Stages of The Journey

In reading "The Journey" found in the blog Adventures of a Maverick Author by Frankie Lennon. There are stages of The Journey which are exemplified in the book The Mee Street Chronicles: Straight up Stories of a Black Woman’s Life, also written by Frankie Lennon. One of the stages which I found in the book from the blog is The Threshold (Crossing) of the narrator when she goes from an old world and into a new or different world. The second stage that I find in the book is Tests or Road of Trials in which the narrator confronts challenges, tests and enemies, by setbacks, hardships endured and dangers encountered by the tests. These two stages are reflected a lot in the book but in particular in some of the stories of the book.

The threshold stage is presented to us in the story of “Baptism” because it shows how the narrator changes in which the narrator begins to see things differently because of what she is experiencing. For example in the story it talks about things in history that were happening like the slaughter of president Kennedy and how the narrator was living in this time. This shows how now the narrator is faced with new and different world because she is not in her own safe place anymore. Another story in which the concept of threshold is also presented is in the story “Tribes” because now the narrator is faced with trying to accept the fact that she can really show who she is as a lesbian and not have to hide it like she did before. I find it to be a great example because in the story you are able to see how the narrator goes from keeping her same sex attraction feelings a secret to actually going into a world in which the people around here are also the same. This stage is very well interpreted in these two short stories.

The next stage that I find is always exemplified in most of the stories of Mee Street is the one of test or road of trials because the narrator is always faced with some sort of a challenge that she has to deal with in her life. One of the stories that I find she has to deal with a challenge is in “Fever” because she is now in a same sex attraction relationship but has to deal with hiding the person that she truly is. I see it to be a part of this story because it shows how sometimes we are faced with not being able to show ourselves amongst others because we do not fit the norms of society. This is a challenge for the narrator because she does not have the relationship that she hoped for and she also has to deal with losing the person she was with because of this. Another one of the stories that I think fits into this category is the one of “Scotch on the Rocks” because in this story the narrator has to face her alcoholism. This is a big test for the narrator because she does not want to accept the fact that she needs to help and it also causes her to begin to lose herself in the alcohol. These stories show how the narrator is faced with test and challenges in her life that bring her to learn from them and become an even stronger person.

I find that in the Mee Street the narrator has a life of following a journey and really showing that sometimes we are faced with some of the same stages ourselves. The two stages that I found were only part of what a journey really is in life but we are not all going to find some of the same stages in the book. This is why I really enjoyed both the blog and the book because it shows how sometimes we all need some sort of pathway to guide the person that we would like to be and the things that we would want to achieve.

Fever

In the book The Mee Street Chronicles: Straight up Stories of a Black Woman’s Life by Frankie Lennon we meet a young black girl who is the narrator. At this time there has been some form of integration in which black people and white people were allowed to go to the same college. All of this brings us to the story “Fever” in which the narrator brings another character into the book called Stacey. In this story Stacey and Frankie become great friends and Frankie begins to fall in love with Stacey. The more these two characters spend time with each other they begin to share more and then one day Stacey finally expresses the feelings that she has for Frankie. In this story we have seen conflicts between people, between a person and a force, and internal conflicts as well.

As the story progresses we notice that these two characters face conflicts. One form of conflict that comes out is internal because Frankie is afraid to speak out and tell Stacey how she feels. This happens when Stacey is telling Frankie that they should meet boys and she does not say anything because she does not want to make matters worse. Stacey also has an internal conflict because she feels that they cannot act like other couples do because they are different. Stacey shows this when she tells Frankie that they cannot be like them because if they will try to act like them they will be bull deaggers. This leads to show how social norms and society have an effect on her decisions. Frankie also begins to worry about whether or not the relationship that they have will last forever. Frankie shows this because she is afraid that Stacey will never come back if she dates Ned.

Another conflict that is faced in this story is between people because of the conflicts that Frankie and Stacey have together. They face a conflict in not being able to spend a lot of time together because they are not a normal couple since they are lesbians. This comes into consideration when they are almost caught by Lynn and so they stop acting like a couple. The last kind of conflict that we see in this story is between a person and a force because of the homophobia that people have. This brings conflict to the narrator because it makes Stacey and her begin to separate from each other. So we also that with this they have to begin to date boys again because they do not want anyone to find out that they are lesbians. This is how the society has a lot to do with this conflict because it was taught that only a man and a woman could have a relationship.

I find that with this it brings the narrator to really learn from her experiences and notice that even though some things were changing the expectations of the society were always going to be around her. These conflicts were what dealt with a lot of the relationship that she had because they were the leading cause. I am really curious to learn what other things the narrator begins to face in her journey to develop more as a person.