Acceptance

This week, I really enjoyed the story by Kenan, “Foundations of the Earth.” I thought it was a very enjoyable story and liked the ending. Yes, it was a bit longer than the shorter stories we have read, but it was well worth the read. Before realizing that it was written in 1993, I thought that maybe it was written in either the late seventies or early eighties just because of what ran through my head in images because of the language and personalities of the characters. I think this is a great story to read because it can be seen as a story of acceptance. I love the part of the story when Gabriel and Maggie were discussed Gabriel being gay and life being hard. Maggie asks Gabriel, “Is is hard being what you are?” and Gabriel responds with, “I have no choice” (65) Gabriel goes on to say that it’s harder being black than gay, “gays can always pass for straight, but black can’t always pass for white” (65). Gabriel, at the end of the two’s conversation says that he thinks life is hard (66). It seems in this passage that even though the two characters have their differences, they each still respect and accept one another. I hope the students in our class who are going to be teachers will share this story with their classrooms. What is your opinion about this story?