Blues Ain't No Mockingbird

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1971

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Summary

Background

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

The Camera

The camera—ever-present, “buzzin” around the property and the family—symbolizes the white men’s entitlement and invasiveness. It is a tool that allows its user to intrude and to capture a narrative that rarely serves its subject. Photography is also what motivates the white men to walk all over Granny’s property, suggesting that they will “take” what they want and that what she has will never truly belong to her. The camera is such a central symbol that the narrator calls one of the county men “Camera” and the other “Smilin”; “Camera” holds the camera, and he represents the watchful eye of whiteness.

The men say they are taking pictures for the food stamp campaign and, noticing Granny’s garden, tell her, “If more folks did that, see, there’d be no need—” (131). Now Granny knows that they want to use images of her and her garden to shame those who need food stamps. Their camera is thus also a tool of objectification and manipulation, as the men want to use Granny for their own purposes. She knows that the men are taking more than just pictures and that if she allows them to continue, she is complicit in her own subjugation.

Smiling

The county men are overwhelmingly characterized by audacity and unctuousness, and both qualities are expressed in their relentless playacting smiles. The narrator even nicknames one of these men “Smilin” (this man does most of the talking while his colleague “Camera” saunters around the grounds with his namesake device). The men’s smiling represents the way racism persists under the auspices of politeness. Though the county men never threaten or yell, and in fact maintain perfect manners throughout most of their interactions with the family, they betray their racism in ignoring Granny’s wishes that they leave her property. They assert their privilege—something they never seem to question, even after Granddaddy Cain breaks the camera. As the men leave, one of them says, “Watch it Bruno. Keep ya fingers off the film” (136); he clearly hopes to save the pictures and will use them despite the family’s explicitly withheld consent. The men use a condescending form of politeness that shows their lack of respect, including calling Granny “aunty” and continuing to smile at Granddaddy Cain even after he’s asked them to leave: “The smile the men smilin is pullin the mouth back and showin the teeth” (135). They use their politeness as a cudgel, but one that proves weaker than Granddaddy’s hammer.

The Hawks

Bambara uses symbolism to deepen the characters’ relation to each other and to the world, and this is particularly true in the symbolism of the hawks, which symbolize Granny and Granddaddy Cain’s relationship—the chicken hawk and its mate illustrate their individual natures as well as their responsibility to each other. The female chicken hawk is wounded and nailed to the shed door. Granny is herself wounded; she carries scars inside her from a lifetime of racism and oppression. The male hawk appears almost immediately after Granddaddy Cain understands the situation with the county men; it tears over the hill, screeching and going for the men. Granddaddy Cain may attempt to tame Granny, but he is also her protector and defender.

The hawks are particularly multifaceted symbols in that, while they represent Granddaddy Cain and Granny, they also symbolize the county men, and Grandaddy Cain’s treatment of the hawks further symbolizes his protectiveness. He shows the wounded chicken hawk to Granny to prove he’s caught it “at last,” indicating that Granny has wanted him to hunt the bird for some time. Chicken hawks get their name from their habit of preying on farm fowl, so it can be inferred that these hawks have been stealing or harassing the family’s chickens—just as the county men seek to steal and harass. With the perfect aim of his hammer, Granddaddy Cain kills the male hawk, showing the men that he is to be taken seriously, and showing the reader that he will do what it takes to ensure Granny’s peace.