Excerpt from :

...... In addition to the humanizing portrayals which Kidd centers around mother-daughter relationships and a mutual need for compassion, the author employs an array of symbolic devices in order to construct a world of meaning around a girl who begins the novel with these nihilistic tendencies. The result is a character in Lily who formulates meanings and attempts to define the void left by her mother through such represntative forms. The most prominent of these in the novel is that of the Black Madonna. By itself a stark reminder that cultural assumptions have placed an unlikely white, European visage on most biblical figures, the Black Madonna takes on greater significance in the context of this story. With the conflicts of the Civil Rights Movement raging in the background of her young life, Lily is absorbed more directly by the conflict concerning the death of her mother. According to the family legend, it was a four-year old Lily who inadvertently shot her mother to death, leaving the girl to endure the abuse of her father and a life of self-recrimination. This sets off a central mission for the protagonist to seek the redemption of a mothers love and the likelihood that

Need this essay? If it's not quite what you're looking for there are over 50,000 more to search from, so you can find the term paper or essay that meets your needs.