41 pages • 1 hour read
Tayari JonesSilver Sparrow
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Hair
Throughout this novel, hair plays a key role in the way characters are perceived or perceive themselves. For characters with “good” hair, like Gwen and Dana Lynn, hair can be used to tempt and tease, but for characters with “bad” hair, such as Ronalda, it can be a source of deep dissatisfaction and shame.
Both Gwen and Dana Lynn have long hair that they can move to their advantage. Their long, natural hair earns them respect in the same way having a lot of money would, showing how important hair is to their community. Ronalda, on the other hand, has almost no hair due to an accident and thus receives negative attention and is called names. Chaurisse wears extensions in her hair as a way to earn more respect from her peers, since long, beautiful hair is considered more valuable than short hair.
The importance of hair can also be seen in the way Willie Mae changes her hair based on whether she is in the city or the country, showing again how hair is tied to social status, as well as through Laverne’s salon, the Pink Fox. By gaining access to the hair of women in the community, Laverne gains access to their lives. She also is respected because her work helps other women to respect themselves. Furthermore, her knowledge of how to style hair places her in an elite position in the community because so many women are dependent on her.
Names
The names in this text hold symbolic meaning because, as Dana Lynn says, “it matters what you called things” (5). For example, the fact that Chaurisse calls James “Daddy” and Dana Lynn calls him “James” symbolizes their different relationships to him. The use of the term “daddy” implies intimacy and has a childlike innocence to it, which is reflective of Chaurisse’s close relationship to her father. Dana Lynn’s use of the name “James” implies a greater level of unfamiliarity and positions them more as equals than parent and child typically are. This is reflective of Dana Lynn and James’s relationship, because she holds more power over him than a child normally would.
Names are also used to discredit people. For example, when Marcus approaches Dana Lynn and calls her “Jailbait,” he objectifies her, symbolizing the way he will treat her in the future. Later, Ronalda tries to discredit Marcus by calling him a “nigga” (98). By using this racial slur to refer to him instead of using his name, Ronalda is reducing him to a negative stereotype to get Dana Lynn to see how awful he is.
Ronalda is also given the name “Bama” by Marcus in an attempt to discredit her style (67).
Finally, names are used to honor people. For example, Dana Lynn often attempts to show respect to James by calling him “sir,” however he dislikes it because it reminds him of the formality of their relationship (85). Similarly, Ruth Elizabeth Nicole, one of Atlanta’s most popular teenagers, is given three names to indicate her level of importance. The idea that names hold special meaning is further underlined by the fact that the novel’s two parts are named after James’s two daughters.
Rings
Throughout the , Dana Lynn and Gwen frequently focus on rings, and this fixation reflects their subconscious need for things to feel complete. This can first be seen taking place when Gwen can’t stop gawking at James’s wedding band while he is in line at Davison’s. She “was sorry for staring so long at his wedding ring. A simple gold band” (23). Her envy of his access to simplicity and completeness is palpable as she can’t get herself to look away.
Later, Dana Lynn finds herself lusting after the same symbol when her boyfriend Marcus gives his class ring to another girl. She sees the ring as a symbol of complete commitment, but Marcus only sees it as a piece of jewelry, asking her, “Why do you care so much about that ring? It don’t mean nothing” (98).
Further into the novel, as Miss Bunny lay dying and asks Dana Lynn to pick out something from her room as a keepsake, Dana Lynn decides against the “wedding band” she sees and chooses a brooch instead. This choice reflects Dana Lynn’s abandonment of the concept of a complete family—of life going full circle—and shows her choosing something sparkly and solitary instead, a choice that she makes in less figurative terms at the end of the novel.
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By Tayari Jones
