State Building is even...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

Paul's Marshall's story is concerned with the relationship between a woman and her grandmother, both in life, when the woman was a child, and after the elderly woman's death. As an adult, the...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

Da-duh thought her granddaughter was lying because she had never been in a big city or seen skyscrapers.

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

Marshall establishes a series of opposites in the story to show the difference between the past and present, the old and the new, and the young and the old.  Through the granddaughter,...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

When Da-duh first meets her young granddaughter in the shed where Da-duh's family got off the boat from New York City, Da-duh is taken back by what she sees.  She scrutinizes her granddaughter...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

The second we are introduced to Da-duh by the granddaughter, we learn that Da-duh is in charge and the matriarch of the family. Da-duh’s daughter and granddaughters approach her apprehensively...

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To Da-duh in Memoriam

The behavior of the grandmother bears out the idea that "she was both child and woman" in that despite her obvious age and having fourteen children of her own, she still retains great exuberance and...

1 educator answer

To Da-duh in Memoriam

Da-duh is from the parish of St. Thomas in Barbados.

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To Da-duh in Memoriam

There is a sense in which both the narrator and her grandmother are losers in their "battle of wills," although overtly the child is the winner in this competition. When she tells her grandmother...

2 educator answers

To Da-duh in Memoriam

The narrator felt 'triumphant, yet strangely saddened' after winning the argument because she had hurt her grandmother and made her sad. According to the story, the narrator's grandmother had taken...

1 educator answer