28 pages • 56 minutes read
Gayl JonesCorregidora
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1975A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Gold
Throughout the novel, the Corregidora women’s bodies are compared to gold. Very early in the book, Corregidora describes the young Great Gram as a “[l]ittle gold piece” (10). Later on, Ursa remembers sitting in Great Gram’s lap and staring at her “palms like sunburnt gold” (12). This is then applied to Ursa when Mutt says, “You’re pussy’s a little gold piece, ain’t it, Urs?” (60). Ursa’s mother then uses this expression again when she is repeating Great Gram’s experiences to Ursa, saying that Great Gram was his favorite “little gold pussy, his little gold piece” and that Great Gram would recollect that “he said my pussy bring gold” (124).
All of these instances of their bodies being compared to gold reduce them to objects. In this case, gold is a beautiful object that connotes wealth. From the references to gold, it’s clear that the men in these women’s lives value their beauty and their ability to make money over any other qualities they might possess. There is also a hint of irony since gold is often associated with luck, and the women in the novel are anything but lucky.
Names
The names in the novel often reveal the characters who bear them. For example, Cat is quickly found out to be catty, sparring with Ursa and Jeffey and often making vicious assessments of others’ lives. Similarly, Tadpole is as spineless as his name implies, rarely asserting himself in any positive way. He remains true to the immature state his name implies as well, never developing a relationship of equals between him and Ursa and instead choosing to cheat on her with a child.
Additionally, Mutt is the misplaced, impetuous dog readers will imagine when they hear this word. Happy’s Bar, the opening setting of the book, also has an important name as it teaches readers how to read the rest of the book. While ostensibly a joyful place, a lot of painful incidents take place there, and readers learn to look deeper than face-value when they see that much of what happens is rooted in this same type of irony.
Coffee Beans
The skin of Great Gram is consistently referred to as the color of a coffee bean. Great Gram is introduced as “the darkest woman in the house, the coffee-bean woman” (11). Later, Ursa learns that Corregidora and his customers only wanted women like Great Gram, who were “the color of coffee beans” (173). Ursa then internalizes this description when she asks her dead ancestor, “You with the coffee-bean face, what were you?” (59).
This is a clever decision by the author. since coffee beans are both consumable and replaceable, two attributes that slave owners felt slaves possessed. Coffee beans also get you mildly high, so readers can assume that Great Gram was capable of delivering a similar feeling. Coffee beans also have the connotation of being rich, which ties into Great Gram’s “palms” and “pussy” being referred to as gold, ultimately making every part of her into a product.
